10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia Voyages of Christopher Columbus In 1492, a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Christopher Columbus Voyages of encountered the Americas, a continent which Christopher was previously unknown in Europe, leading to Columbus the colonization of the Americas. For a very long time, it was believed that Columbus and his crew had been the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas. However, they were not the first explorers from Europe to reach the Americas, having been The four voyages of preceded by the Viking expedition led by Leif Columbus [1][2] Erikson in the 11th century; however, Date 1492, 1493, Columbus's voyages led to the first ongoing 1498, 1502 European contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of exploration, conquest, Location The and colonization that has lasted several Americas centuries. Participants Christopher Columbus Columbus was an Italian-born navigator sailing and Castilian for the Crown of Castile in search of a westward route to Asia, to access the sources of spices and crew (among other oriental goods. This led to the discovery of others) a New World between Europe and Asia. Outcome Re-discovery Columbus made a total of four voyages to the and European Americas between 1492 and 1502, setting the colonization stage for the European exploration and of the colonization of the Americas, ultimately leading Americas to the Columbian Exchange. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus 1/32 10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia At the time of both the Erikson and Columbus voyages, the Americas were inhabited by the Indigenous Americans, the descendants of Paleo-Indians who crossed the Bering Strait, at that time a land bridge, to North America beginning around 20,000 years ago.[3] Columbus's voyages led to the widespread knowledge that a new continent existed west of Europe and east of Asia. This breakthrough in geographical science led to the exploration and colonization of the New World by Spain and other European sea powers, and is sometimes cited as the start of the modern era.[4] Spain, Portugal, and other European kingdoms sent expeditions and established colonies throughout the New World, converted the native inhabitants to Christianity, and built large trade networks across the Atlantic, which introduced new plants, animals, and food crops to both continents. The search for a westward route to Asia continued in 1513 when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the narrow Isthmus of Panama to become the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. The search was completed in 1521, when the Castilian (Spanish) Magellan expedition sailed across the Pacific and reached Southeast Asia. Contents 1 Background to the voyages 1.1 Funding campaign 1.1.1 Spanish procurement 1.2 Navigation plans 1.2.1 Diameter of Earth and travel distance estimates 1.2.1.1 Trade winds 2 Voyages and events 2.1 First voyage 2.1.1 Magnetic declination 2.1.2 European discovery and exploration 2.1.3 First return 2.1.4 Papal decree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus 2/32 10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia 2.2 Second voyage 2.2.1 Caribbean exploration 2.2.2 Hispaniola and Jamaica 2.2.3 Slavery, settlers, and tribute 2.3 Third voyage 2.3.1 Exploration 2.4 Governorship issues 2.4.1 Governor Columbus 2.4.2 Governor Bobadilla 2.4.3 Arrest of Governor Columbus 2.5 Fourth voyage 2.6 Aftermath 3 Legacy 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Background to the voyages Portugal had been the main European power interested in pursuing trade routes overseas. Their next-door neighbors, Castile (predecessor of Spain) had been somewhat slower to begin exploring the Atlantic because of the bigger land area it had to re-conquer (the Reconquista) from the Moors. It was not until the late 15th century, following the dynastic union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon and the completion of the Reconquista, that the unified crowns of what would become Spain (although countries still legally existing) emerged and became fully committed to looking for new trade routes and colonies overseas. In 1492 the joint rulers conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada, which had been providing Castile with African goods through tribute. Columbus had previously failed to convince King John II of Portugal to fund his exploration of a western route, but the new king and queen of the re-conquered Spain decided to fund Columbus's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus 3/32 10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia expedition in hopes of bypassing Portugal's lock on Africa and the Indian Ocean, reaching Asia by traveling west.[6] Funding campaign He proposed the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out west into the Atlantic, search for a western route to India, and return. Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea" (Atlantic Ocean), appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, and be given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands. The king The Virgin of the Navigators by Alejo submitted the proposal to his experts, who Fernández, the earliest known painting[5] about the discovery of the rejected it after several years. It was their Americas, 1531–36. considered opinion that Columbus's estimation of a travel distance of 2,400 miles (3,900 km) was, in fact, far too short.[7] In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal, receiving a new invitation for an audience with King John II. This also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal following a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. With an eastern sea route now under its control, Portugal was no longer interested in trailblazing a western trade route to Asia crossing unknown seas. Columbus traveled from Portugal to Castile to convince the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon to finance the expedition. Spanish procurement King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469, uniting the two largest kingdoms into what would later be the Spanish Crown. They were known jointly as the Catholic Monarchs, and ruled their https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus 4/32 10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia kingdoms independently, but had common internal and foreign policies. Columbus was granted an audience with them; on May 1, 1489, he presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who referred them to a committee. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised the monarchs not to support the proposed venture. However, to expand the Spanish empire and Catholicism in the name of Spanish Kings, and to assure a better market position in trading, the Queen gave Columbus an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedis and part of the newly conquered lands.[8] After continually asking, nagging, begging, and crying for the monarchs to support his plan at the royal court and enduring two years of negotiations, Columbus finally succeeded in January 1492. Queen Isabella's forces had just conquered the Moorish Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold of Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, for Castile. Isabella and Columbus and Queen Isabella. Detail of Ferdinand received Columbus in the Alcázar the Columbus monument in Madrid (castle) in Córdoba to support his plans. (1885). The monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous but, as his son later wrote, the monarchs were not confident of his return. According to Columbus's contract made for the expedition commission by Queen Isabella for Castile, if Columbus claimed any new islands or mainland for the Crown, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of the newly colonised lands. He had the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus 5/32 10/11/2017 Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia right to nominate three people, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to ten per cent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity.[9] Navigation plans Europe had long enjoyed a safe land passage to China and India—sources of valued goods such as silk, spices, and opiates—under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol peace). With the Fall of Constantinople to the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1453, the land route to Asia became more difficult. In response to this the Columbus brothers had, by the 1480s, developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as all of southern and eastern Asia, by sailing directly west across what was believed to be the singular "Ocean Sea," the Atlantic Ocean. Washington Irving's 1828 biography of Columbus popularized the idea that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because Europeans thought the Earth was flat.[10] In fact, the primitive maritime navigation of the time relied on the stars and the curvature of the spherical Earth. The knowledge that the Earth was spherical was widespread, and the means of calculating its diameter using an astrolabe was known to both scholars and navigators.[11] Diameter of Earth and travel distance estimates A spherical Earth had been the general opinion of Ancient Greek science, and this view continued through the Middle Ages (for example, Bede mentions it in The Reckoning of Time).