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Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo, formerly Christovam Colon; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Catalan: Cristòfor Colom; c. 1451–May 20, 1506) was a navigator and an admiral for the Crown of Castile. His voyages to the Americas began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the continent. While history places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. However, Columbus' voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event (Columbus Day) is celebrated throughout the Americas and in Spain and Italy; although, as the legacy of colonialism in the Americas is today viewed somewhat more negatively than in the past, Columbus has become a divisive figure.
Life
Nationality The identity of Columbus is still unknown for certain, although it is most widely accepted that he was of Italianate blood since he maintained this ethnicity throughout his life. More specifically he is believed to have been from the nation-state of Genoa, on the Italian peninsula, although it has been surmised he could have been from Catalonia, Spain instead. Certainly there were ties between Spain and the Italian nation-states. (King Ferdinand II of Aragon was also the King of Sicily.) His nationality is still debated, and many theories exist detailing his possible lineage. Aspects such as learned languages and DNA samples are being studied although no definitive answer has yet been revealed.• Early life According to generally recognized theory, Columbus was born between August and October 1451 in Genoa, one of the most ancient mariner communities of Middle Ages Europe. His father was Domenico Colombo, a middle-class wool weaver working between Genoa and Savona. Susanna Fontanarossa was his mother and Bartolomeo was his brother. Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. While information about Columbus' early years is scarce, he probably received an incomplete education. He spoke a Genoese dialect of speech. In one of his writings, Columbus claims to have gone to the sea at the age of 10. In the early 1470s, he was in the service of René I of Anjou in a Genoese ship hired to support his unfortunate attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Later he allegedly made a trip to Chios, in the Aegean Sea. In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe. On August 13, 1476, the convoy was intercepted by Portuguese ships near the Genoa coast. Columbus was wounded in the battle that ensued, but managed to land at the small town of Lagos. Physical appearance Contrary to the abundance of artwork involving Christopher Columbus, no authentic contemporary portrait of the man exists to date. Over the years, historians that reconstruct his appearance do so from written descriptions. These writings described him as having reddish hair, which turned to white early in his life, as well as being a lighter skinned person with too much sun exposure turning his face red. Despite the clear description of red hair or white hair, textbooks use the image on the right so often that it has become the face of Columbus in popular culture. Navigational theories Europe had long enjoyed a safe passage to China and India— sources of valued goods such as silk and spices — under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"). With the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453, the land route to Asia was no longer an easy route. Portuguese sailors took to traveling south around Africa to get to Asia. Columbus had a different idea. By the 1480s, he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the "Ocean Sea," i.e., the Atlantic. Following Washington Irving's myth-filled 1828 biography of Columbus, it became common supposed knowledge that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because Europeans believed that the earth was flat.• In fact, few people at the time of Columbus’s voyage, and virtually no sailors or navigators, believed this. Most agreed that the earth was a sphere. Indeed, knowledge of the Earth's spherical nature was not limited to scientists: for instance, Dante's Divine Comedy is based on a spherical Earth. Columbus put forth arguments that were based on the circumference of the sphere. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water. Columbus, however, believed the calculations of Marinus of Tyre that the landmass occupied 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus believed that one degree represented a shorter distance on the earth's surface than was commonly held. Finally, he read maps as if the distances were calculated in Italian miles (1,238 meters). Accepting the length of a degree to be 56⅔ miles, from the writings of Alfraganus, he therefore calculated the circumference of the Earth as 25,255 kilometers at most, and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan as 3,000 Italian miles (3,700 km). Columbus did not realize that Al-Farghani used the much longer Arabic mile of about 1,830 meters. The problem facing Columbus was that experts did not accept his estimate of the distance to the Indies. The true circumference of the Earth is about 40,000 kilometers, and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan is 19,600 kilometers. No ship in the 15th century could carry enough food to sail from the Canary Islands to Japan. Most European sailors and navigators concluded, correctly, that sailors undertaking a westward voyage from Europe to Asia non-stop would die of starvation or thirst long before reaching their destination. Spain however, only recently unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised them that edge. Columbus' calculations were inaccurate concerning the circumference of the Earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan. However, almost all Europeans were mistaken in thinking the aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted. Although Columbus died believing he had opened up a direct nautical route to Asia, in fact he had established a nautical route between Europe and the Americas. The route to America, rather than to Japan, gave Spain a competitive edge in developing a mercantile empire. Campaign for funding In 1485, Columbus presented his navigation plan to the court of Portugal. The king's experts believed that the route would be longer than Columbus thought and denied Christopher Columbus’s request . He then tried to get backing from the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, who had united the largest kingdoms of Spain by marrying and were ruling together. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, he was put on a salary for seven years. After continually lobbying at the Spanish court, he finally had success in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba, in the Alcázar castle. Isabella turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving town in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered". King Ferdinand is referred to as "losing his patience" in this issue, but this cannot be proven. About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke after the Granada campaign, 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 own son later wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return. According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands. He has the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10 percent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this part was denied to him in the contract, although it was one of his demands. Finally, he would also have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits. Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and supplanted from these posts, which led to Columbus's son taking legal action to enforce his father's contract, who was also arrested. Many of the smears against Columbus were initiated by the Spanish crown during these lengthy court cases (pleitos de Colón). Voyages First voyage
Second voyage
Third voyage and arrest
Fourth voyage
Governorship During his time as governor and viceroy, Columbus ruled his domain tyrannically. Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of Calatrava, and Columbus' successor as Governor from 1500-1502, was charged with investigating Columbus' rule in the name of the Spanish Crown. His 48 page report — derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers — had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It proved to contain an account of Columbus' 7 year reign as the first Governor of the Indies. According to his report Columbus was known both by friends and enemies for the atrociously harsh punishments he imposed on his subjects. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him Columbus had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."• Later life
Legacy
19th century The nascent countries of the New World, particularly the newly independent United States, seemed to need a historical narrative to give them roots. This narrative was supplied in part by Washington Irving in 1828 with The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which may be the true source of much of the associations held about the explorer. Hero worship of Columbus perhaps reached a zenith around 1892 when the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas occurred. Monuments to Columbus like the Columbian Exposition in Chicago were erected throughout the United States and Latin America extolling him. Numerous cities, towns, and streets were named after him, including the capital cities of two U.S. states (Columbus, Ohio and Columbia, South Carolina). The story that Columbus thought the world was round while his contemporaries believed in a flat earth was often repeated. This tale was used to show that Columbus was enlightened and forward looking. Columbus' apparent defiance of convention in sailing west to get to the far east was hailed as a model of "American"-style can-do inventiveness. The admiration of Columbus was particularly embraced by some members of the Italian American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. These groups point to Columbus as one of their own to show that Mediterranean Catholics could and did make great contributions to the U.S. The modern vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters as being politically motivated. Modern day Culpability is sometimes placed on contemporary governments and their citizens for allegedly ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans during the time of Christopher Columbus. Columbus myths and celebrations are generally a positive affair, making less room for this conception in history books. Ward Churchill, an associate professor of Native American Studies at the University of Colorado and a leader of the American Indian Movement, has argued that Very high on the list of those expressions of non-indigenous sensibility which contribute to the perpetuation of genocidal policies against Indians are the annual Columbus Day celebration, events in which it is baldly asserted that the process, events, and circumstances described above are, at best, either acceptable or unimportant. More often, the sentiments expressed by the participants are, quite frankly, that the fate of Native America embodied in Columbus and the Columbian legacy is a matter to be openly and enthusiastically applauded as an unrivaled "boon to all mankind." Undeniably, the situation of American Indians will not—in fact cannot—change for the better so long as such attitudes are deemed socially acceptable by the mainstream populace. Hence, such celebrations as Columbus Day must be stopped. Columbus' colonization of the Americas, and the subsequent effects on the native peoples, were dramatised in the 1992 feature film 1492: Conquest of Paradise to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his landing in the Americas. In 2003, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged Latin Americans to not celebrate the Columbus Day holiday. Chavez blamed Columbus for leading the way in the mass genocide of the Native Americans.• Notes See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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