Voyages of Christophe Colomb
The Spanish hour Of the sea route of the Indies by the skirting of Africa the Portuguese made miss the obsession the discovery of the New World. They cannot invest at the same time towards the east and the west. However if Castille, occupied by the seat of Grenade which lasts for ever, were let precede, the kingdom of Boabdil falls in January 1492. Spain is free for an adventurous investment, the financing of equipped with Christophe Colomb, which does not cause, moreover, of true hopes. But it takes a turning of crusade which carries the convictions. Christophe ColombHistory of Christophe Colomb (in Italian, Cristoforo Colombo; in Spanish, Cristóbal Colón) is difficult to release from the legend. There is of him no known authentic portrait. One knows only that it was large, had the matt skin, the russet-red eyes light blue and hair. It was born in Genoa in 1451. Son of Tisserand, it exerts initially this trade; then it starts to sail, in 1474, taking part as merchant in many forwardings in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, along the Western coasts of Africa.
The idea to seek the road of the Indies by the west is inspired to him, it seems, by a correspondence between the erudite astronomer Florentin Toscanelli and a canon Portuguese. At all events, Colomb is a man curious about cartography, eager to take stock of what one knows of the world. It accumulates testimonies of sailors who, randomly of their navigations in the Atlantic, met unknown islands. Installed in Lisbon since 1477, it Marie in 1480 with the girl of a Portuguese gentleman, itself marine famous. By the family of his wife, it collects, one says, other testimonies on these emerged grounds.
The obstinacy of the visionary
Colomb is an excited, man of nature, tough and which been obstinated spirit, which prepares its forwarding carefully. Since 1483, it submits its project to the king of Portugal, asks three caravels, the nobility and admiralty, the viceroyalty of the grounds to be discovered, and a share of 10 % on all the trade which would be done with these grounds. Its requirements appear exorbitant, and it is gotten rid of.
The reception of Spain
It passes then to Spain, initially in the small port of Palos then in Seville, where it finds a whole medium of Genoese business and Florentin. It is by this skew introduced near the Castilian duke of Medina, which helps it to assemble its forwarding; it obtains a first audience of Kings Catholiques, Ferdinand d' Aragon and Isabelle de Castille, at the court of Cordoue, in January 1486.
A pension is granted to him, but one refuses to finance his forwarding. Its proposals, submitted to the university of Salamanque, are considered to be too vague. One moment, Colomb thinks of being addressed to young king de France, Charles VIII. At this point in time a prior the met in relation to the Pinzón brothers, of the sailors who also project to sail towards the west. Meanwhile, the being prolonged seat of Grenade, the sultan of Egypt threatens to shave Jerusalem if the city of the last kings Moors of Spain falls: a new spirit of crusade develops. Christophe Colomb, good Christian, and perhaps opportunist, lines up under the banner of the faith: its project consists, he says from now on, to evangelize the Indies, to join the mythical kingdom of the Jean Priest, and to oppose to Islam a catholic face of the East. The Isabelle queen yields finally, in 1492, with all the requirements of Colomb.
San Salvador, first discovered
Christophe Colomb and Pinzón starts from Palos on on August 3rd, 1492 with three caravels, Niña, Boozed it and Santa María - the latter is the flagship - and approximately 90 men. On the veils large crosses are painted. The ships go down initially in latitude and set sail towards the Canaries, where they are restocked before spinning full west, on on September 6th, pushed by the trade winds.
Throughout the crossing, Colomb holds a newspaper of voyage scrupulously, but, the original having disappeared from alive sound, it us remains about it only the traces included in its biography written by his/her natural son Hernando. One in any case knows that during the voyage Colomb succeeds in voluntarily holding its crew in hand by reducing the distances covered, day after day, to avoid the anguish of a insécurisant distance. After thirty-six days of navigation, on on October 12th, 1492, Juan Rodríguez Berniego de Triana sees with far from fires in the night; with the first sun rays, a ground appears: the island of Guanahani, in the Bahamas, that Colomb baptizes San Salvador.
A triumphal return
Cuba is reached on on October 27th, 1492; understanding that it is about a large island, Colomb believes being arrived at Cipango (Japan). On December 6th, the three caravels accost in Haiti - that the admiral baptizes “Hispaniola” (“the Spanish Island”) -, where Santa María is failed: the caravel must be abandoned, with some volunteers who cannot find place for the return on the two other ships.
On January 16th, 1493, Colomb launches out in search of Matinino, the island with the woman alones, where, one says, gold abounds. In fact, one finds many natives in the islands, but not gold mines. Some Indians are embarked, in order to evangelizing them or to make interpreters of them. On March 15th, 1493, seven months after its departure, Christophe Colomb returns in Palos. Preceded by the advertisement by its discovery, it makes a triumphal crossing of the Peninsula to join the court, which is then in Barcelona.
The last three voyages
Three other voyages, undertaken respectively in 1493.1498 and 1502, enable him to complete the discovery of the Antilles: Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, the Guadeloupe, Jamaica. With the third voyage, it touches northern bank of South America, close to the mouth of Orénoque; but it still does not know that it discovered a new continent: he believes himself in Asia. Passing by again by Hispaniola, it establishes a colony of settlement there. At the time of its fourth voyage, he discovers Martinique, then skirts partly the coast of the Central America, arriving at the isthmus of Panamá.
After its second voyage, Christophe Colomb lost his popularity much. Its discoveries do not hold the starting promises: the spices and gold do not arrive in abundance of the conquered grounds. The first tests of colonization were unhappy, and it is held by it for person in charge: in 1499, Ferdinand and Isabelle remove the viceroyalty of the territories discovered to him; an envoy of the Crown, Bobadilla, stops it, confiscates all its goods to him and dispatches it in Spain.
He manages with difficulty to assemble his last voyage, of which he returns without to have found the passage towards the west, but when he dies, in 1506, it is not in misery, as opposed to what known as the legend. It disappears with the conviction to have reached the Malayan peninsula and from the islands close to India. With his continuation, one will call this area of the world “the Western Indies”, and “Indians” the natives who live it.