by Perry McCarney

Created on: October 07, 2008   Last Updated: April 09, 2012

Cristobal Colon, better known to modern Western Society as Christopher Columbus, died a relatively rich man at the age of 55 amongst family and friends in his apartment in Valladolid, Spain, on the 20th of May, 1506. Many stories, beliefs and legends have arisen around this man, accredited with discovering the New World in 1492. The historical records of his early life are much debated, but his most likely birthplace was the city of Genoa in Italy.

A devout catholic, the most ardent wish of his youth was to lead or at least participate in a crusade to liberate the holy lands of Israel from the control of Islam. So what lead him to redirect his goals from the East to the West? His admiration for the exploits of Marco Polo? Or perhaps his acceptance of Gallileo's claims of a round Earth, despite them being declared anathema by the Roman Catholic Church at the time? By the end of the 15th century that concept of a round rather than flat Earth was accepted by the majority of the dominant, educated classes.

No matter what event or events changed his attitudes, Columbus came to believe that the mercantile wealth reaching Europe via the Silk Road to the east, from the Indies, China and Asia, could be circumvented and the astronomical costs reduced by sea transport to the west. He thus began his efforts to convince and obtain the patronage of someone within the ruling elite of Europe who could finance his desired goal of traversing the unknown seas to the west to reach the exotic and seemingly wealth-strewn nations of the far east.

Spain had only recently been unified under the monarchy of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille, and the newborn nation was in turmoil during the early stages of the Spanish Inquisition. The wealth of Jewish converts to Catholicism deemed heretics was flowing into the coffers of the monarchy at the same time as Spain's commercial economy was stagnating from their oppression. Extravagant endeavours that might bring fame and fortune to Spain appealed to Isabella; who had absolutely no need to hock her crown jewels to finance Columbus as some accounts suggest.

On the third of august, 1492, at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, Columbus set sail with a three ship fleet; his flagship, the completely decked Santa Maria and the two undecked caravels, the Pinta and the Nina. Despite the acclaim he is given as the discoverer of the New World, the continents of North and South America, Columbus never laid eyes on these continents. What is now known as the West Indies is as far as he got. Despite this, on his return to Spain, Columbus described a land of abundant riches, with cities paved in gold.

The realities of the West Indies of that time, and the cargoes he brought back, in no way substantiated his claims. But Spain went on to accrue an abundance of wealth, particularly a large "harvest" of gold, from the native societies of central and south America. Were the descriptions and depictions Columbus expressed to Isabella upon returning from his voyages, despite his limited results, mere fantasies to justify his expenses, or did he actually perceive the future wealth Spain would take through military endeavour in lands he never actually saw?

Whether Columbus was "merely" a successful manipulator of a complicated political situation or a true visionary, his seemingly limited voyages, only making landfall in the West Indies on such islands as the Bahamas, did result in subsequent voyages that planted colonies from Europe on the continents of America.

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