Discovery of America by Columbus

In 1492, an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on behalf of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, with the hopes of finding a shorter western sea route to Asia to gain an upper hand in the competition for the spice trade. His primary goal was to trade spices, silk, tea, and luxury goods in the Indies, but he stumbled upon the Americas instead. Columbus led three ships- the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria to what he would later call the Americas.

Upon his arrival to present day Bahamas, he was intrigued and fascinated by the foreign civilization of indigenous people.

On February 15, 1493, when Columbus was aboard the caravel Niña, en route to return to Spain, he wrote a letter to Luis de Sant’ Angel, who convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to support Columbus’s voyage, explaining his encounters from the voyage. The letter was then mass printed and distributed throughout Europe.

Columbus wrote this letter in excitement because he was perceiving the new world, meeting new people for the first time. Everything he’s seeing is abnormal to him.

Christopher Columbus was fascinated by the natives and the land, because “Spañola is a marvel; the mountains and hills, and plains, and fields, and land, so beautiful and rich for planting and sowing, for breeding cattle of all sorts, for building of towns and villages…as well as the many and great rivers, and excellent waters, most of which contain gold…They have no iron or steel, nor any weapons (Conquest and colliding worlds 7).

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” Columbus wasn’t used to this scenery because the Native Americans had no gunpowder, wheels, metal, domesticated animals, written languages, and monumental architecture which Spain had (Green The black legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash course in US history #1).

In addition to his fascination with the new, unfamiliar scenery, Columbus was also intrigued by their nomadic culture. Since the Native Americans had things that the Spaniard doesn’t such as farming, widespread trade networks and social/political structures, Columbus seized the opportunity to eventually initiate a trade known as the Columbian Exchange that will drastically advance both worlds for the better (Green, “The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course in US history #1”). The Columbian Exchange is “a biological exchange of people, animals, plants and microbes between the old world which are Europe and Africa and the “New World” which is The Americas (Griffin Week 1. Introduction. Exploration and Exchange in the Early Modern World).

The biological exchange resulted in many advancements for both the new world and the old world in economical and cultural aspects, but the downfall was that the Europeans also brought upon diseases like smallpox, influenza and measles that killed off up to 90 percent of the Native American population. In the letter Columbus had written, he was formal, informative and persuasive because he wanted the King and Queen of Spain to continue endorsing his voyages. Columbus refers to the King as “sir” throughout the letter because the king has a higher standing and authority. He also uses many pompous adjectives such as illustrious when describing the said king and queen and refers to their conquered territories as the famous kingdoms (Conquest and colliding worlds 7). By endorsing his voyages through the Talavera Commission, Spain could compete with Portugal in the age of exploration and it gave Columbus an objective which was to claim the “New World.”

He didn’t want to return to Spain without any spices and luxury goods. By achieving his goals in the “New World,” Columbus wanted to contribute to the expansion of the spice trade in Spain. Columbus returned to the New World three more times after his initial accidental discovery of the Americas because he wanted to colonize the foreign land for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. As he was returning back to Spain after his initial discovery, the word spread that new land was found and will soon be conquered and belong to Spain, but 500 years prior to when Columbus had set sail west on the Atlantic Ocean, another European explorer by the name of Leif Ericson had already landed in a northern island of the Americas. So, how did Christopher Columbus’s legacy become contextualized when it was evident that he was not the initial discoverer of America? On one hand, Columbus is known as the person who discovered America.

Alternatively, on the other hand, people believe that he just stole the credit from Leif Ericson. So, which is it? “Columbus And The Labyrinth Of History” by John Noble Wilford explains the significance of the letter Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Not only did Columbus write the letter to explain what he had seen in the New World, he wrote the letter as a way to document his expedition and findings because he knew that his achievements and discoveries would go unrecognized if no one knew about it. (Wilford, Columbus And The Labyrinth Of History).” He knew that the documentation that he had provided would make an everlasting impact because when Columbus reached his hometown, the King and Queen were intrigued and pleased by his letter and acted upon his findings.

The King and Queen of Spain commissioned three more voyages for Columbus and commanded him to return to the New World with soldiers, larger fleets and settlers so, the Spaniards can claim their position in the New World. “Columbus made certain by his words and actions that his discovery would not be lost to history (Wilford, Columbus And The Labyrinth Of History).” The letter he had written while abroad the caravel did exactly that.