Christopher Columbus

For other uses, see Christopher Columbus (disambiguation).

Christopher Columbus
Portrait of a Man, oil on canvas by Sebastiano del Piombo, dated 1519, with an inscription of doubtful authenticity that identifies him as the Ligurian Colombo, "the first to enter by ship into the world of the Antipodes" (New York, Metropolitan Museum). No authentic portraits of Columbus are known.
Viceroy of the Indies (nominal title from 1500)
In office October 12, 1492 – May 20, 1506
Monarch	Catholic Monarchs
Succeeded by	Diego Colón (from 1511, Columbian lawsuits)
Governor General of the Viceroyalty of the Indies
In office April 17, 1492 – March 10, 1496
Monarch	Catholic Monarchs
Succeeded by	Bartholomew Columbus (as first Adelantado and second Governor General of the Indies)
Governor General of the Viceroyalty of the Indies
In office August 30, 1498 – August 23, 1500
Monarch	Catholic Monarchs
Preceded by	Bartholomew Columbus (as first Adelantado and second Governor General of the Indies)
Succeeded by	Francisco de Bobadilla (as fourth Governor General of the Indies)
Personal details
Born	Possibly 1451 Genoa (Genoa)
Died	May 20, 1506 (aged 54) Valladolid (Castile)
Spouse	Felipa Moniz
Domestic partner	Beatriz Enríquez de Arana
Children	Diego Columbus and Ferdinand Columbus
Parent(s)	Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa
Occupation	Navigator, cartographer, admiral, viceroy and governor general of the West Indies
Signature

Christopher Columbus (Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, or Christophorus Columbus in Latin; of disputed origins, with experts leaning toward Genoa, Republic of Genoa, where he may have been born on October 31, 1451, and it is known that he died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506) was a navigator, cartographer, admiral, viceroy and governor general of the West Indies in the service of the Crown of Castile. He carried out the so-called discovery of America on October 12, 1492, upon reaching the island of Guanahani, in the Bahamas.

He made four voyages to the Indies—the initial name of the American continent—and although he was possibly not the first European explorer of America, he is considered the discoverer of a new continent—hence called the New World—for Europe, since he was the first to chart a round-trip route across the Atlantic Ocean and to make the news known. This event decisively drove the worldwide expansion of European civilization, as well as the conquest and colonization of the American continent by several of its powers. It is not known with certainty to what extent he was aware that America was an entirely separate landmass; he never clearly renounced his belief that he had reached the Far East.

As colonial governor, Columbus was accused by his contemporaries of considerable brutality and was soon removed from office. During his government in Hispaniola, the Taíno, a people that was decimated and ceased to be counted in the censuses of the time but of whom descendants survive, were subjected to a tax, distributed among the settlers and sold as slaves. Some historians have denied the accusations of genocide made against him by others. Columbus's tense relations with the Crown of Castile and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and expulsion from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to prolonged litigation over the benefits that he and his heirs claimed the crown owed them.

His name is a worldwide icon that has inspired various names, such as that of a country, Colombia, and two regions of North America: British Columbia, in Canada, and the District of Columbia, in the United States.

Historical profile

Christopher Columbus maintained that the Far East (known at the time as "the Indies") could be reached from Europe by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean, and that it was possible to make the journey by sea with a chance of success. The fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, after the capture of its capital, Constantinople, made trade between Europe and the eastern regions more expensive.

Although in the 3rd century BC the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes had calculated the circumference of the Earth quite accurately, Columbus's hypothesis about the feasibility of the voyage was apparently based on alternative (and erroneous) calculations of the size of the sphere, since he assumed it was smaller than it really is. However, Columbus claimed that he had gathered information about the existence of inhabited lands on the other side of the Atlantic. From it he deduced that the eastern end of Asia lay much closer to Europe than the cosmographers of the time supposed. It was also possible that such reports attested to the presence of islands that could serve as stopovers on a voyage to the Indies.

Other theories hold that Columbus had heard information, through sailors' gossip, about the existence of lands much closer to Europe than Asia was scientifically supposed to be, and that he undertook the task of reaching them in order to trade without depending on the Republic of Genoa or the Kingdom of Portugal. One of them, known as the pre-navigator theory (teoría del prenauta), suggests that during the time Columbus spent on the Portuguese islands of the Atlantic he took in a dying Portuguese or Castilian sailor whose caravel had been carried by the currents from the Gulf of Guinea to the Caribbean Sea. Certain authors even say that it could have been Alonso Sánchez de Huelva, although according to other sources he could have been Portuguese or Biscayan. This theory suggests that the pre-navigator entrusted Columbus with the secret. Some scholars believe that the strongest evidence in favor of this theory is the Capitulations of Santa Fe, since they speak of "what he has discovered in the ocean seas" (lo que ha descubierto en las mares oçeanas) while granting Columbus a series of privileges never before granted to anyone.

What is certain is that Columbus not only managed to reach the shores of America, but also returned to Europe, making a total of four voyages and giving rise to a route for regular and safe navigation between Europe and America. Although it is known that Siberians had reached America in the Pleistocene, and that there is documentation speaking of possible earlier voyages by the Carthaginians, Andalusi Muslims, Vikings, the Chinese and the Polynesians, it is nevertheless from the voyages of Columbus, and of the other explorers and conquistadors who followed him, that permanent links with Europe were established and that one can speak of a "discovery", since there was recognition by the nations involved and verifiable testimony at the time. From this "encounter" onward, some European powers invaded American territory, imposing their political, cultural and religious dominion over the local cultures.

Columbus planned his voyage in order to bring goods from the Orient, especially spices and gold. The spice route, which included spices, silk and other products originating in the Far East, had for centuries always come by way of the trade route that crossed Asia to Europe, through Asia Minor and Egypt, but with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire this route became difficult and came to be monopolized by the Ottomans and their partners, the Italian merchants. The Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Castile, at that time the first states of the Modern Age, wanted those goods without intermediaries.

Because the Portuguese had completed their Reconquista against the Muslims in the 13th century, they took the initiative in the competition to reach a new spice route that would be a direct maritime alternative to East Asia. Portugal set out to sail the Ocean Sea along the coast of Africa, granting itself the monopoly of such navigation in the Atlantic Ocean with the exception of the Canary Islands. In 1488 the navigator Bartolomeu Dias found the passage around the Cape of Good Hope, which connected the Atlantic Ocean with the Indian Ocean.

For its part, the Kingdom of Castile, in the same year in which it successfully completed its Reconquista, sought a new spice route, and although it also sought it in the Atlantic Ocean, it set a different course—westward—in waters far from the coast and unknown to navigators.

Columbus's arrival in America allowed the development of trade and the shipment to Europe of large quantities of foods that were grown in those lands, such as maize, the potato, cacao, tobacco, the pepper, squash, pumpkin, the tomato, the common bean (new varieties of the bean, called poroto, judía or frijol in Spanish), the avocado and vanilla, among others, which were quickly adopted by Europeans and by the rest of the world. Researchers have estimated that three-fifths of the crops grown today throughout the world were imported from America. In the opposite direction, the Columbian expedition subsequently brought to America the wheel, iron, the horse, the pig, the donkey, coffee, sugarcane and firearms, among other things.

On his first voyage, the navigator reached the Island of San Salvador, called Guanahani by the inhabitants they encountered, in the present-day Bahamas. After a two-month crossing, and after then visiting Cuba and Hispaniola, he returned to Spain seven months after his departure. On his last voyage it took him only one month and four days to reach the shores of America.

Origin

Photograph of the house in Genoa where Christopher Columbus is supposed to have lived during his childhood, in 1455.

Although he spent most of his adult life in Spain and Portugal, the consensus among experts on Christopher Columbus's birthplace is that he was born in the Republic of Genoa. Alternative theories about his origin have generally been rejected by the leading experts.

The thesis supported by the majority holds that Cristoforo Colombo was born in 1451 in Savona, in the Republic of Genoa, although a recent study estimates, on the contrary, that he was born in 1446. His parents would have been Domenico Colombo—a master weaver and later a merchant—and Susanna Fontanarossa. Of the couple's five children, two, Cristoforo and Bartolomeo, showed an early seafaring vocation. The third was Giacomo, who learned the weaver's trade. As for the remaining two, Giovanni died young and the only daughter left no trace. There are notarial and judicial records that support this thesis, such as the aforementioned will of his son in which he affirms his father's Genoese origin. Furthermore, Columbus himself declares that he is Genoese: in the document called Fundación de Mayorazgo (Foundation of the Entailed Estate) he states "della salí y en ella nací" ("from it I came and in it I was born" [in Genoa]), but various authors and researchers indicate that this statement was probably self-serving, owing to the Columbian lawsuits that his descendants maintained with the Crown of Castile, and for that reason they declared it false or apocryphal; however, other researchers in the early 20th century found documentation in the Archive of Simancas that, according to them, showed the authenticity of this declaration. This document was found in 1925 and contained all the pertinent signatures and seals, which were validated by a special commission that ratified the credibility of the document, issued on September 28, 1501. There is also a letter from Pedro de Ayala, ambassador of the Catholic Monarchs in England, in which he states that John Cabot, who was proposing to explore the Atlantic for England, was "another Genoese like Columbus". In addition, between 1931 and 1932 the municipal authorities of Genoa produced authentic records affirming his Genoese origin.

Another Genoese hypothesis is that Christopher Columbus was born in Cogoleto.

Secondary hypotheses

The secondary theories claim that the origin of Christopher Columbus is an enigma on which there is no unanimity among historians and researchers, among other reasons because of the confusion and loss of documentation concerning his origins and ancestry. Furthermore, his own son, Ferdinand Columbus, in his Historia del Almirante Don Cristóbal Colón, further obscured his birthplace by stating that his father did not want his origin and homeland to be known. For this and other reasons, multiple theories have emerged about Columbus's birthplace, although there is a reliable will in which Ferdinand Columbus himself asserts that his father was Genoese: "son of Christopher Columbus, Genoese, first admiral who discovered the Indies". Some authors and researchers have defended other hypotheses about Columbus's possible origins and the reasons why he wished to conceal them.

Jewish hypothesis

Several historians and authors have held that Columbus was of Sephardic origin. Among others, El Enigma de Colón presents the interpretation made by Cecil Roth of the initials S.A.S. noted by Columbus in his confidential writings, which Roth attributes to a warlike invocation of the God of armies of the Old Testament. Roth also mentions certain coincidences between the dates Columbus chose to set sail and the Hebrew calendar. For their part, both the Valencian writer Juan Atienza, in his book on the Jews of Spain, and the historian Celso García de la Riega, along with some others, describe as striking the close relations that Columbus had with prominent Jewish figures of the time, who provided him with support, financing (in the form of loans to the royal house) and facilities for cartographic study, from figures such as Abraham Zacuto.

The Sephardic thesis is defended by several essayists, most of them accepting the Admiral's Genoese origin, as is the case of Pedro de Frutos in his book El enigma de Colón. But according to the thesis of Salvador de Madariaga, Columbus would have been Genoese, but his ancestors would have been Catalan Jews who fled the persecutions of the late 14th century. Columbus would have been a Jewish convert, which, according to Madariaga, would explain his determination to conceal his origins. For his part, Nito Verdera maintains the theory that Columbus was a crypto-Jew born in Ibiza. Other essayists adhere to the Galician hypothesis, as is the case of Enrique María de Arribas y Turull.

Catalan hypothesis

One of them is the Catalan hypothesis. Luis Ulloa, a Peruvian historian who lived in Barcelona for several years, claimed that Columbus came from Catalonia and from a seafaring tradition, basing this, among other reasons, on the fact that his writings, all in the Castilian language, contain turns of phrase typical of Catalan. For Ulloa, Christopher Columbus was a Catalan noble whose real name would have been Joan Colom, a navigator who was an enemy of King John II of Aragon, against whom he fought in the service of René of Anjou, claimant to the throne; he would also have been the supposed John Scolvus who would have reached northern America in 1476, and he would later have offered the discovery project to King Ferdinand the Catholic for the benefit of the Crown of Aragon. This theory has been followed, expanded or modified by various authors, mostly Catalan historians and researchers, although there are also researchers from other countries, such as the American Charles Merrill, who have supported this thesis. On the other hand, this hypothesis has been challenged on the grounds that its supporters devote a great part of their efforts to refuting or disproving numerous historical documents that show the navigator's Genoese origin, while they have not provided a single document demonstrating the supposed Catalan origin.

Various currents have emerged from the Catalan hypothesis, such as the Balearic theses. One of them, the Majorcan thesis, identifies Columbus with a natural son of the Prince of Viana born in Felanitx, Majorca. However, other experts, such as the researcher, journalist and merchant pilot Nito Verdera, have rejected this thesis.

Galician hypothesis

Another hypothesis holds that Columbus was of Galician origin. Celso García de la Riega and later Enrique María de Arribas y Turull upheld this theory, basing it mainly on documents from the Columbian era that recorded the existence of families bearing that surname. However, these were later discredited by the paleographer Eladio Oviedo Arce, who concluded that these documents were either false or had been tampered with at dates after their creation. However, in 2013 a new study deemed the documents authentic, while limiting itself to confirming the past presence of inhabitants with the surname Colón in the present-day Province of Pontevedra, without ruling on the Admiral's supposed Galician origin. In the words of María del Carmen Hidalgo Brinquis, who presented the results of the verification, this finding neither refutes nor confirms the navigator's Galician origin, since it only shows "that in Pontevedra there was a Colón clan, but we do not know whether it was that of the discoverer of America". A variant of the Galician theory identifies Columbus with the Pontevedra nobleman Pedro Álvarez de Sotomayor; this hypothesis is rejected by most historians, who cite, among many documents, the will of his son Álvaro, drawn up in 1491, in which he mentions "los huesos de mis padres (...) los traigan y entierren dentro de la capilla que el S. Obispo D. Juan fizo en la Iglesia Catedral de Tuy" ("the bones of my parents (...) let them bring and bury them inside the chapel that the Lord Bishop Don Juan built in the Cathedral Church of Tui"), which indicates that Pedro de Sotomayor was already dead before Columbus reached the Americas.

Portuguese hypothesis

There is also the theory of a Portuguese origin, which is based on the interpretation of the anagram in Columbus's signature or on the existence of supposed Portuguese expressions in his writings. The expert philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal confirmed that they were Portuguese expressions, contrary to those who maintained that they were Galician or Catalan expressions, although the historian Antonio Romeu de Armas specified that this would be due not to his having been born in Portugal but to a naturalization resulting from the years he spent in that country.

The theory of a Portuguese origin arose in the 1920s and 1930s. Its first proponent was Patrocínio Ribeiro, who pointed out that some toponyms used by Columbus to name his discoveries are also found in Portugal. The former minister Manuel Pestana Júnior almost simultaneously published his theory that Columbus had been a secret agent of King John II of Portugal. Later authors would attribute to Columbus a Portuguese aristocratic origin.

Other hypotheses

Within Spain there are also other theories that attribute to him an Andalusian origin, specifically from Seville; a Castilian origin, from Guadalajara; an Extremaduran origin, from Plasencia; or a Basque origin.

Other countries also claim to be the birthplace of the Admiral, with a possible Greek, English, Corsican, Sardinian, Norwegian, Scottish or Croatian origin.

Columbus's language

There is also controversy over Christopher Columbus's mother tongue since, according to researchers, it is an important argument for one theory or another about his place of birth. In trying to establish his true origins, all kinds of arguments have been put forward.

Most of his writings are in Castilian, but with evident turns of phrase from other languages of the Iberian Peninsula which, following Menéndez Pidal, many agree in identifying as Lusisms. Several researchers and linguists, from Galicia as well as from Catalonia or the Balearic Islands, support the hypothesis that they are Galicianisms or Catalanisms.

There appear to be no writings in Italian by Columbus, except for the occasional marginal note, apparently poorly written. He did not write in Italian even when addressing his sons or his brothers, nor even to the Bank of Saint George in Genoa. When the Florentine Francisco de Bardi, his brother-in-law, sent him a personal letter in 1505, he preferred to write it in poor Castilian rather than in Italian. In any case, the linguistic situation in Italy was not then the same as it is now, and if he and his family were Genoese, their mother tongue must necessarily have been Ligurian (as Menéndez Pidal already thought), the language of the people, which was in turn the prestige language of the Republic of Genoa; what would need to be demonstrated, therefore, is whether he learned Italian. Nor did he seem to have a command of Latin, which he wrote with a Hispanic rather than an Italian influence.

Historians such as Consuelo Varela or Arranz Márquez believe that he was a typical man of the sea who expressed himself in various languages without truly mastering any of them, or that perhaps he spoke the lingua franca or jerga levantisca (Levantine jargon).

Early years

Signature of Christopher Columbus. On the left as "Xpo Ferens" and on the right as "Al Almirante".

According to the Genoese origin, overwhelmingly supported by most historians, Cristóbal Colón would be the Castilianized form of the Italian Cristoforo Colombo. Cristoforo can be translated as Cristóbal, "the one who carries Christ", and Colombo in Italian means male dove. In one of Columbus's signatures one can read "Xpo Ferens", which, according to some researchers, means "bearer of Christ".

According to this account, his literary education was scant and he took up navigation at an early age. Between 1474 and 1475 he would have traveled to the island of Chios (Quío or Chío), a Genoese possession in the Aegean Sea, as a sailor and probably also as a merchant. On the other hand, his son Ferdinand Columbus asserted that his father learned to read and write and studied in Pavia, which allowed him to understand the cosmographers.

From 1477 Columbus settled in Portugal, although it is not clear how he got there. According to the biography written by his son Ferdinand, it was by accident, as the result of a shipwreck during a naval battle near Cape St. Vincent on an undetermined date. Columbus would have been part of the crew of a corsair called "Colón el Mozo" ("Columbus the Younger"), who attacked some Venetian ships. Columbus's ship sank; he saved himself by swimming and reached the coast of the Algarve. From there he set out for Lisbon, seeking the help of his brother Bartholomew and of other acquaintances. However, it has since been established that Ferdinand Columbus invented this account by mixing sources about two different battles, one in 1476 (during the War of the Castilian Succession) and another in 1485.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus held in the Library of Congress of the United States of America. 19th-century copy based on an engraving by Aliprando Caprioli.

Until 1485 he lived in Portugal as an agent of the Centurione house of Madeira and made numerous voyages to various destinations, including Genoa, England and Ireland. Possibly on this voyage, in 1477, he reached Iceland and heard rumors of the existence of other lands to the west. It seems that he also traveled the routes that the Portuguese frequented along the western coasts of Africa, such as Guinea, and he had surely been to the Canary Islands, which implies that he would also have known the "Volta da Mina", the route Portuguese sailors followed when returning to their country from the Gulf of Guinea, and with it the trade winds of the Atlantic Ocean.

Between 1479 and 1480 Christopher Columbus married Felipa Moniz, daughter of the colonizer of the Madeira Islands, Bartolomeu Perestrelo, probably in Lisbon. Once married, he lived in Porto Santo and in Madeira, which suggests that he also traveled to the Azores. His wife Felipa, a member of the Portuguese upper class, opened doors for him in the preparation of his project. In 1480 the couple had their only son, Diego Columbus. Many years later, Columbus would write that on the beaches of Porto Santo he saw objects washed in from the East, even a corpse with Asian features. This is, however, improbable, because the prevailing currents in that area run from north to south, not from west to east.

The project

Map attributed to Toscanelli.

It is difficult to determine when Christopher Columbus's project of reaching Cipango—modern Japan—and the lands of the Great Khan by sailing west was born, but it can be dated to after his marriage and before 1481.

He probably knew of the reports by the Florentine mathematician and physician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli on the possibility of reaching the Indies by sailing west, written at the request of King Afonso V of Portugal, who was interested in the matter.

Be that as it may, Columbus had access to a letter from Toscanelli accompanied by a map tracing the route to follow to East Asia, including all the islands that were supposed to lie along the way. This map and Toscanelli's information were based mainly on the travels of Marco Polo. The latter indicated that the distance between the western end of Europe and Asia was not excessive, estimating the space between Lisbon and Quinsay at around 6,500 nautical leagues, and that from the legendary Antillia to Cipango it was only 2,500 miles, which made navigation easier. Two letters addressed by Toscanelli to Columbus are known, recorded by Father Bartolomé de las Casas in his Historia de las Indias; however, there is also controversy over their authenticity.

The surviving books from Columbus's library shed light on what influenced his ideas, owing to his habit of underlining his books; it is deduced that the most heavily underlined would have been the most read. Among those with the most annotations are the Tractatus de Imago Mundi by Pierre d'Ailly, the Historia Rerum ubique Gestarum by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini and especially The Travels of Marco Polo, which gave him an idea of what the East he dreamed of finding was like.

Columbus based himself on the Earth having a circumference of 29,000 km, according to the "measurement" of Posidonius and d'Ailly's measure of the terrestrial degree, without taking into account that the latter was speaking of Arabic miles and not Italian ones, which are shorter, so that he put that circumference at less than three-quarters of the real one, which, moreover, had been scientifically accepted since the time of Eratosthenes. As a result, according to Columbus, there should be about 2,400 nautical miles between the Canary Islands and Cipango, when in reality there are 10,700.

The search for patronage

Portugal

Between 1483 and 1485, Christopher Columbus offered his project for the first time to King John II of Portugal. The King consulted three experts on it (Bishop Diego Ortiz and the Jews Master Rodrigo and Master Vizinho), who gave a negative opinion, after which the monarch rejected Columbus's offer. During those same years, other explorers were in fact authorized by the Portuguese King to sail into the Western Atlantic, with requests for money or privileges far more modest than those Columbus apparently made. In 1484 Fernão Domingues do Arco of Madeira was appointed Captain of a land he claimed to have discovered to the west, and in 1486 Ferdinand van Olmen obtained permission to sail westward from the Azores to explore and conquer the "Island of the Seven Cities". According to the History of the Admiral by Hernando Colón, John II secretly sent a caravel along the course Columbus had indicated, but it returned without having reached any new land.

Christopher Columbus's failure before John II, combined perhaps with the campaign launched by the Portuguese King against the House of Braganza, led Columbus to emigrate from Portugal to the neighboring kingdoms of Castile. He left behind his son Diego and his wife Filipa, who, contrary to what some historians have claimed, was still alive.

Castile

Monastery of La Rábida, Palos de la Frontera, Huelva.

Monument to Christopher Columbus unveiled on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death, located in the outer gardens of the Monastery of La Rábida.

Although the first chroniclers and some testimonies from the Columbian lawsuits indicate that Christopher Columbus arrived in Castile, entering through the Port of Palos toward the end of 1484 or the beginning of 1485, there are some authors who do not accept these events as true, although it is the most frequently supported version, even though other theories exist. According to that version, at the nearby Monastery of La Rábida he first befriended Friar Antonio de Marchena and, years later, Friar Juan Pérez, to whom he confided his plans.

The friars supported him and recommended him to Friar Hernando de Talavera, confessor of Queen Isabella I of Castile. In the neighboring town of Moguer he also found the support of the Abbess of the Convent of Santa Clara, Inés Enríquez, aunt of the King of Castile and Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic. Columbus went to the court, established at that time in Córdoba, and struck up relationships with important figures in the royal circle. It is not known how long he stayed at La Rábida. Columbus arrived in Seville in mid-1485 and stayed several times at the Monastery of La Cartuja.

Columbus Leaving the Mosque of Córdoba, by Rafael Romero de Torres. The work shows the navigator during his stay in Córdoba, where he had traveled in 1485 to seek the support of the Cortes of Castile.

Although the Royal Council rejected his project, in January 1486, thanks to the influence of Hernando de Talavera, he succeeded in being received by Queen Isabella, to whom he set out his plans. The sovereign took an interest in the idea, but wished that a council of learned men, presided over by Talavera, should first give an opinion on the feasibility of the project, while she assigned Columbus, who was short of means, a subsidy from the Crown.

The Council met first in Salamanca and later in Córdoba, and several years later it ruled that what Columbus said could not possibly be true. Moreover, Talavera feared that the voyage proposed by Columbus would violate the Treaty of Alcáçovas signed with Portugal and endorsed by papal bull. It also appears that the economic and political demands put forward by Columbus were very high, as was later seen in the Capitulations of Santa Fe.

The Queen then summoned Columbus, telling him that she did not entirely rule out his plan. While the navigator waited, he devoted himself to selling maps and books in order to support himself.

At that time he met Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, a native of Córdoba, who lived with a cousin and worked as a weaver. They never married, although at his death Columbus bequeathed his fortune to her and had his first son, Diego, treat her as his true mother. They had a son, Hernando Colón (called Fernando by some sources), who traveled with his father to America on his fourth voyage and years later wrote the History of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, a biography of his father that is perhaps excessively laudatory.

Columbus went back to Portugal, with the consent of the sovereigns and of the King of Portugal, to negotiate on matters that are unknown. There he collected his son Diego, whose mother had died while Columbus was in Castile. He may also have witnessed the return of Bartolomeu Dias from the voyage on which he had discovered the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, after which the sea route to India through the Indian Ocean lay open to the Portuguese. On his return to Andalusia, Columbus went to propose his project to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who rejected it, and then to Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli, who showed interest and hosted Columbus for two years in his palace at El Puerto de Santa María. However, when she was consulted, the Queen sent for Columbus and promised him she would attend to his plan as soon as the conquest of Granada was completed.

Deza and Columbus. Detail of the monument to Christopher Columbus in Madrid (A. Mélida, 1885).

In December 1491, Columbus arrived at the royal camp of Santa Fe in Granada. His project was submitted to a new board, convened by the Queen, but it was rejected once again. An important part of the opposition was due to Columbus's excessive demands. At that moment Luis de Santángel and Diego de Deza intervened, winning King Ferdinand over to his cause and securing his support.

The monarchs' coffers, owing to the various military campaigns and especially the one waged during the Granada War (which successfully culminated the Reconquista with its capture by the Christians), were not at their best. That is why Luis de Santángel, escribano de ración, offered to lend the money that the Crown was to contribute, 1,140,000 maravedís. The repayment of this sum to Luis de Santángel is recorded in the Archive of Simancas.

The Capitulations of Santa Fe and Royal Provisions

Main article: Capitulations of Santa Fe

The negotiations between Christopher Columbus and the Crown were conducted through the secretary of the Crown of Aragon, Juan de Coloma, and Friar Juan Pérez, on behalf of Columbus. The outcome of the negotiations was the Capitulations of Santa Fe, of April 17, 1492.

The legal nature of this document (binding contract or revocable grant) is still a subject of controversy today. In it Columbus obtained, "in satisfaction of what he has discovered in the Ocean Seas and of the voyage that he is now (...) to make through them in the service" of the Crown, the following privileges:

• The title of admiral in all the lands he might discover or win in the Ocean Sea, on a hereditary basis and with the same rank as the Admiral of Castile.
• The title of viceroy, also hereditary, and governor-general in all the islands or mainlands he might discover or win in those seas, receiving the right to propose lists of three candidates for the government of each of them.
• The tithe, or ten percent of the net proceeds of the merchandise bought, won, found or bartered within the limits of the Admiralty, with one fifth reserved for the Crown.
• Commercial jurisdiction over lawsuits arising from trade in the area of his admiralty, as befitted such an office.
• The right to contribute one eighth of the expedition and to share in the profits in the same proportion.

Statue of the Pinzón brothers in Palos de la Frontera; in the background can be seen la Fontanilla and the Church of San Jorge Mártir.

The content of the Capitulations was developed in a letter of grant dated April 30, 1492, in which the granting to Columbus of the title of admiral was made conditional on his actually discovering and winning new lands, and Columbus was not given the honorific don.

In addition, various decrees were issued for the organization of the voyage. According to one of them, Columbus would be Captain Major of the Fleet, made up of three ships. Another decree was a Royal provision addressed to certain residents of the town of Palos, stating that they were to provide two caravels, equipped and crewed, as payment of a penalty imposed on those residents. A third Royal provision granted to Columbus by the Catholic Monarchs obliged the towns of the Andalusian coast to hand over ships to the enterprise of discovery whenever and wherever Columbus requested them. The future admiral executed this Royal provision at the Port of La Ribera in Moguer, seizing two ships in the presence of the notary Alonso Pardo, vessels that were later rejected. In Palos de la Frontera Columbus also seized ships making use of the said provision, according to the testimony of Hernández Colmenero, and, it seems, he also attempted it in the nearby town of Huelva, judging from what Pedro Ortiz states in his testimony. But he still could not manage to enlist the crew needed for the enterprise. The monarchs then issued, on June 20 at Guadalupe, a power addressed to the Town of Palos and a commission to the Town of Moguer so that they would comply with the previous royal provisions: the one addressed to the Town of Palos, and the general one that Columbus used in Moguer.

Columbus in Palos de la Frontera, intervention of Martín Alonso Pinzón

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the town of Palos de la Frontera, he met with the opposition of the residents, who distrusted the stranger. A Royal Provision addressed to Diego Rodríguez Prieto and other residents of the town, sentencing them to serve the Crown with two caravels for two months, was read at the door of the Church of San Jorge, where the public square was located. There were also problems in recruiting sailors, and so Columbus resorted to one of the provisions issued by the monarchs, which granted him permission to recruit sailors from among prisoners, although in the end this was not necessary. Finally, the friars of the Monastery of La Rábida, especially Friar Juan Pérez and Friar Antonio de Marchena, managed to solve the problem of recruiting sailors by putting Columbus in contact with Martín Alonso Pinzón, a prominent local navigator, who supported the feasibility of the voyage, contrary to what people thought of the project. Pero Vázquez de la Frontera, an old seaman of the town highly respected for his experience and a friend of Martín Alonso, also had an important influence on the decision of the eldest of the Pinzón brothers to support the enterprise.

According to Bartolomé de las Casas, Martín Alonso contributed half a million maravedís from his personal fortune, one third of the cash expenses of the enterprise. He likewise rejected the ships that Columbus had seized and also dismissed the men Columbus had enlisted; he chose two other caravels for the enterprise, the Pinta and the Niña, since he knew they were very fast sailers and "fit for the task of sailing" because he had them leased, brought his brothers into it and, in addition, went through Palos de la Frontera, Moguer and Huelva, persuading his relatives and friends to sign on, thereby obtaining the necessary crew. Prominent seafaring families of the area joined the enterprise, such as the Niño brothers of Moguer, the Quinteros of Palos de la Frontera and other reputable seamen who were decisive for the final recruitment of the crew. Approximately one third of the seamen were from Palos de la Frontera.

Columbus in Moguer

In Moguer, Christopher Columbus visited the Monastery of Santa Clara, whose abbess, Inés Enríquez, aunt of King Ferdinand the Catholic, supported Columbus's project before the Court. He also found support in the cleric Martín Sánchez and the landowner Juan Rodríguez Cabezudo, to whom he entrusted the custody of his son Diego when he set out on the voyage of discovery.

The Niño brothers played a prominent part in the preparations for and the course of the voyage of discovery. Once their initial reluctance toward Columbus's project had been overcome, they joined the enterprise and encouraged the seamen of Moguer, and the other sailors who usually sailed with them, to enlist in the expedition. Likewise, one of the caravels, La Niña, was the property of this family. Pedro Alonso Niño was pilot, possibly, of the Santa María, Francisco Niño took part as a sailor on La Niña and Juan Niño as master, also on La Niña; in addition, approximately one fifth of the crew was from this town.

The four voyages of Columbus to the Indies

The four voyages of Christopher Columbus.

Main article: Discovery of America

Christopher Columbus made a total of four voyages to what is known today as America:

• On the first voyage he sailed from the port of Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492 and, passing through the Canary Islands, where he stayed from August 9 to September 6, he reached the Indies upon discovering the Bahamas islands on October 12, and later also the islands of Hispaniola—present-day Santo Domingo—and Cuba. He returned from Hispaniola on January 4, arriving in Lisbon on March 4 and in Palos de la Frontera on March 15, 1493.
• On the second voyage he departed from Cádiz on September 25, 1493, leaving Hierro on October 13 and arriving at the island of Guadeloupe on November 4, discovering and exploring Puerto Rico and Jamaica. He returned to Cádiz on June 11, 1496.
• On the third voyage he sailed on May 30, 1498, from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, stopping at Cape Verde, from which he sailed on July 4, and arrived on July 31 at the island of Trinidad. He explored the coast of Venezuela. On August 27, 1499, Francisco de Bobadilla arrived and, with powers granted by the Monarchs, imprisoned the three Columbus brothers on a ship on September 15 and sent them in chains to the peninsula in mid-October, arriving in Cádiz on November 25, 1500.
• On the fourth voyage he left Seville on April 3, 1502 and arrived at Hispaniola on June 29. On July 17 he landed in present-day Honduras, and he returned on September 11 from Santo Domingo, arriving on November 7 at Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

First voyage (August 3, 1492–March 15, 1493)

First transatlantic voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Columbus's itinerary through the Antilles, 1492–1493. Modern place names in black, and Columbus's place names in blue.

Main article: First voyage of Christopher Columbus

Replicas of the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa María at the Wharf of the Caravels in Palos de la Frontera.

First landing of Christopher Columbus in America (Dióscoro Puebla, 1862).

Christopher Columbus before the Catholic Monarchs at the court in Barcelona (V. Turgis, 19th century).

Once all the preparations were completed, Christopher Columbus's expedition left the port of Palos de la Frontera (Huelva) on August 3, 1492, with the caravels Pinta and Niña, and with the nao Santa María, and with a crew of about ninety men. The Santa María, originally called La Gallega, was the property of Juan de la Cosa and was the ship on which Columbus embarked. The Niña, owned by the Niño family, and the Pinta were chosen by Martín Alonso Pinzón. Although various paintings and other artistic works have depicted the presence of a priest or member of a religious order, no cleric traveled among the crew on this first expedition.

He stayed in the Canary Islands until September 6, specifically on La Gomera—according to the Historia del Almirante, visiting Beatriz de Bobadilla, governor of the island—and on Gran Canaria, repairing the rudder of the Pinta and replacing its original triangular sails with square ones, which made it the fastest caravel of the flotilla.

Heading toward the uncertain west, the expedition was not easy for anyone, and during it there were several attempted mutinies. Between September 13 and 17 they observed that the needles of the compasses deviated with respect to the North Star, to the west at night and to the east in the morning. This effect has been mistakenly attributed to magnetic declination by some historians, but in reality it is due to the rotation of Polaris around the north celestial pole. On September 22 Columbus sent his navigation chart to Pinzón. On the night of October 6 to 7 there was an attempted mutiny on the Santa María, which was put down with the help of the Pinzóns. However, between October 9 and October 10 the discontent spread to the rest of the expedition, and the captains made the decision that they would turn back within three days if they did not sight land. On October 12, when the crew was already restless from the long crossing without arriving anywhere, the ship's boy Rodrigo de Triana gave the famous cry of "Land ho!" There is also controversy among historians over this episode, since the Monarchs had offered 10,000 maravedís to the first person to sight land; however, this prize was received by Columbus who, according to his logbook, would have seen a "light" a few hours before Rodrigo de Triana. They reached an island called Guanahani, which he renamed "San Salvador," in the archipelago of the Bahamas. Columbus believed he had fulfilled his longed-for goal of reaching the Indies of the spices by sailing the Ocean Sea westward. He was not aware that he had arrived at a different continent.

After October 12, Columbus traveled to other islands of the Bahamas toward the south until reaching the island of Cuba, and later Hispaniola (present-day Dominican Republic). Off the shores of the latter, on December 25, 1492, the flagship nao, the Santa María, sank. Its remains were used to build the Fort of La Navidad, the first Spanish settlement in America.

The two caravels, under the command of the Admiral, undertook the return voyage to Spain. The ships became separated, with the Pinta arriving first at Bayona, around February 18, 1493. The Niña suffered a strong storm that nearly caused it to founder. In such a difficult situation, Christopher Columbus decided to draw lots for the vow to go on pilgrimage to several churches. Columbus's ship stopped at the Portuguese islands of the Azores, and from there arrived on March 4 in Lisbon, forced in by another storm. On March 9 Columbus was brought before King John II of Portugal, whom he tried to convince that the expedition did not interfere with his Atlantic possessions. Some courtiers proposed that Columbus be executed for having violated the Treaty of Alcáçovas, but the King ultimately let him go free. After this, Columbus set sail for Andalusia.

Finally, on March 15 the Niña arrived at the port of Palos de la Frontera, a few hours apart from the Pinta. The Niña remained anchored in the vicinity of La Rábida, where Columbus stayed until, at least, the visit of the inquisitors. Afterward, Christopher Columbus spent a night of vigil in the church of Santa Clara, fulfilling the vow, or Columbian Vow, made on the high seas. He also fulfilled in Huelva the vow to light a candle at the Sanctuary of La Cinta. A few days later Martín Alonso Pinzón, Columbus's main partner on this voyage, died; he was probably buried at La Rábida, as was his wish.

First Pinzón and then Columbus separately sent news of their arrival to the Monarchs, who were in Barcelona. In that city there appeared in print, probably in early April, a letter from Columbus announcing the Discovery addressed to Luis de Santángel dated February 15, when they were still on the high seas. A few weeks later a very similar letter was printed in Rome, addressed to the Treasurer Gabriel (or Rafael) Sánchez and translated into Latin by Leandro de Cozco. This work spread rapidly throughout Europe and was translated into Italian and German.

In April 1493, Columbus was received by the Catholic Monarchs at the Monastery of San Jerónimo de la Murtra, in Badalona, near Barcelona (other versions indicate that this meeting took place in the Saló del Tinell, in Barcelona), where he explained his arrival from the west at what he believed was India.

Several years later Europeans would gradually realize that the lands Columbus had reached were not connected by land to Asia, but rather formed a different continent, which from 1507 onward would begin to be called America.

On May 20 the Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, among the rewards and dignities granted to Columbus, conceded to him this augmentation of his original coat of arms:

The Castle in gold on a green field, in the quarter of the shield of your arms at the top on the right hand; and in the other upper quarter on the left hand a purple Lion on a white field, rampant, in green; and in the other lower quarter on the right hand some golden islands in waves of the sea; and in the other lower quarter on the left hand the arms that you used to bear. Which arms shall be known as yours, and as those of your sons and descendants forever and ever.

The coat of arms granted by the Monarchs was soon modified by the Columbus family, although these alterations were made motu proprio; thus in 1502, in the publication of the Book of Privileges, a new coat of arms was printed on the title page. This one presents the following differences from the official coat of arms: the arms of the first and second quarters were modified to represent those of the Kingdom of Castile and those of the Kingdom of León; the islands of the third quarter were modified by accompanying them with a "mainland" in base, in order to add the new continental lands already discovered; and in the fourth quarter they placed five anchors to indicate his dignity as Admiral, not upright but lying toward the right; the original arms, those that he "used to bear" according to the royal decree, were moved to a lower "enté" point.

Second voyage (September 25, 1493–June 11, 1496)

Main article: Second voyage of Christopher Columbus

Second transatlantic voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Second voyage of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean Sea.

Christopher Columbus's second voyage departed from Cádiz and landed on the island of Puerto Rico on November 19.

The objective of this voyage was to explore, colonize and preach the Catholic faith throughout the territories that had been discovered on the first voyage, all of it under the protection of the Alexandrine bulls, which protected the discovered territories from Portuguese claims.

Of the 17 ships that took part in this second voyage (three carracks, two large naos and twelve caravels), the names of only a few are known, among them the Niña, a participant in the first voyage, and the Marigalante or Santa María, namesake of the ill-fated ship of the first voyage, the caravel Cardera and the caravel San Juan, whose pilot was Bartolomé Pérez of Rota, who on the first voyage had sailed on the Niña.

On his second voyage to the island of Hispaniola, he observed the lunar eclipse of September 14–15, 1494 and, comparing its start and end times with those recorded in the observations at Cádiz and São Vicente in Portugal, he definitively deduced the sphericity of the Earth already described by Claudius Ptolemy.

Before reaching Hispaniola, Columbus and his fleet first discovered the northern Lesser Antilles, including Dominica, Guadeloupe—known to the Carib Indians as Karukera ("island of beautiful waters")—, Montserrat, Antigua, Saint Martin and the Virgin Islands.

After passing these, Columbus continued on to the Greater Antilles, first sighting the eastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico on the afternoon of November 17, 1493. The fleet sailed along the southern coast of the island for an entire day, before making landfall on its northwestern coast between the towns of Mayagüez and Aguadilla early on November 19, 1493. Upon landing, Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista in honor of John the Baptist, the preacher and prophet who baptized Jesus Christ, and remained anchored there for two days, November 20 and 21, 1493. Fleet member Diego Álvarez Chanca relates that while they were sailing along the southern coast of Puerto Rico, a Taíno woman and boy, who had volunteered to join them on board in Guadeloupe after having been rescued together with a group of at least 20 women whom the Caribs had been keeping as sex slaves, swam to the shore, having recognized their homeland, known to them as Borinquen ("land of the valiant lord"). After passing Puerto Rico, Columbus continued on toward La Navidad in the north of Hispaniola, in Haiti.

After founding the town of La Isabela on January 6, 1494, he ordered 12 ships of his fleet to return to Spain, keeping only the caravels Niña—now called Santa Clara (its original name)—, San Juan, Cardera and a few others. In June 1496 Columbus returned from his second voyage aboard the Niña, accompanied only by the India, the first ship built in the New Lands.

Third voyage (May 30, 1498–November 25, 1500)

Main article: Third voyage of Christopher Columbus

Third transatlantic voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Third voyage of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean Sea.

World map of Juan de la Cosa from 1500. The New World appears in the upper part (in green) and the Old World in the central and lower part (in white).

On the third voyage, Christopher Columbus set out from Sanlúcar de Barrameda captaining six ships and taking with him Bartolomé de Las Casas, who would later provide part of the transcriptions of Columbus's Diaries.

He made his first stop on the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, where his wife came from. From there he set out for Madeira, and he arrived on July 31 at the island of Trinidad.

The next day he reached the mainland for the first time, in present-day Venezuela. From August 4 to 12 he explored the Gulf of Paria, which separates Trinidad from Venezuela. In his reconnaissance of the area he reached the mouth of the Orinoco River, sailed among the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita, and renamed Tobago ("Bella Forma") and Grenada ("Concepción"). They landed in the area of Macuro, in Venezuela, in August 1498, this region already being part of the American continental landmass.

Initially, he described the lands as belonging to a continent unknown to Europeans, but then he retracted and said that they belonged to Asia.

On August 19 he returned to Hispaniola to find that most of the Spaniards settled there were discontented, feeling deceived by Columbus about the riches they would find. Columbus repeatedly tried to come to terms with the rebels, the Taínos and the Caribs. Some of the Spaniards who had returned accused Columbus of misgovernment before the court. In 1500 the Monarchs sent the royal administrator Francisco de Bobadilla to Hispaniola, who upon his arrival (August 23) arrested Columbus and his brothers and shipped them off to Spain. Columbus refused to have his shackles removed throughout his voyage to Spain, during which he wrote a long letter to the Catholic Monarchs. Upon arriving in Spain he regained his freedom, but he had lost his prestige and his powers.

The minor or Andalusian voyages

Despite Admiral Columbus's intention of reserving for himself the monopoly on the conquest and colonization of the lands he had reached, the Crown did not share those ideas. Accordingly, it agreed by capitulation the terms of new voyages, whose objective was to discover lands unknown to Europeans and in no way to colonize them.

These voyages took place from 1499 onward, and among them the following stand out:

• Alonso de Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa in 1499, a voyage in which Amerigo Vespucci took part, whose name would eventually give the continent its name. They reached present-day Venezuela and gathered reports about riches. These reports were investigated by other mariners, who in the end found deposits of pearls.
• In the same year, 1499, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón became the first European to reach the Amazon River and, according to various historians, he should be considered the true discoverer of Brazil. He returned to the peninsula on September 30, 1500 with a cargo of a highly prized wood called palo brasil. In a new capitulation, signed with King Ferdinand on September 5, 1501, the King appointed him captain and governor from Santa María de Consolación to the mouth of the Amazon River, but he did not return to the area. In 1508 he returned to the Caribbean with the mission of searching for a passage to the Pacific Ocean; he explored the entire coast of Central America and of the Yucatán Peninsula, establishing the first contact with the Maya civilization.

These voyages, although limited in their objectives, provided a great deal of information to the Crown and to the Casa de Contratación.

Fourth voyage (April 3, 1502–November 7, 1504)

Main article: Fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus

Fourth transatlantic voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Fourth voyage of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean Sea.

Between 1500 and 1502 Columbus, feeling harassed by his enemies, launched an image campaign. In 1501, his friend Peter Martyr wrote what can be considered the "official biography" of the Admiral. The following year, Columbus bequeathed 10% of his income to the city of Genoa in order to win its favor, while Genoese merchants provided the financing needed for a new voyage of exploration to the Indies.

The fourth and last voyage of Christopher Columbus departed from Seville on April 3, 1502; it headed toward Puebla Vieja, and afterward Columbus remained busy in Seville with matters of munitions and crew while the ships waited in Cádiz, from which they sailed on May 11. On May 25 they stopped at Gran Canaria and, after a 21-day crossing of the Atlantic, they reached the Caribbean, putting in at a bay on Hispaniola. Columbus explored the coasts of present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. From this gulf he tried to return to Hispaniola, but a storm forced him to land in Jamaica, because he did not obtain permission from the Governor of Hispaniola. From there he turned toward the Isla de Pinos (Cuba), ending up on the mainland.

In October 1502 he arrived at the Bay of Chirqui (Panama), believing he saw the passage to the Indies, the mythical Western Passage. The natives told him of a passage to reach the Great Ocean (Pacific Ocean). Columbus, as a mariner, refused to venture into the jungle. Had he done so, he would have been the first European to achieve it.

On December 5, 1502 he gave up the search for the Western Passage in favor of a purely economic exploitation, heading to Veragua (Panama), where he found gold in the streams that came down from the mountains, on the advice of his brother Bartholomew. In April 1503, after four months in Veragua, they founded the settlement of Belén, of 80 people, under the command of his brother Bartholomew and his scribe Diego Méndez. On April 6, 1503 the Guaraní attacked Belén, outnumbering them 10 to 1 in favor of the natives. Despite Spanish technological superiority (arquebuses against arrows and macanas), they had to abandon the settlement and put to sea, heading north.

With the wood of the ships' hulls rotten and water constantly coming in, he suffered the fourth storm of the voyage, his ships running aground in Jamaica. With the remains of the shipwreck, they made a camp on the beach. Certain that no one was going to rescue them (no ship had arrived in Jamaica since 1494), Columbus entrusted his scribe, Diego Méndez, with a suicide mission: to go to Hispaniola in a canoe and seek help from its Governor, Nicolás de Ovando.

After a 5-day crossing between Jamaica and Hispaniola, they arrived at the island, where its Governor, engaged in fighting against the natives, refused to help Columbus and detained Diego Méndez for months. Meanwhile, in Jamaica, there was a mutiny led by the Porras brothers to undermine the command of an already ill and arthritic Columbus, which failed at first because they were unable to leave Jamaica.

On February 29, 1504 there was a lunar eclipse that Columbus predicted and that frightened the fearful Jamaican natives, who made offerings to him. However, he only gained some time, since through a messenger he sent, Nicolás de Ovando conveyed his refusal to send a rescue.

After eight months of waiting, on September 11, 1504, an ill and exhausted Columbus and his son Hernando managed to re-embark in Jamaica bound for Hispaniola, on a ship obtained by Diego Méndez. Columbus had to pay for his passage. Surprisingly, this short voyage lasted 45 days, compared with the 5 that Diego Méndez spent in a canoe, due to adverse sea conditions.

110 of the 145 members of the expedition survived, although many of them, exhausted, gave up returning to Castile and stayed on Hispaniola.

In 1503, on his last voyage through the Greater Antilles, he discovered the islands now called Cayman Brac and Little Cayman (since Columbus never saw the island of Grand Cayman), which received the name Las Tortugas. They were given that name because of the great number of turtles that were on and around them. He returned in 1504 to Sanlúcar de Barrameda without fulfilling any of his main objectives.

Relations with the natives

Main article: Relations between Native Americans and the European conquistadors

Following the customs in force at that time, the relations of Christopher Columbus and his men with other peoples and lands were governed by the possibilities of conquering them for the kingdom they represented.

Thinking that they were in the lands of the Great Khan, they tried to take up defensive military positions and make contact with some king, but they found nothing of the kind, and little by little they realized that they possessed great superiority in weaponry over the natives and that the latter did not know the words "Great Khan." They attributed this lack of knowledge to a very low cultural level of the Indians and gradually came to assume that the new territory would be easy to conquer. They made this clear in their communications to their monarchs.

Activity as a cartographer

Although no map signed by Columbus has been preserved, several clues indicate that he did draw some maps. Las Casas and other 16th-century authors state that Columbus occasionally earned his living making nautical charts. Las Casas also relates that, while sailing along Cuba in 1492, Columbus was drawing a map of the coast. The correspondence between Columbus and the Monarchs mentions several times maps of the new lands that the sovereigns request or that Columbus claims to have sent. It is also recorded that Alonso de Ojeda had access to a map of the South American continental coasts made by Columbus (or by someone in his service) during his third voyage.

Around 1501 Columbus stated in a letter that he knew how to draw world maps:

our Lord (...) gave me (...) skill in the soul and in the hands to draw a sphere, and on it the cities, rivers and mountains, islands and ports, all in their proper place.

— Letter from Columbus to the Sovereigns included in the Libro de las Profecías

Unsigned and undated maps attributed to Christopher or Bartholomew Columbus

• 
  Sketch of the northwestern coast of Hispaniola.
• 
  World map preserved in the BNF.

Will

Columbus House-Museum in Valladolid.

On May 19, 1506, one day before his death in Valladolid, Christopher Columbus drew up his will before Pedro de Inoxedo, chamber scribe of the Catholic Monarchs. As executors and fulfillers of his last wishes he named his son Diego Columbus, his brother Bartholomew Columbus and Juan de Porras, Treasurer of Biscay.

In that document Columbus, who styled himself admiral, viceroy and Governor of the islands and mainland of the Indies discovered and to be discovered, established the following:

I appointed my dear son Don Diego as heir of all my property and offices that I hold by right and inheritance, of which I made the entailed estate (mayorazgo); and should he have no male heir, my son Don Fernando shall inherit in the same manner; and should he have no male heir, Don Bartolomé my brother shall inherit in the same manner; and in the same manner, should he have no male heir, another brother of mine shall inherit; so that it be understood thus, from one to another, the relative closest to my line, and this be forever. And no woman shall inherit, unless no man can be found; and if this should happen, let it be the woman closest to my line.

From which it is understood that he has two sons, Diego and Fernando, and that the heir is the firstborn, according to prevailing custom. He likewise states that Doña Beatriz is the mother of Fernando, which attests that they never married.

In the will Columbus complained of the small amount—one cuento (million) of maravedís—that the Catholic Monarchs had put up in 1492 for the enterprise of discovery, he himself having had to contribute capital for the voyage. Nevertheless, the myth invented by his son Hernando and propagated by Bartolomé de las Casas that Columbus died poor is false. His economic situation at the end of his life was that of a millionaire, with annual income estimated at about 8,000 pesos (about four million maravedís).

Death, burial and later transfers

Death of Christopher Columbus in a mid-19th-century painting by Francisco Ortego that forms part of the collection of the Museo del Prado.

Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, presumably from complications arising from gout or arthritis suffered for years. After his death, his body was treated with a process called defleshing, by which all the flesh was removed from the bones for better preservation of the corpse.

He was initially buried in the Convent of San Francisco in Valladolid, and later his remains were moved to the chapel of Santa Ana of the Monastery of La Cartuja in Seville in 1509. The transfer was handled by the Florentine merchant Simón Verde, a friend of the family.

In 1523, at the wish of his son Diego Columbus, the latter provided in his will that both his remains and those of his father be moved and buried in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.

The procedures related to the fulfillment of Diego Columbus's testamentary wishes were in the hands of his widow, the Vicereine María Álvarez de Toledo y Rojas, who, through the good offices of Queen Isabella, requested and obtained from King Charles I of Spain authorization for Christopher and Diego Columbus to be moved to and buried in the main chapel of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. On June 2, 1537, María extended this right in favor of her son Luis Columbus.

Tomb of Christopher Columbus. Seville Cathedral.

There are discrepancies about the exact date on which María de Toledo moved the remains, since in 1536 the Vicereine asked the monks of the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville to hand over the remains of both admirals; other sources mention that the transfer of the remains was carried out before 1539, and others that the Vicereine María Álvarez de Toledo took them with her on her return to Santo Domingo on August 8, 1544.

What is beyond doubt is that in 1548, when María drew up her will, the remains of both men were already in the said cathedral, since María asked that her body not be buried in the same tomb as her husband Diego but beneath it, in the floor of the chapel, next to the presbytery of the high altar.

The mortal remains of Christopher Columbus remained buried in Santo Domingo for more than two centuries.

After the conquest of the island of Santo Domingo in 1795 by the French, they were moved to Havana, and after the Cuban War of Independence in 1898, his remains were transferred aboard the cruiser Conde de Venadito to Cádiz, and from there to Seville by the dispatch boat Giralda, bound for Seville Cathedral, where they rest in a sumptuous catafalque.

Debates over his burial

Tomb of Columbus located in the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic.

Subsequently, a controversy arose over the final destination of the remains of Christopher Columbus, after a lead box was found in 1877 in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo containing bone fragments and bearing an inscription that read "Illustrious and distinguished man Christopher Columbus." Those remains stayed in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo until 1992, the year in which they were moved to the Columbus Lighthouse, a pharaonic monument built by the Dominican Republic to honor and preserve the remains that are also believed to be those of Columbus.

Apparently, at the time of exhuming the body from the Cathedral of Santo Domingo it was not very clear which exactly was the tomb of Christopher Columbus, owing to the poor condition of the tombs, so it is at least probable that only part of the bones were collected, the other part remaining in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. More conclusive studies on this matter are still lacking.

To determine which were the true remains, it was proposed to take DNA samples from both skeletons: the one in Seville and the one in Santo Domingo. The studies were to be completed in May 2006, but in January 2005 the Dominican authorities postponed the opening of the tomb. The preliminary study detected a probable filial link between the bones buried in Seville Cathedral and those of his son Diego.

On August 1, 2006, the research team led by José Antonio Lorente, forensic physician and director of the Genetic Identification Laboratory of the University of Granada, which studied the skeletal remains attributed to the Admiral that have been in Seville Cathedral since 1898, confirmed that "they are indeed those of Christopher Columbus." This statement is based on the study of the DNA compared with that of his younger brother Diego and with that of his son Hernando.

According to the research team's studies, it was determined that Christopher Columbus was

male, between 50 and 70 years old, with no signs of pathology, without osteoporosis and with some cavities. Mediterranean, moderately robust and of medium height.

It is still hoped that the authorities of the Dominican Republic will allow the study of the remains attributed to the Admiral that are in that country, which would make it possible to complete the story surrounding this question. But this study is no longer decisive for identifying the remains of the discoverer. It is estimated that there may be remains in other places, since those in the Andalusian capital amount to less than 15% of the entire skeleton, so it could turn out that those in Santo Domingo also belong to the discoverer of America.

Accusation of tyranny

Coat of arms granted in 1493 by the Catholic Monarchs to Christopher Columbus.

Coat of arms used motu proprio by the House of Columbus from 1502 onward.

After his first voyage, Christopher Columbus was appointed viceroy and governor of the Indies under the Capitulations of Santa Fe. This included the administration of the colonies on the island of Hispaniola, whose capital was established in Santo Domingo. At the end of his third voyage, Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted: his body afflicted by arthritis and his eyes by ophthalmia. In October 1499, he sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern.

By then, accusations of Columbus's tyranny and incompetence as governor had reached the Court. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand responded by removing Columbus from power and replacing him with Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of Calatrava.

Bobadilla, who was governor from 1500 until 1502, when he died in a storm, had also been charged with investigating the accusations of brutality made against Columbus. When Bobadilla arrived in Santo Domingo, while Columbus was busy with the explorations of his third voyage, he was met with complaints against the three Columbus brothers: Christopher, Bartholomew and Diego. A recently discovered report by Bobadilla asserts that Columbus frequently used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. The 48-page report, found in 2006 in the General Archive of Simancas, contains testimony from 23 people, including enemies and supporters of Columbus, about the treatment by Columbus and his brothers of the colonial subjects during their seven years in power.

According to this report, Columbus punished a man guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off, and then selling him as a slave. The testimonies recorded in the report assert that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartholomew for "defending the family" when the latter ordered that a woman be forced to parade naked in public and that her tongue be cut out for suggesting that Columbus was of low birth. The document also described the way in which Columbus controlled the discontent and revolt of the natives. First, he ordered a brutal crackdown in which the natives were killed and then their dismembered bodies were paraded through the streets in an attempt to discourage any further rebellion.

"Columbus's government was characterized by a form of tyranny," states Consuelo Varela Bueno, a Spanish historian who studied and published the documents. "Even those who admired him [Columbus] had to admit the atrocities that had taken place." Varela Bueno states in the prologue of her book that "The historiography that has been preserved for us until now is solely and exclusively the one that favored him," and as a result of her research she concludes that "Columbus, despite his greatness, is not a likable figure. Now he is even less so."

Bartolomé de las Casas wrote that when he arrived on Hispaniola in 1508 there were, counting all the Indians, more than 60,000 people living on the island, so that from 1494 to 1508 around three million Indians would have died in the wars, from slavery or from labor in the mines, and he concluded by exclaiming: "This, who among those born in the centuries to come will believe it? I myself who write it, and saw it, and know most of it, now it seems to me that it was not possible." The death tolls given by Las Casas have been considered implausible by the American historians John Tate Lanning and Philip Wayne Powell, the Argentine Enrique Díaz Araujo and the Spaniard Elvira Roca Barea. Demographic studies such as those carried out on colonial Mexico by Sherburne F. Cook in the mid-20th century suggested that the decline in the first years of the conquest was indeed drastic, ranging between 80 and 90%, due to many different causes, all of them, however, ultimately attributable to the arrival of the Europeans. The main and overwhelming cause was the disease introduced by the Europeans. Various historians have also pointed out that exaggeration and inflation of figures was the norm in 16th-century accounts, and both the contemporary detractors and supporters of Las Casas were guilty of similar exaggerations.

The government of the Columbus brothers on Hispaniola did not meet the expectations of the Catholic Monarchs. From the very beginning, the position of Queen Isabella I of Castile herself was clear in defending the equality of the Indians, her subjects of the New World, and the Spaniards, her subjects of the Old World. The aggressions against natives and the sale of some of them as slaves were a disobedience of the express orders of Queen Isabella the Catholic, who had made clear her will that the natives be treated as subjects of Castile, and therefore as free men. What would exhaust the patience of the Spanish Crown was the report of Mosén Margarit before the court, in which he set out the crimes of Christopher Columbus, who was accused of being a bad administrator and an authoritarian leader, in addition to its being established that he had personally captured 1,600 natives (of whom 400 Indians were freed, but revealing a fear of the Spanish conquistadors that would sadden and anger Isabella the Catholic).

For this reason, Columbus was arrested after his third voyage and sent in chains before the Queen by the investigating judge Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus's behavior did not correspond to that which Spain set forth in its laws, although distance, among other reasons, fostered conduct toward the natives similar to that of Columbus, which was denounced by Friar Bartolomé de las Casas and condemned by the New Laws. Columbus and his brothers were in prison for six weeks before King Ferdinand ordered their release. Shortly afterward, the King and the Queen summoned Columbus and his brothers to the palace of the Alhambra in Granada. There, the monarchs listened to the brothers' pleas, restored their freedom and wealth to them, and after much persuasion agreed to finance Columbus's fourth voyage. However, Columbus never regained his role as governor, which at that time was assumed by Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, the new Governor of the West Indies.

Moreover, in the eyes of his contemporaries, Columbus fell into such disrepute with the monarchy that Spanish society treated Columbus's sons and relatives with spite when they walked through the streets, above all those who were related to the Spanish explorers who lost their lives or fell into disgrace because of the voyages to America, accusing Columbus and company of being "unjust people, cruel enemies and the cause of the shedding of Spanish blood."

"There go the sons of the admiral of the mosquitoes, he who has discovered the lands of vanity and illusion, the grave and the ruin of the Castilian gentlemen!"

Posterity

The vessels of Columbus's first voyage, in an 1892 engraving by the German Gustav Adolf Closs

Formation of the myth

In the 16th and 17th centuries several views of Columbus coexisted. One of them, favored by the Hispanic Monarchy, was the providentialist view, which saw Columbus as the instrument chosen by God to reveal the New World to (European) Humanity and to place it in the hands of the Catholic Monarchs. The foremost exponent of this view was Antonio de Herrera, who drew on the biography written by Hernando Colón and on the unpublished manuscripts of Bartolomé de las Casas. The first great play devoted to the figure also dates from this period: written by Lope de Vega, it presents him as an envoy of God. In Spain's rival powers, by contrast, the Columbian discovery was attributed to mere good luck (for example, by the British Daniel Defoe in 1725), or emphasis was laid on the crimes perpetrated by Columbus against the natives (the French Abbé Raynal, 1770).

In 1777, the Scotsman William Robertson introduced a new perspective: that of Columbus as a man of science, a genius ahead of his time. Robertson believed in the view of history put forward by earlier Scottish authors such as Adam Smith, who held that every human society advances through a series of levels of civilization, from the most primitive, that of the hunter, to that of herding, then to that of agriculture, and finally to the "commercial" stage. For Robertson, Columbus had been the culmination of a series of explorations that carried Europe from the agricultural phase to the commercial phase of History. This heroic and enlightened view of Columbus was very well received in the newly independent United States, which fused it with the female figure of Liberty to give rise to Columbia, a personification that became one of the symbols of the new republic as well as the name of the district of the federal capital in 1791.

In 1825 the Spanish historian Martín Fernández de Navarrete published the first volume of a collection of archival documents essential for understanding the reality of Columbus, his voyages and the discovery of America in general. The American ambassador to Spain hired the writer Washington Irving to translate Navarrete's work into English. Irving, however, preferred to use that information to compose a fictionalized history, projecting onto Columbus the ideals of the discoverer of the era of Romanticism, personified at the time by Alexander von Humboldt. To this end Irving did not hesitate to add invented episodes when it suited him, for example a nonexistent debate in Salamanca between the "scientist" Columbus and some obscurantist clergymen who maintained that the Earth was flat; or to denigrate Columbus's crewmen and companions, whom he branded a "dissolute rabble." Irving's work was an enormous bestseller, translated into six other languages including Spanish, and it defined the view of Columbus that endured until at least the mid-20th century, and was reflected in film productions such as 1492, la Conquista del Paraíso.

Legacy

Colombia, or "land of Christopher Columbus," a country named in honor of the Discoverer.

Lighthouse in tribute to Christopher Columbus in Santo Domingo.

The historical judgment

As a result of the revolution brought about by the discovery of America led by Christopher Columbus, his figure and his name, as well as its variants, appear in numerous places and also in the arts, culture and education. A country, states, cities, schools, streets and parks bear his name, and he is honored with sculptures and monuments, so that the figure of Columbus has become a worldwide icon. Novels and stories have been written about his life, and musical pieces and dramatic works for both the theater and the cinema have been composed. There was an attempt from within the Catholic hierarchy to canonize him as a "propagator of the faith."

The practically unanimous admiration for Christopher Columbus during the 19th century reached its culmination in 1892, when the Fourth Centenary of his inaugural voyage was commemorated, understood, in the context of the Second Industrial Revolution and the rise of colonialism, as a milestone of civilization. The few critical voices avoided focusing on his figure and laid the evils of the conquest on the Spanish and Portuguese (to a lesser extent on the French and English), presenting Columbus as an explorer and a champion of scientific thought. In connection with this idea, the myth of a medieval belief in a Flat Earth, which Columbus had supposedly defied with his voyage, became entrenched.

In the 20th century, this unanimity in the admiration of Columbus disappeared when his actions were placed in relation to the historical processes they set in motion, especially the Conquest of America. For this reason some researchers and popularizers of history questioned Columbus as a representative of Eurocentrism and cultural imperialism, while others preferred to stress that, as a man of his time, he acted in accordance with values and a belief system different from those of later centuries.

Commemorations

In various countries the Columbian landing in America on October 12, 1492, is commemorated, an initiative that was formulated around the celebrations of the Fourth Centenary of the Discovery. In Spain this date has been adopted as the National Day of Spain (until 1987 also called Día de la Hispanidad), and various countries of Latin America celebrate it, or celebrated it, under the name of Día de la Raza in the context of the affirmation of identity of the early 20th century. It was thus adopted as part of their calendar of civic holidays by Argentina (a pioneer from 1917 until 2010, when it changed its name), Venezuela (between 1921 and 2002), Mexico (since 1928) and Chile (since 1931). In the United States, October 12 is commemorated under the name of Columbus Day.

Plaque in tribute to Christopher Columbus on the Fifth Centenary of his death. It is placed on the wall of a modern building occupying the site where the Franciscan convent once stood in Valladolid.

The rise of national liberation movements from the 1960s and 1970s onward, the appearance of new anthropological concepts of culture and civilization, the critique of colonialism and neocolonialism, and the emergence of a historiography based on the study of social processes rather than events, and on collective rather than individual agency, led to the questioning of the idea of "discovery" and of Columbus's own actions, especially as the one who began the conquest of America. Once the biased ideas of the Black Legend and the Pink Legend had been overcome, two views of this process appeared around the Fifth Centenary. One of them focused on the later developments and preferred to regard it as an "encounter," not free of conflict, between two worlds, during which, beginning with Columbus, knowledge of the world was completed and the foundations were laid for a global civilization interconnected by trade and culture. The other held that the processes of colonial domination were still in force, both from the developed world and within postcolonial societies, and that contempt for indigenous peoples in America and Europe and the asymmetry in relations between the developed world and the Third World were the consequence of what had happened since October 12, 1492; for this interpretation, therefore, "there is nothing to celebrate," and the date should be commemorated rather than celebrated.

Whereas the Fourth Centenary Celebration in 1892 had been an apotheosis of Columbus, the festivities of the Fifth Centenary in 1992 were held under the title "Encounter of Two Worlds," agreed upon at UNESCO with the approval of all the governments involved, which took the spotlight away from Columbus as well as avoiding the controversial term "discovery." Nevertheless, the celebrations were rejected as a "new conquest" by indigenous movements, left-wing parties in some countries and other organizations. In the United States, where "Columbus Day" was a date devoted to celebrating the European (above all Italian) heritage and the daring of the Genoese, there were no major celebrations in 1992. That country's National Council of Churches declared that it was not a day for celebration but for "reflection and repentance."

From the 21st century onward, some left-wing Ibero-American and Spanish governments began officially to question the celebration of October 12. Thus in 2002 the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, in keeping with so-called Bolivarian thought, changed the name from Día de la Raza to Day of Indigenous Resistance. Likewise the National Indian Council, representing the 36 Venezuelan indigenous ethnic groups, requested that the statues of Christopher Columbus be removed and replaced with statues of the cacique Guaicaipuro, who resisted the Spanish conquest. That same day a group of indigenous activists toppled the statue of Columbus located in Caracas.

In 2007, a variant of that same name, Day of Indigenous, Black and Popular Resistance, was adopted by Nicaragua, and in 2017 the Parliament of Navarre also commemorated October 12 as the Day of Indigenous Resistance.

In Argentina, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner changed by decree, in 2010, the name of Día de la Raza to Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity, on the recommendation of INADI, in keeping with the conception that races do not exist and with the aim of making it a "...day of historical reflection and intercultural dialogue." In 2013, the relocation of the Monument to Christopher Columbus (a gift from the Italian community commemorating the Argentine Centennial) located behind the Casa Rosada generated some controversy.

Toponymy

As regards toponymy, the name of Columbus is widely used, mainly in America. One American country, Colombia, owes its name to the Admiral, as does its highest mountain, Cristóbal Colón Peak; as do various regions, cities and rivers, for example Columbus in Ohio (United States) or the City of Colón in Panama, as well as the province of the same name. In the United States the form Columbia was adopted above all, a fusion of the heroic ideal of Columbus with the female figure of Liberty, for example in Columbia (South Carolina), the District of Columbia, where the federal capital Washington, D.C. is located, the Columbia River, or the Canadian province of British Columbia.

In Argentina there are two cities named Colón, one in Buenos Aires Province and another in Entre Ríos. In Cuba there is also a city named Colón, in Matanzas Province, as well as the country's main cemetery: the Christopher Columbus Necropolis in Havana. There are also Puerto Colón, in Paraguay; Ciudad Colón, in Costa Rica; Colón, in Mexico; San Juan de Colón, in Venezuela; and San Marcos de Colón in Honduras. Likewise, the archipelago of the Galápagos Islands, belonging to Ecuador, officially bears the name "Archipiélago de Colón" (Columbus Archipelago).

In Spain, specifically in the province of Huelva, there is the historic-artistic route of the "Columbian Sites" (Lugares colombinos), centered on the figure of Columbus, the Pinzón brothers and the events surrounding the discovery. It was declared a historic-artistic ensemble of the province in 1967.

The egg of Columbus

Main article: Egg of Columbus

The DLE defines the egg of Columbus (huevo de Colón) as: "A thing that appears to be very difficult but turns out to be easy once its trick is known." The origin of this saying is related to an anecdote published by Girolamo Benzoni in the book History of the New World (Venice, 1565). It places us in a game between Columbus and a group of noblemen. In response to a question about the discovery, Columbus asked for an egg and invited the noblemen to try to make the egg stand upright on its own. The noblemen were unable to keep the egg upright, and when it came back into his hands, Columbus struck the egg against the table, cracking it slightly and allowing the egg to stand. Although this anecdote is probably a legend, it has become very popular.

Theater, film and television

In 1614 Lope de Vega wrote El nuevo mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón, the first great play devoted to the character of Columbus, in which he is presented as an envoy of God.

In the first two decades of the 20th century three films titled Christopher Columbus were made, directed by Vincent Lorant-Heilbronn (1904), Emiliano Fontana (1910) and Gérard Bourgeois (1917). All three emphasized Columbus's supposed Christian missionary character. In the same hagiographic vein is the experimental play published in 1933 by Paul Claudel, a markedly Catholic French author, under the title Le livre de Christophe Colomb.

The first great film devoted to Columbus was made in 1949 by the British David MacDonald. Titled Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in the Spanish version), it was notable for Fredric March's performance in the leading role. The next super-productions on the same subject did not come until the Fifth Centenary of the Discovery, in 1992, when two films were released within a few months of each other. The first was Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, directed by John Glen and starring George Corraface. It was followed by 1492: Conquest of Paradise, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Gérard Depardieu. Both films were judged mediocre by the critics.

Francisco Rabal during the filming of the television series Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo, 1968), directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

Other theater, film and television works centered on Columbus:

• Christophe Colomb by Michel de Ghelderode (1929), a satirical farce.
• Alba de América (1951), directed by Juan de Orduña, starring Antonio Vilar.
• Christopher Columbus (1968), a television series directed by Vittorio Cottafavi, starring Francisco Rabal.
• Cristóbal Colón de oficio... descubridor (1982), a parody of the Discoverer's life directed by Mariano Ozores, starring Andrés Pajares.
• Christopher Columbus (1985), a television series directed by Alberto Lattuada, with Gabriel Byrne in the leading role.
• Réquiem por Granada (1990), a television series by Vicente Escrivá, with Juanjo Puigcorbé playing Columbus.
• Once Upon a Time... The Americas (1991), a French animated television series by Albert Barillé.
• Carry On Columbus (1992), a comedy.
• Christopher Columbus, the Enigma (2007), a documentary directed by Manoel de Oliveira on the possible Portuguese origin of Columbus.

Painting

Main article: List of paintings of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (1865), by Carl Theodor von Piloty.

Music

• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): Il Colombo ovvera L'India scoperta, the first known opera about Columbus, premiered in Italy (1690).
• Vincenzo Fabrici: Il Colombo, o La Scoperta delle Indie, opera (1788).
• Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach (grandson of Johann Sebastian Bach) (1759-1845): Columbus oder Die Entdeckung Amerikas, cantata.
• Francesco Morlacchi (1784-1841): Colombo, opera (1828).
• Ramón Carnicer (1789-1855): Cristóforo Colombo, opera, on an Italian text by Felice Romani (1829).
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848): Cristoforo Colombo, opera.
• Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889): Cristoforo Colombo, opera premiered at the Gran Teatro de La Habana in Cuba (1848).
• Theodor Apel (1811-1867): Columbus, drama.
• Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Overture for Theodor Apel's drama Columbus (WWV 37).
• Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900): Columbus, dramatic cantata.
• Alberto Franchetti (1860-1942): Cristoforo Colombo, opera, one of the best known, premiered in Genoa in commemoration of the Fourth Centenary of the discovery (1892).
• Darius Milhaud (1892-1974): Christophe Colomb, opera based on the work Le livre de Christophe Colomb by the poet Paul Claudel (1930, revised in 1955).
• Werner Egk (1901-1983): Columbus, radio opera (1933).
• Sir William Walton (1902-1983): Christopher Columbus Suite (1942).
• Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): Atlántida, opera (1962).
• Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880): Christopher Columbus, operetta, premiered on the occasion of the bicentennial of the United States of America (1876).
• Philip Glass (1937): The Voyage, opera (1992).
• Karl-Erik Welin (1934-1992): Christofer Columbus (1991).
• Leonardo Balada (1933): Christopher Columbus, opera (1986); Death of Columbus, opera (1996).
• Aquiles Nazoa (1920-1976) / Federico Ruiz (1948): Los martirios de Colón, opera buffa (1993).

Historical literature and fiction

• Rodrigues do Santos, José (2006). El Códice 632 (in español). Barcelona: ROCA EDITORIAL DE LIBROS, S.L. ISBN 9788496544413.
• Piqueras Gómez, Pedro (2006). Colón. A Los Ojos De Beatriz (in español). MR Ediciones. ISBN 978-84-270-3284-2.
• Finley, Robert (2002). Las Indias accidentales (in español). Barcelona: EDICIONES BARATARIA. ISBN 9788495764058.
• Vidal, Miguel Ángel (2008). El Jardí de les Hespèrides (in català). Palma de Mallorca: MOLL. ISBN 9788427321847.
• Marlowe, Stephen (1987). Memorias de Cristóbal Colón (in español). Madrid: Mondadori. ISBN 84-397-1199-9.
• Ferrà i Martorell, Miquel (1983). Memòries secretes de Cristòfor Colom (in català). La Magrana. ISBN 9788474101287.
• López Vergara, María Luisa (1988). No serán las Indias (in español). Tusquets. ISBN 9788472232631.
• Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente (1929). En busca del gran Kan: (Cristóbal Colón) (in español). Editorial Biblioteca Nueva, S.L. ISBN 9788470307034. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Nacher, Enrique (1957). Guanche (in español). Ediciones Destino, S.A. ISBN 9788423303182. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Melero, Luis (2006). Colón: el impostor (in español). Ediciones Temas de Hoy. ISBN 9788484605485.
• Scott Card, Orson (1998). Observadores del pasado: la redención de Cristóbal Colón (in español). Barcelona: Ediciones B. ISBN 8440681194.
• Ruiz Montañez, Miguel (2006). La Tomba de Colom. Barcelona: EDICIONES B. ISBN 84-666-3041-4.
• Levinas, Marcelo Leonardo (2001). El último crimen de Colón (in español). Buenos Aires: Alfaguara. ISBN 9789505117376.
• Rosset, Edward (2002). Cristóbal Colón: rumbo a Cipango (in español). Barcelona: Edhasa. ISBN 9788435060592.
• Cifuentes, Paula (2005). La ruta de las tormentas (in español). Madrid: Martínez Roca. ISBN 9788427031845.
• Eslava Galán, Juan (2004). El enigma de Colón y los descubrimientos de América (in español). Barcelona: Planeta. ISBN 9788408066798.
• Roa Bastos, Augusto (1992). Vigilia del almirante (in español). Madrid: Alfaguara, D.L. ISBN 9788420481043.
• Reston, James (2007). Los perros de Dios: Colón, la inquisición y la caída de Granada (in español). Barcelona: Destino. ISBN 9788423339181.
• Hiriart, Hugo (2008). La destrucción de todas las cosas (in español). Madrid: Del Taller de Mario Muchnik, cop. ISBN 9788495303738.

Children's and young adult

• Corbella Colón, Felicitas (1997). Mi Padre Don Cristóbal Colón (in español). Illustrator: FERRER, Adán. Zaragoza: Edelvives. ISBN 9788426315298.
• Sierra i Fabra, Jordi (2006). I li van dir Colom (in català). Barcelona: EDEBE. ISBN 9788423681723.
• Molina Llorente, María Isabel. Colón, tras la ruta de poniente (in español). Alfaguara. ISBN 9788420469973.
• Villanes Cairo, Carlos (2005). La otra orilla (in español). Madrid: Anaya. ISBN 9788420744902.
• Villanes Cairo, Carlos (2006). Memorias del segundo viaje de Colón (in español). Madrid: Anaya. ISBN 9788466751797.
• Villanes Cairo, Carlos (2006). El ocaso del gran navegante (in español). Madrid: Anaya. ISBN 9788466753579.
• Plaza Plaza, José María (2005). ¡Tierra a la vista!: la historia de Cristóbal Colón (in español). Illustrations by Julius Pozuelo de Alarcón. Madrid: Espasa Calpe. ISBN 9788467019575.
• Baumann, Hans (1958). El hijo de Colón (in español). Barcelona: Herder, cop.

Comics

• El quinto centenario.

Monuments dedicated to Columbus

Commemorative medal for the erection of a statue of Christopher Columbus in Cárdenas (Cuba).

Main article: Monuments to Columbus around the world

Philately and numismatics

Stamps

El Salvador:

• 1892 - Face value 5 ctvs. - Landing of Columbus

Ecuador:

• 1992 - Face value 400 sucres - America and Columbus

Spain:

• 1943 - Face value 5 cts. - 450th Anniversary of Columbus's arrival in Barcelona.
• 1992 - Face value 60 ptas. - Columbus and the discovery
• 1992 - Face value 60 ptas. - Columbus and the discovery
• 1992 - Face value 60 ptas. - Columbus and the discovery
• 1992 - Face value 60 ptas. - Columbus and the discovery
• 1992 - Face value 60 ptas. - Columbus and the discovery

Joint issue on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the discovery.

• 1992 - Face value 60 pta. - Columbus and the discovery

France

• 1992 - Face value: 2.5 francs - Christopher Columbus.

Peru:

• 1995 - Face value: 1.50 s. - Landing of Columbus.

Dominican Republic:

• 1900 - Face value 1/2 ctv. - Columbus in Salamanca

Chile:

• 1879 - Face value: 5 ctvs. - Christopher Columbus
• 1881 - Face value: 2 ctvs. - Christopher Columbus
• 1901 - Face value: 2 ctvs. - Christopher Columbus

Coins

Costa Rica:

• The monetary unit of Costa Rica is called the colón; this currency replaced the former Costa Rican "peso" in 1896. This currency is expressed with the symbol "₡" (a C with two slanted bars).
• 1982 —1500 colones in gold— with the theme: Juan Vázquez de Coronado and Christopher Columbus.

El Salvador:

• Between 1892 and 2004 the monetary unit of El Salvador was the Salvadoran colón, preceded by the "peso" and replaced by the United States dollar. Its code was SVC.

Spain:

• 2006 —12 euros in silver— Commemorating 500 years since the death of Columbus.

San Marino:

• 2006 —2 euros— in commemoration of 500 years since the death of Columbus.

One Salvadoran colón

See also

• Chronology of Christopher Columbus
• Letters announcing the discovery of the Indies
• House of Columbus
• House of Cristoforo Colombo
• Discovery of America
• Pinzón brothers
• Egg of Columbus
• Arrival of humans in the Americas
• Columbus's Book of Copies
• Columbian Sites
• Columbian lawsuits
• Duchy of Veragua
• Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact
• School of Sagres
• Lunar crater Colombo, named in his memory.

Bibliography

• Colón, Cristóbal (1892). Cartas y relaciones (in español). Madrid: Librería de la Viuda de Hernando y C°., [a compilation containing the log of the first voyage, the account of the other voyages, and letters, some of which circulated at the time].
• Quaritch, Bernard (1893). Carta de Cristóbal Colón a Luis de Santángel datada el 15 de febrero de 1493 (PDF) (in español). London: Facsimile edition.
• Colón, Hernando (1892). Historia del almirante Don Cristóbal Colón (in español). Madrid: Imprenta Tomas Minuesa. Volume 1 and Volume 2
• de las Casas, Bartolomé (1875). Historia de las Indias (in español). Madrid: Imprenta de Miguel Ginesta.
• Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo (1851). Historia general y natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano. Primera parte (in español). Madrid: Imprenta de la Real Academia de la Historia.
• López de Gómara, Francisco (1922). Historia General de las Indias (in español). Vol. 1. Calpe.
• Fernández de Navarrete, Martín. Colección de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV: Con varios documentos inéditos concernientes á la historia de la Marina Castellana y de los establecimientos españoles en Indias. Vol. 2 (in español). Imprenta real, 1825.
• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1883). Colón y Pinzón (in español). Real Academia de la Historia.
• Ibarra y Rodríguez, Eduardo (1892). Don Fernando el Católico y el descubrimiento de América (in español). Imprenta de Fortaner, Madrid.
• Irving, Washington (1852). Vida y viajes de Cristóbal Colón (in español). Gaspar y Roig.
• Ortega, Ángel. La Rábida. Historia documental crítica. 4 vol. (Ed. facsímil) (in español). Diputación Provincial de Huelva. Servicio de Publicaciones. ISBN 978-84-500-3860-6.
• Eliot Morison, Samuel (1993) [1942 (original in English)]. El Almirante de la Mar Océano. Vida de Cristóbal Colón (in español) (2nd corrected Spanish edition, 1st reprint ed.). Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
• Diego Fernández, Rafael (1987). Capitulaciones colombinas (1492-1506) (in español). Colegio de Michoacán. ISBN 978-9687-23030-6.
• Manzano y Manzano, Juan; Manzano Fernández-Heredia, Ana María (1988). Los Pinzones y el Descubrimiento de América. 3 vols (in español). Madrid: Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica. ISBN 978-84-7232-442-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Brigham, Kay (1990). Cristóbal Colón: Su vida y descubrimiento a la luz de sus profecías (in español). Editorial Clie. ISBN 9788476454046.
• Losada Castro, Basilio (1990). Cristóbal Colón (in español). Ediciones Rialp. ISBN 9788432126369. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
• Navarro García, Luis (Coord.) (1991). Historia de las Américas. IV Vols. (El volumen que hace referencia al Descubrimiento es el I (in español). Alhambra Longman, Sociedad Estatal para el Quinto Centenario, Universidad de Sevilla. ISBN 84-205-2212-0.
• Fernández Armesto, Felipe (1992). Colón (in español). Editorial Crítica. ISBN 9788474235401.
• Serra Pickman, Carlos (1992). Cristóbal Colón: sus estancias y enterramiento en la cartuja de Sevilla (in español). ISBN 84-7117-051-5.
• Svet, Yakov (1996). Cristóbal Colón (in español). Libresa. ISBN 9789978803776.
• Varela Marcos, Jesús (2005). Colón y Pinzón: descubridores de América (in español). Universidad de Valladolid. ISBN 9788493393809.
• Varela, Consuelo (2006). La caída de Cristóbal Colón. El juicio de Bobadilla (in español). Madrid: Editorial Marcial Pons. ISBN 84-96467-28-7.
• Arranz Márquez, Luis (2006). Cristóbal Colón: misterio y grandeza (in español). Marcial Pons Historia. ISBN 9788496467231.
• Díaz-Trechuelo Spínola, María Lourdes (2006). Cristóbal Colón (in español) (Second ed.). Ediciones Palabra. ISBN 9788498400205.
• Sánchez González, Antonio (2006). El Puerto de Santa María como alternativa del viaje de Descubrimiento (in español). El Puerto de Santa María: Ayuntamiento. ISBN 84-89141-90-8.
• Verlinden, Charles; Pérez-Embid, Florentino (2006). Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América (in español). Ediciones Rialp. ISBN 978-84-321-3585-9. Archived from the original on April 23, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2009.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• González Cruz, David (coord.) and other authors (2012). Descubridores de América, Colón, los marinos y los puertos (in español). Huelva: Sílex ediciones. ISBN 978-84-7737-739-9.
• Colón de Carvajal, Anunciada; Chocano, Guadalupe (1992). Cristóbal Colón: incógnitas de su muerte 1506-1902. Primeros almirantes de las indias (in español). Vol. 2. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
• Díaz Araujo, Enrique (1995). Las Casas, visto de costado: crítica bibliográfica sobre la leyenda negra (in español). Fundación Francisco Elías de Tejada y Erasmo Pèrcopo. ISBN 84-920739-0-X.
• Wayne Powell, Philip (1972). Árbol de odio (in español). Madrid: Ediciones José Porrúa Turanzas S. A.

External links

• Viajes de Cristóbal Colón on the Internet Archive
• Portal on Christopher Columbus at the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
• Biografía de Cristóbal Colón: Vida y Obra MundoHistoria
• El almirante del Mar Océano Archived October 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine (in French)
• V Centenario del Fallecimiento de Cristóbal Colón (Fifth Centenary of the Death of Christopher Columbus)
• Columbus House Museum of Gran Canaria
• Luengo, O., Gonzalo A., 2006, Árbol Genealógico de parte de la nobleza europea, which explains the descent of Christopher Columbus down to the present day.
• La vida de Cristóbal Colón (The life of Christopher Columbus)
• Statements made by Don Cristóbal, Don Diego and Don Bartolomé Colón regarding their nationality
• Cristóbal Colón, episode of the TVE series Paisaje con figuras.