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KF5JRV > TODAY 20.05.19 13:42l 98 Lines 5562 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 36669_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - May 20
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190520/1138Z 36669@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On May 20, 1506, the great Italian explorer Christopher Columbus dies in
Valladolid, Spain. Columbus was the first European to explore the
Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland
in the 10th century. He explored the West Indies, South America, and
Central America, but died a disappointed man, feeling he had been
mistreated by his patron, King Ferdinand of Spain.
Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early
life, but he worked as a seaman and then a sailing entrepreneur. He
became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route
to Cathay (China), India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.
At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and
the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the
Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. Contrary to popular legend,
educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was
round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However,
Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating
that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the
globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).
With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the
riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal
and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,ö as he
called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also
rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However,
after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January
1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his
voyage.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small
ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. On October 12, the
expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and
went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. Later that month,
Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in
December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought
might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men.
The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indianö captives
in March 1493, and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish
court. He was given the title “admiral of the ocean sea,ö and a second
expedition was promptly organized.
Fitted out with a large fleet of 17 ships, with 1,500 colonists aboard,
Columbus set out from Cadiz in September 1493 on his second voyage to
the New World. Landfall was made in the Lesser Antilles in November.
Returning to Hispaniola, he found the men he left there slaughtered by
the natives, and he founded a second colony. Sailing on, he explored
Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and numerous smaller islands in the Caribbean.
Columbus returned to Spain in June 1496 and was greeted less warmly, as
the yield from the second voyage had fallen well short of its costs.
Isabella and Ferdinand, still greedy for the riches of the East, agreed
to a smaller third voyage and instructed Columbus to find a strait to
India. In May 1498, Columbus left Spain with six ships, three filled
with colonists and three with provisions for the colony on Hispaniola.
This time, he made landfall on Trinidad. He entered the Gulf of Paria in
Venezuela and planted the Spanish flag on South America. By the scope of
the Orinoco River in Venezuela, he realized he had stumbled upon another
continent, which Columbus, a deeply religious man, decided after careful
thought was the outer regions of the Garden of Eden.
Returning to Hispaniola, he found that conditions on the island had
deteriorated under the rule of his brothers, Diego and Bartholomew.
Columbus’ efforts to restore order were marked by brutality, and his
rule came to be deeply resented by both the colonists and the native
Taino chiefs. In 1500, Spanish chief justice Francisco de Bobadilla
arrived at Hispaniola, sent by Isabella and Ferdinand to investigate
complaints, and Columbus and his brother were sent back to Spain in
chains.
He was immediately released upon his return, and Ferdinand and Isabella
agreed to finance a fourth voyage in which he was to search for the
earthly paradise and the realms of gold said to lie nearby. He was also
to continue looking for a passage to India. In May 1502, Columbus left
Cadiz on his fourth and final voyage to the New World. After returning
to Hispaniola against his patron’s wishes, he explored the coast of
Central America looking for a strait and for gold. Attempting to return
to Hispaniola, his ships, in poor condition, had to be beached on
Jamaica. Columbus and his men were marooned, but two of his captains
succeed in canoeing the 450 miles to Hispaniola. Columbus was a castaway
on Jamaica for a year before a rescue ship arrived.
In November 1504, Columbus returned to Spain. Queen Isabella, his chief
patron, died less than three weeks later. Although Columbus enjoyed a
substantial revenue from Hispaniola gold during the last years of his
life, he repeatedly attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain an audience with
King Ferdinand, whom he felt owed him further redress. Columbus died on
May 20, 1506, without realizing the great scope of his achievement: He
had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next
century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on
earth.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.COM
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