Spanish navigator of Genoese origin. Christophe Colomb, in Italian Cristoforo Colombo; in Spanish Cristobal Colón.
Breton, Basque or Scandinavian sailors had already accosted in the north of America, at Newfoundland or Labrador; the Dieppois Jean Cousin had, one says, approached with the mouth of the Amazon since 1488; but one had derived from these voyages neither profit nor teaching.
Colomb, on the faith of charts planispheres representing the image which the Middle Ages were made of the world, accepted the possibility of reaching by the west, through only one relatively narrow ocean, the Eastern Indies and Cipango, Japan of Marco Polo.
It was pushed there by a singular mixes considerations geographical and astronomical it was convinced of the sphericity of the Earth -, of practical interest - to get to its silent partners, Portugal then Spain, a new road of spices -, and personnel - to make fortune. Lastly, he believed come time to carry out certain prophecies of the Writing. He was thus not involved, but it is possible that it wanted to devote part of the richnesses that he would withdraw his discoveries with a new crusade to take again Jerusalem with the Turks.
A project lengthily considered
The youth of Christophe Colomb is badly known, difficult to recall with exactitude because two rather contradictory accounts relating to it coexist: the first of one of his/her sons, Fernando Colomb, the second of Bartolomé de Las Put, son of a companion of the navigator and historian of the Spanish conquest in America. Fernando Colomb affirmed that his/her father would very early have been attracted by navigation and the cartography; he insisted on the scholarship of his father and sought to show that its discovery was of nothing the fruit chance. Las Casas also ensured him that Colomb was, while embarking, “certain to discover what he discovered”, but he showed himself more critical on his talents of governor.
Cristoforo Colombo, according to his Italian name, resulted from a modest family, son of Tisserand and Tisserand itself until the beginning of the year 1470. But Colomb was not satisfied with the narrow horizon which offered to him artisanal work, and it wished to launch out in the remote trade; also he on behalf of the commercial and banking firm of Centurioni travelled soon, participant in voyages at sea of North, towards Iceland perhaps - that it approached - and towards the African coasts. In 1477, it went to Lisbon, which was then the city pionnière voyages discoveries, and also the best port to find ships and financing. It there Maria with Felipa Perestrello, whose father was captain. Colomb will inherit its charts and documents.
As of this time, Colomb read much, and it was familiar of some old authors, such Pierre d'Ailly, who, in her Imago mundi, defended the idea of the rotundity of the Earth. Colomb believed whereas the ocean separating Europe from the Indies was not very broad, and it formed little by little the project to cross it.
The first voyage (1492-1493)
Colomb proposed initially its project with the Portuguese, who, having discovered the road of the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, rejected it; it negotiated then with Spain of the catholic Kings. The talks lasted nearly four years; Colomb was shown without scruples, claiming the title of admiral, the viceroyalty of the grounds discovered and a tenth of the possible richnesses. In order to carry out its company, undoubtedly more opportunist than sincere if one judges of it by the treatment that it subjected the natives, gave to its project a turning religious, suitable to like Colomb the catholic Kings: he insisted on the company of evangelization. He had also received the support of powerful characters, like the duke of Celi Medina, which took part in the financing of the voyage.
Capitulations of Santa Fe
The project of Colomb arrived at one crucial moment of the history of Spain, its Annum mirabile, because 1492 are a “marvellous year” from the point of view of the catholic Kings: on January 2nd, Grenade falls and the Moslems are driven out Iberian peninsula, then the Jews are expelled by it at the end of March. Isabelle the Catholic can thus believe that the role of Spain was nothing less than to evangelize the world. Pushed by Isabelle II, king Ferdinand accepted, by the capitulations of Santa Fe signed in April 1492, to arm with the ships for Colomb and to confer to him the title of viceroy of the grounds to be discovered.
The discovery
On August 3rd, 1492, in charge of a flotilla of three caravels, Santa María, Boozed it and Niña, Colomb embarked with the port of Palos and set sail towards the west. After a stopover in the Canaries, where one had to repair a rudder, the three ships sprang towards the ocean. Colomb, which underestimated its width, not seeing the ground coming, adulterated its calculations to let accept its crew which it controlled his road; the pilots of the boats made, them, of divergent calculations; all were let mislead by plants which derived coming from grounds which the sailors thought of being close. On several occasions, the crew was at the edge of the mutiny, but Colomb managed to calm the spirits. On October 12th, 1492, a shore was reached: Colomb then believed to have approached in the Indies, but it was actually the island of Guanahani (which he baptized San Salvador), in the Bahamas.
A contact was then made with the natives, but, not finding neither gold nor richnesses, Colomb continued its voyage, discovered Cuba - whose natives offered tobacco - then Haiti, which he baptized of the name of Hispaniola; it establishes a garrison on a site baptized Navidad. In January 1493, pushed by the bad condition of the caravels, the sailors took the way of the return, which was marked by terrible storms, and approached in Portugal in March.
The second voyage (1493-1496)
The reception in Spain was triumphal, although the brought back richnesses were thin. Equipped from now on considerable means, Colomb set out again, on on September 25th, 1493, in charge of seventeen ships. He baptized new islands of the names of Dominique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico. In Navidad, Colomb discovered that the garrison had been decimated by syphilis and that the relations with the natives had been degraded considerably. Discovering the anthropophagy of the local populations, Colomb made use of it like pretexts to justify their setting in slavery, which was to make it possible to evangelize them. The richnesses were still not there, and Colomb returned to Seville in June 1496.
The third voyage (1498-1500)
Colomb set out again with six caravels. It is at the time of this new tour that he recognized the coasts - already reached by Jean Cabot - of Venezuela, with the mouth of Orénoque which he took for a river resulting from the terrestrial Paradise, because he did not manage to represent it like resulting from the Indies; he did not imagine either that another continent was between Europe and, precisely, these Indies from which he thought of having reached an unknown area.
Colomb had had to overcome many criticisms: one reproached him the absence of profitability of his company, but also the setting in slavery of the natives. It had indeed instituted the repartimiento, system of distribution of the natives between the Spanishs which developed thereafter in the Spanish colonies in the form of the encomienda. The repartimiento involved a high mortality of the natives, due at the same time to the forced labor, the insufficiency of food and the rupture of the tribal and family life; the epidemics settled - measles and variola in particular - and the suicides became frequent.
In Hispaniola, the Spanish colonists fought between them, and Colomb managed only with difficulty to restore the order. The catholic Kings sent an investigator, Francisco de Bobadilla, which made put Colomb at irons and returned it to Spain where it arrived on on November 25th, 1500. Not only it had to justify absence of gold in the islands, but also to be explained on the traffic of slaves whom it had set in motion towards Spain, and which seemed contrary then upon the first engagements. He however managed to find some credit, lost his title of viceroy while preserving that of admiral, which enabled him to leave fourth once.
The last voyage (1502-1504)
With four caravels, Colomb explored the coasts of Honduras of 1502 to 1504, but still did not find gold discounted. It did not understand that it skirted a new continent. He was locked up then in mystical considerations, judging the envoy of God while bitterly regretting the ingratitude of its silent partners. Lastly, it returned to Spain in November 1504.
Colomb, patient, died in Valladolid on on May 20th, 1506. In 1541, its body was transported to Saint-Domingue to be buried there.
- One will find on the site dedicated to Christophe Colomb “the Admiral of the Sea Océane” a bunch of information on the navigator: a chronology, a detailed biography, portraits of Colomb, its voyages, its ships, places in keeping with Colomb, a documentation and bonds.