Christopher Columbus and the Discover of America

They were times of discovery. The new caravels looked like the safest ships you could think of. Together with the newly invented compass and the sextant, they urged sailors to venture into the seas. On the other hand, in 1453, the Turks entered Constantinople (and since then they called it Istanbul), closing the Mediterranean for trade with the Indies. This event represented a blow to the European kingdoms, as it meant the consolidation of a powerful empire that controlled part of the Mediterranean Sea and even represented a threat to them.

Closure of trade routes

In addition to seizing Constantinople, the Turks closed the path of European merchants who sought to acquire goods from the East and established strict control over these products. From that moment, finding a new route to the Indies became a vital necessity. Portugal already had much invested looking for the route to the Indies traveling east, bordering the coast of Africa, where they had even found some gold. Travel to India was a very good business, they gave profits of 1,000 percent. But investing in looking for the road to the Indies traveling to the West was very risky. Historians investigate who financed the first trip of Columbus. Queen Isabel had already spent all her jewels in the war to drive the Moors out of Spain. The historian Salvador de Madariaga mentions two important loans from new Christians, one from the Pinz?n family, another from the Sanngel bank.

The historian Cecil Roth also found other loans to the kings of Spain before the first trip of Columbus, the Genoese bankers Spinola, Di Negri and Berardi. The Genoese were not descendants of converts, but they liked to invest in maritime discovery companies. The Discovery of America is a historical event that has marked the history of both Spain and America. It is also called "the meeting of two worlds". It was on October 12, 1492, when Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, discovered a new continent without realizing it.During the time of Christopher Columbus, fifteenth century it was believed that there was only one way to reach the Asian continent.

Christopher Columbus, as a child, was always interested in geography, navigation, maps and other aspects that made Columbus curious to discover another way to reach the East Indies and find great wealth. The idea of Columbus was that, because the Earth was round, it could reach the west. He presented his plan to the King of Portugal, but he rejected it, saying that he demanded too much. Columbus did not give up, he was still looking for a way for someone to support him with his trip. The friar Juan Porez, who had a lot of influence with the Catholic Monarchs in Spain, helped them give him financial help for his trip.

Finally, on April 17, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs and Christopher Columbus signed "The Capitulations of Santa Fe "And Columbus begins to prepare his fleets to start the expedition. Colon had everything ready, 3 boats that I baptize" La Nia "," La Pinta "and" La Santa Mara "the only thing they needed were sailors to accompany him and they will help him during the trip. Colon needs at least sixty men, eighty would be even better and one hundred would be ideal. And, to be able to be, not novice sailors but men with experience. But since the proclamation of the decree of the Queen in the Church of St. George Martyr, the men of sticks remain on the defensive; nobody wants to accompany him.Everyone is afraid to trust that stranger whose fantastic ideas circulate all kinds of rumors.

Finally, Columbus was able to get his crew. Around 100 sailors decided to be part of the expedition. Many of them were afraid, others worried about their families, fearing never to return. The trip began on August 3, 1942, and it was until October 12 when the sailor Rodrigo de Triana shouted "Tierra!". They disembarked on an island, baptized by Columbus as San Salvador. They had reached the American continent but Columbus thought it was the West Indies. They were surprised by the attitude that the so-called "Indians" had with the Spaniards. The navigator Marco Polo had mentioned that in the Indies there were very civilized people, great palaces and a lot of wealth. But, because Columbus did not know it was a new continent, everything he saw did not make much sense with what he had already heard.

For Christopher Columbus, it was a great "Cultural Shock" to get to a new place, new people very different from the Spaniards, they wore little clothes and spoke a language they did not understand at all. For the same reason that it was something completely different from what he was used to, it was hard for him to adapt. Columbus ordered six men to be loaded into the boat where they were going to visit the new islands, and they had to learn four phrases in Spanish and serve as interpreters and explorers in other islands.Columbus and the other navigators continued to explore the new island discovered by sailing on the rafts built by the natives. They guided the Spaniards and they were getting to know the different Islands. Columbus always thought that he was in China and when the Indians showed them the places where there was gold, he thought that some king lived nearby and that's why there were so many riches. But as they advance, Columbus and the sailors realize that there was no gold and needed him to take it to the queen and to pay him what he gave her for his expedition.

After continuing touring different islands such as Hispaniola, today is known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic until finally arriving in Cuba, where the Indians said that they would find gold there. During their trip, Columbus was getting to know the Indians more. He tried to adapt to his way of life and realized they were good people. In all the islands, and always according to Columbus, the inhabitants seem hospitable, happy and innocent. So in their huts hang some things of spun cotton and nets in which they slept what they called hammocks. But even though the Europeans admired the simplicity of the Indians, they were worried, upset and offended. Innocence never ceases to offend, never stops inviting the attack, and the Indians seemed the most innocent people anyone has ever seen.

Without the help of Christianity or civilization, they had achieved virtues that Europeans liked to think were the right result of Christianity and civilization. The fury with which the Spaniards assaulted the Arawaks even after enslaving them must surely have been in part a blind impulse to crush an innocence that seemed to negate the Europeans' prized assumption of their own civilized and Christian superiority over barbarous nudes and pagans. After several days of being on different islands, Christopher Columbus decides to return to Spain to tell the Catholic Monarchs about his arrival in the Indies.

Thanks to the trip of Columbus they begin to develop different trips but never one like the first one. Christopher Columbus, for his great interest in wanting to show the world that there were different ways to get to the Indies, discovered a new continent. At first, everything was different. Nothing coincided with what he had been told about the Indies. Christopher Columbus died on May 19, 1506, in the city of Valladolid in Spain without knowing that he had discovered a new continent.

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