Cristoforo Colombo

[Sailor Steve]

Today is the 520th anniversary of the European introduction to the Americas by Christopher Columbus. Most people know the name, but how many know about the man or his voyages to the 'New World'.

Here is a brief history of the exploration that led to the modern American countries.

In the year 1418 the Infante Dom Henrique of Portugal (Prince Henry the Navigator) sponsored an expedition led by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira. They discovered the island of Porto Santo. Some time before 1420 they also discovered Madeira.

In 1427 the Açores (Azores) Islands were rediscovered by either Portuguese captain Diogo des Silves or Gonçalves Velho. The islands had appeared in the Catalan Atlas of 1375, but were not explored at that time.

Around 1430 Prince Henrique set up a conservatory for exploration at Vilo do Infante, near Sagres, Cape St Vincent. From there Henrique funded voyages of exploration southward in an attempt to bypass the overland African trade routes controlled by the Moors.

1434: After several failed attempts, Portuguese mariner Gil Eanes rounded Cape Bojador, the the first obstacle in getting around Africa.

1444: Portuguese captain Dinis Dias reached Cabo Verde, the western-most point of Africa and site of the present-day city of Dakar.

1460: Prince Henry the Navigator died.

1469: Princes Isabel of Castille married King Fernando II of Aragon.

1472: Portuguese captain Ruy de Sequeira discovered the village of Eko renamed it Lago de Curamo, today the city of Lagos, Nigeria.

1474: Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli of Florence wrote to Father Fernão Martins of Lisbon that by his calculations the distance from the Canary Islands to Marco Polo's Chipangu (Japan) was not more than 3000 nautical miles, and to Quinsay, Cathay (Hangchow, China) was not more than 5000 miles. The actual distances are 10,600 and 11,766 nautical miles respectively.

That same year King Inrique IV of Castille died. The War of Castillian Succession began between Inrique's daughter Juana and his half-sister Isabel. Since Juana was married to her uncle King Afonso V of Portugal, the war became one between that country and Spain.

1475: The city-state of Genoa put together a merchant convoy bound for Lisbon. One of the sailors was a Genoese master-tailor's son, Cristoforo Colombo. On August 13 the convoy was attacked by a war fleet. Colombo leaped overboard when his ship was sunk, and swam ashore clinging to an oar. He and his fellows were taken in by the citizens of Lagos, then transferred to Lisbon. There he started to learn Latin and mathematics.

1479: The Treaty of Alcáçovas was signed, ending the War of Castillian Succession in favor of Isabel. Castile and Aragon were united, creating the beginning of modern Spain. As part of the treaty Portugal acknowledged Spanish ownership of the Canary Islands, and in return was granted full control of the Azores, Madiera and Cape Verde Islands.

1481: King João II of Portugal sent Diogo d'Azabuja to organize the first permanent European settlement in Africa. With him were two young captains - Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias and Genoese Cristoforo Colombo, whom the Portuguese knew as Christovão Colom. The same year Colombo read a copy of the Toscanelli letter and wrote to him indicating his intent to make the voyage.

1484: Christovão Colom was granted an audience before King João II. He asked the king for funding to discover a westward ocean route to 'Cypango'. The king sent him to the royal maritime specialists, who dismissed the Genoese captain as gravely mistaken about the distances involved and foolishly believing the fantasies of Marco Polo, whom was considered by learned men of the day to have written fiction. It didn't help that Colombo had further reduced the distances 2400 and 3550 nautical miles, the former being less thatn one-quarter the actual distance.

1485: Cristoforo Colombo and his young son Diego sailed to Spain. He left his son in the care of Franciscan monks. Making friends with one of them gets him a letter of introduction to the Duke of Sedina Medonia, who sends him to the Count of Medina Celi. The Count is so impressed he considers loaning Colombo some ships right then. He then decides the project is too big for anyone but the monarchs, and sends him to meet the queen.

1486: Colombo arrived in Cordova in January, but the king and queen were away. He didn't actually gain an audience until May. Called Cristóbal Colón by the Spanish, he was again referred to an advisory board, the Talavera, and again it was recommended that he be turned down. At least one member, Diego de Deza, thought Colón's ideas were valid, and the committee recommended that he be put on retainer.

1487: Colón's old fellow-captain Bartolomeu Dias became the first European mariner to round the Cape of Good Hope and enter the Indian Ocean.

1488: Colombo returned to Portugal to try his luck again and to see his young son. In December Bartolomeu Dias returned from his African trip. Cristoforo Colombo and his brother Bartolomeo were among the crowd who welcomed Dias home. Because there was now a viable eastward route, King João abandoned any plans to sail to the west.

1489: Cristoforo Colombo returned to Spain while his brother Bartolomeo sold their successful cartography business and sailed to Englan to try to gain support there. After King Henry VII turned him down he went to France, where he was employed as a mapmaker by Anne de Beaujeu, sister of King Charles VIII. She introduced Bartolomeo to her brother the king, but he showed no interest in the enterprise.

1490: Queen Isabel again sent Cristóbal Colón before the Talevera Committee, and again they turned him down. The queen then told him he would be allowed to try again when the war with the Moors had ended.




More to come.