"Christopher Columbus: Motivations to Reach the Indies by" Sailing West by: Janet L. Dotterer in: a paper written for Hist. 516, "The Age of Discovery" Introduction. Christopher Columbus lived in an age of Moslem expansion in the east. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, direct land routes to the Indies were closed to European mer- chants and traders, thus creating the need to find a sea route to the Indies. Portugal had spent years sailing the coast of Africa to reach the Indies, but Columbus thought he had a better way: sailing west. With the defeat of the Moors in 1492 Queen Isabella of Spain was willing to consider to Columbus' proposal to sail west. The motivations of Columbus sailing west to the Indies, whether economic, spiritual or personal, were all based on ancient authorities, writings and personal beliefs. Background. Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, a seafaring city. He was christened Christoforo Columbo. His father was a woolweaver and his mother was the daughter of a woolweaver. His two brothers, Bartolome and Diego, supported Columbus on the second voyage. Columbus came from a poor family with little or no formal education. His knowledge of navigation came from experience not books. To explain Columbus' presence in Portugal, his son Fernando tells a fascinating but hardly believable story. Having made numerous trips throughout the Mediterranean for Genoa, he was supposedly sailing to England with a fleet of Genoese ships in 1476 when attacked by a French fleet. A battle ensued and his ship sank. He then grabbed an oar and swam six miles to shore, landing in Portugal. He stayed in Portugal eight years, sailing up and down the Atlantic for Portugal. He went south to Africa, north to England and possibly Iceland and west to the Azores. In 1479 Columbus married Dona Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and a year later their only son, Diego was born. This marriage into nobility did much to enhance his connections at the royal court. Columbus' Enterprise of the Indies. Columbus developed his theory of sailing west to the Indies after considerable time as a sailor. He had sailed down the coast of Africa and believed sailing west would be faster. He based this on the writings of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Marinus of Tyre, Marco Polo's "Travel", Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly's "Imago Mundi", "Historia Rerum" by Pope Pius II, Pliny's "Natural History", and the Bible. Marco Polo intrigues Columbus, especially with his descrip- tion of Cipangu or Zipangu (Japan) which he claimed was situated 1500 miles off the coast of China. In his description Marco Polo mentions the many riches of the Japanese, especially gold. He stated: "The extraordinary richness of the sovereign's palace . . . is a wonderful sight. The entire roof is covered with a plating of gold. . . . The ceilings of the halls are of the same precious metal; many of the apartments have small tables of pure gold, of considerable thickness; and the windows also have golden ornaments. . . . "In this island there are pearls also, in large quan- tities, of a pink colour, round in shape, and of great size equal in value to, or even exceeding that of the white pearl." Unfortunately for the plans of Columbus, many geographers and religious leaders did not believe all that Polo wrote and if Columbus was to get financial backing from a royal sovereign he had to base his theory on religious authority. That came in the writings of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly's book "Imago Mundi" written in the fourteenth century and Pope Pius II's "Historia Rerum", first printed in 1477. "Imago Mundi" was first printed in 1480 and d'Ailly's calculations agreed with Aristotle's theory that the ocean separating Spain and India was navigable; d'Ailly sup- ported Polo's writings as well. Fortunately, Columbus' copy of "Imago Mundi" has survived and the following are some of his notes in the margin of the book: ". . . Each country has its own west and its own east in relation to its own horizon. . . . A man travelling from east to west will reach a new meridian . . . The earth is round and spherical. . . . Sea and land combine to form a round body. . . . Aristotle: Between the end of Spain and the beginning of India lies a narrow sea that can be sailed in a few days. . . . Esdras: Six parts of the earth are habitable, and the seventh is covered in water. . . . N.B., the blessed Ambrose and St. Augustine, with many other, thought that Esdras was a prophet and approved his book. . . . A part of our inhabited world ends in an unknown country, towards the rising sun . . ." The final source Columbus had as authority to support the writings of Marco Polo was the Florentine doctor Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, eminent scholar, learned physician and philosopher, and amateur astronomist, mathematician, cosmographer, meteor- ologist, geographer and architect. In 1474 Toscanelli, having been contacted by the Portuguese royal court, replied through Fernao Martins, a Portuguese canon connected to the court, in the affirmative that one could sail west and reach the Indies. With Columbus' connections, through his marriage, he was able to obtain a copy of the letter and, according to his son, Fernando, wrote to Toscanelli who sent him a copy of the original letter and a navigation map. There is much controversy over this point. If Columbus and Toscanelli ever had any correspondence the letters and map were either destroyed or lost. The only proof of correspondence comes in Fernando's book. Columbus lived in an age when most knowledge of the ancient world had been forgotten. By the fourth century Ptolemy's "Geography" had been misplaced as well as the writings of Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus and Strabo. Lost was a fairly accurate geographical picture of Africa, India and China. The southern extension of Africa, established by Ptolemy, was forgotten; the Nile was again made to cross west to east across the Continent. Egypt was part of Asia and Africa began west of the Nile. India was everywhere and yet at the same time appeared to be nowhere; it remained this way well in the sixteenth cen- tury. In place of Ptolemy, Pliny's "Natural History" was used, a geographer more interested in decorations and fancies than accurate geography. Columbus, along with other navigators and scholars, had to rediscover the ancient geographers. His ideas and calculations often seem far-fetched, but he only used the materials that most fitted his needs, as did many others in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Columbus' calculations as to the circumference of the earth and the size of Europe and the Indies (Eurasia) are far from simple. He based the size of Eurasia on the calculations of Marinus of Tyre and the circumference of the earth on the calculations of the Arabic geographer Al-Farghani. In the late 1400s there was much debate as to the actual circumference of the earth. All geographers agreed the earth was round and divided into 360 degrees. But how long is a degree? In 200 B.C. Eratosthenes calculated it to be 59.5 nautical miles, it is actually 60 (51 contemporary miles). Al-Farghani calcu- lated it to be 56.66 Arabic miles or 66.2 nautical miles (approximately 56.2 contemporary miles), but Columbus assumed the Arabic mile equalled the Roman or Italian mile of 1480 meters or 45 nautical miles (38.22 contemporary miles). With these cal- culations Columbus's earth was 25 percent smaller than Erastosthenes had calculated. Next came the size of the known world, Eurasia, the western- most point of Europe to the easternmost point of Indies. Ptolemy taught that it covered 180x from Cape St. Vincent (longitude 9x West of Greenwich) to Catigara in the Indies. This estimate was already 50 percent over the actual size, but Columbus insisted it was larger. Marinus of Tyre estimated the known world to measure 225x and to this added 28x for the discoveries of Marco Polo, plus 30x to the eastern coast of Japan. Add all this together and Europe plus the Indies covered 283x of 360x. Columbus further reduced the area to be covered by calculating the begin- ning of the voyage from the Canary Islands, reducing the distance to only 60x. And since the Canary Islands were at 28x latitude, he calculated the distance to be 40 nautical miles per degree or a total of 2400 nautical miles (2064.1 contemporary miles) to reach Japan and 3500 nautical miles (2972.3 contemporary miles) to Cathay (China). The actual air-line distance from the Canaries to Japan is 10,600 and 11,766 to Cathay (approximately 8,002 and 9,998 contemporary miles respectively). Columbus' calculations placed Tokyo on the same meridian as Cuba; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Western Ontario. With all this, Columbus would have never attempted to sail west if he had not had Biblical proof as well. According to Columbian expert Marianne Mahn-Lot Columbus had more than a passing interest in the Bible, his interest was passionate or even fanatical and was a persistent facet of his life and character. The following Biblical passages supported Columbus in his theory: "The isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at that departure." (Ezekiel 26:18) To Columbus this was probably a sign that his voyage had been foretold and would change the course of history. "And his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:10 and Psalm 72:8) This could have been a sign to him of all he would discover and claim for Spain, but at the same time he would be the Viceroy (have dominion) of all these discovered lands. "The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came." (Isaiah 42:5) The isles could have been the Indies and with his voyage the Ocean Sea would be proven navigable and connect the Indies with Europe but by sailing west not east, thus connecting the ends of the earth. These explana- tions can only be educated guess at what they meant to Columbus. Only he could know the true significance of these passages. But the text that seemed to have the most influence on Columbus came from the apocryphal second Book of Esdras, Chapter 6, verse 42: "Six parts hast Thou dried up." To Columbus this was proof that only one-seventh of the earth was covered by water and thus the Ocean Sea was quite narrow. The meaning of this is quite clear from the notes he marked in his copy of d'Ailly's "Imago Mundi". Columbus had the 'authority' he believed he needed to present sailing west to a ruling sovereign. His motivations for sailing west were simple enough. His principle motivation was religious: to win back the Holy Sepulchre from the Moslems in Jerusalem. Mahn-Lot contends that to Columbus gold was the means to accomplish works of faith. He insisted that the entire profit from his discovery be used for religious ends. Gold was Columbus' means of the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre from the Muslims. To finance this he must obtain riches from the Indies. He even states this in Log of the first voyage after deciding to leave a part of his crew behind. On 26 December 1492 he wrote in part: ". . . I hope to God that when I come back here from Castile, which I intend on doing, that I will find a barrel of gold, for which these people I am leaving will have traded, and that they will have found the gold mine, and the spices, and in such quantities that within three years the Sovereigns will prepare for and undertake the conquest of the Holy Land. I have already petitioned Your Highnesses to see that all the profits of this, my enterprise, should be spent on the conquest of Jerusalem, and Your Highnesses smiled and said that the idea pleased them, and that even without this expedition they had the inclination to do it." Columbus was a very religious man and saw this voyage as his sacred mission for God. His son Fernando claims that his father was very strict in matters of religion, including fasting and praying, and could have been mistaken for a member of a religious order. Columbus even wore the habit of a Franciscan monk, though he had never taken the Holy Orders. Finally, there was the legend of Prester John, the very wealthy Christian king with a huge army that was to be defeating the Turks in the Indies. The legend came from the Kingdom of Ethiopia, considered part of the Indies. He hoped that with the help of Prester John the Turks could be driven out of the Holy Lands and with the army of Prester John and the gold Columbus would present to the Spanish sovereigns the Holy Sepulchre could be reclaimed from the Muslims. At the same time economic motivations were also prevalent. As mentioned in the Introduction to this paper, the fall of Constantinople in 1453 had cut off the land routes to the Indies to European traders. The Europeans had grown use to the spices, fine silk and cotton, precious stones, perfumes and drugs coming from the Indies. Unfortunately for Western Europe, with direct trade cut off the mark-up from so many middlemen and pirates the prices had become outrageous. Thus began the quest for an all sea route to the Indies. Columbus' aim was the establishment of a factoria or factory, rather than a colony. Factories were long familiar to European traders. The Portuguese had factories all along the African coast. According to Colombian expert Morison, they were more than trading posts, they were commercial extensions of the sovereigns themselves. Finally there was Columbus' personal motivations to sail west. He demanded of both the Portuguese and Spanish sovereigns to give him the title Admiral of the Sea and make him viceroy of lands he discovered and these titles would be hereditary. The Columbus' would now be addressed as 'don' and 'donas' and would be members of the hidalgo class. He obtained this and more eventually (see the agreement on page 11). Perhaps Columbus best expressed his motives and desires to sail west in the preface to his Log. Now came the time to propose his Enterprise to a sovereign for backing. Since he was living in Portugal in 1485 he approached King Joao II first. He was summarily turned down. The Portuguese were involved in finding a route to the Indies around Africa. In 1487 Bartholomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope opening a sea route to the Indies around Africa. After being turned down in Portugal, Columbus went to Spain. He first approached the Spanish sovereigns in 1486. A commis- sion, under Queen Isabella's confessor Hernando de Talavera, was appointed to consider the proposal. The Talavera commission had to receive approval of the Archbishop of Toledo, the Grand- Cardinal of Spain who was sternly orthodox, before considering the proposal. When the Grand-Cardinal could find no proof of direct contradiction with the Holy Writ, permission for the commission was given. The Talavera commission first met at Salamanca around Christmas 1486 but could not agree. It took the commission until 1490 to turn down Columbus' proposal. The Queen told him he could reapply once the Moors had been defeated. The commission gave six reasons for turning down Columbus. First, they said it would take three years to sail to Asia. Second, they argued the Ocean Sea is infinite and probably unnavigable. Third, they concluded that upon reaching the Antipodes he would be unable to return. Fourth, they put forth their belief that there were no Antipodes, arguing that according to St. Augustine a majority of the globe was covered with water and his word could not be questioned. This included the writings of Esdras, whom Columbus had cited. Fifth, they believed that only three-fifths of the earth was habitable, and in the other two-fifths one would either freeze or burn to death. Sixth, they upheld that God would never permit people of his own creation to live so long after the death of Christ without knowing the truth and being converted. Columbus' brother, Bartolome, then went to the English and French sovereigns, only to be turned down by Henry VII and Charles VIII as well. Columbus, not knowing that his brother had been turned down, was about to join his brother in France when he was urged to approach the Spanish sovereigns once again. At the time the sovereigns were in Granada for the final battle against the Moors and Columbus had to wait for the defeat of the Moors in January 1492 before he could gain an audience with the sovereigns. This time his proposal was accepted after much deliberation. An agreement, the Capitulations as they have come to be called, was signed April 1, 1492. In part it read: "The things humbly sought, and which Your Highnesses give and grant Don Cristoval de Colon, in some return for what he had discovered in the Ocean, and for the voyage which with the help of God he is now about to make in the service of Your Highnesses, are the following: "'First, that Your Highnesses, as true Sovereigns of the said Ocean, henceforth appointed the said Crostoval Colon, in all those islands and mainlands which by his labour and industry shall be discovered or acquired in the said Ocean, Admiral during his life, and after his death his hears and successors, from one to the other perpetually, with all the rights and privileges belonging to that office, in the same manner as the High Admiral of Castile in the said office held it in his jurisdiction. . . . "'Further, that your Highnesses appoint the said Don Crostoval Colon Their Viceroy and Governor-General in all the said islands and mainlands which, as has been said, he may discover or acquire in the said Ocean, and that for the government of each and everyone of them he may propose three persons for each office and that Your Highnesses may take and choose the one most suitable to Your service, so that the lands which Our Lord allows him to discover and acquire in the service of Your Highnesses may best be governed. . . "'Item, that of all merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, or other things of whatever kind, name, or description they may be, which may be bought, bartered, found, acquired, or obtained within the bounds of the said Admiralty, Your Highnesses will and decree that the said Don Crostoval Colon shall take and keep for himself one tenth part of the whole, after all expenses have been deducted, so that of all that remains he may take the tenth part for himself and dispose of it as he pleases, the other nine parts to belong to Your Highnesses. . . . "'This is drawn up and gives the approval of Their Highnesses, at the end of each article, in the city of Santa Fe de la Vega de Granada, on the seventeenth day of April, in the year of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. . . .'" At the end of each article was the statement "It so pleases Their Highnesses. Juan de Coloma." Juan de Coloma was the Secretary of State of Aragon, the King and Queen of Spain never signed the agreement. Thus Columbus was given financial backing to sail west to the Indies. His first voyage left port August 3, 1492 and when he came upon land he was sure he was in the Indies. He died in 1506 believing that his discoveries and land claims were in the Indies, as did all of Spain at the time. Conclusion. Columbus' goal in sailing west was to reach the Indies by sea, avoiding the Turks. He believed that sailing west would be easier and faster than sailing around Africa. His motivations were religious, economic and personal, but of the three his religious motivations were most important. As all devout Catholics, he too wanted to reclaim the Holy Sepulchre for the Christian world. He wanted to finance this mission with the gold, silver, precious stones and spices found in the Indies. The economic and personal motivations were important but were second in importance to his religious motivations. As I have shown in the previous paragraphs, Columbus based his theories partly on the writings of men of authority in the Catholic Church, ancient authorities in and out of the Catholic Church, the Bible and Marco Polo. With some manipulating of figures Columbus was able to support his theory and prove, in his own mind, that sailing west to the Indies was possible, and died believing he had proven his theory correct. Without a doubt Columbus' Enterprise of the Indies, as he called it, changed the course of global history. Without him, discoveries in the New World would have been delayed at least eight years. He and the men that followed discovered a 'new world' for the Europeans and set into motion the 'Age of Discovery'. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bradford, Ernle. "Christopher Columbus". New York: The Viking Press, 1973. Collis, John Stewart. "Christopher Columbus". 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