On April 17, 1492 Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand agreed to finance Christopher Columbus’s travels to find a new route to Asia. This begins the great story of the discovery of the Americas. Before the Columbus could set off on his grand adventure, agreements had to be made between Columbus and the Spanish Crowns. The agreement the drew up is known as the Santa Fe Capitulations. In this agreement Columbus was promised the Commission of Admiral, the right to invest one-eighth of his own money into the voyages and the right to one-eight commission on all voyages. 1 On April 30, 1492 the agreement know as the Granada was written. This agreement made all of Columbus’s appointments hereditary. 2
Columbus’s original endeavor in searching for Asia was a commercial enterprise. While religion was discussed with Ferdinand and Isabel, it was not a part of the final agreement made before his first voyage. During this discussion, Columbus made Queen Isabel swear to use all the money made in his adventures to win back the Holy Land. 3 Later, Columbus wrote to to the King and Queen about his “plan for the restitution of the holy temple to the holy Church Militant” to remind Queen Isabel of her promise to reclaim the Holy Lands.” 4 This shows that while his original voyage was not about religion, it was still in the forefront of Columbus’s mind.
Columbus was a very religious man as made clear by Bartolome De Las Casas when he wrote “there can be no doubting his Catholic faith nor that he was very devout...He observed fast days of the church religiously, regularly made confession and received the sacraments, kept the canonical hours as scrupulously as any priest or monk.” 5 But, just because Columbus was a religious man did not make his first voyage about evangelizing to the heathens. Instead, the voyage was about Columbus wanting to expand his personal wealth and the Crowns wanting to expand their rule.
Columbus’s voyages were later looked upon as religious excursions planned by God. “Columbus himself often predicted that he had been chosen by God so that this prophecy might be fulfilled by him.” 6 The more he voyaged, the more adamant about his own fulfillment in biblical prophecies. Others also believed that Columbus’s findings were predestined by God. Bartolome De Las Casas wrote “it is shown that the discovery of these Indies was a marvelous event fashioned by God.” 7
1. Document 10, Santa Fe Capitulations Santa Fe, April 17, 1492. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 60
2. Document 11 Granada Capitulations Granada, April 30, 1492. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 62
3. Document 3, Bartolome De Las Casas On Columbus’s Apearance, Education, and Character ca. 1527-1563. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 47
4. Document 5, Christopher Columbus, Undated Letter to Fernando and Isabel 1500-1502. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 51
5. Document 3, Bartolome De Las Casas On Columbus’s Apearance, Education, and Character ca. 1527-1563. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 47
6. Document 9, Agostino Giustiniani, Psalter On Columbus the Evangelist 1516. Symcox, Geoffrey and Sullivan, Blair. Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martins’s. 2005. 58
7. Document 7, Bartolome De Las Casas On Columbus as an Instrument of God’s Will ca. 1527-1563 p. 56
I came to a very similar conclusion with my blog post. As you note, it is very important to see that though Columbus himself was deeply religious, those in position of supreme power over the voyages taking place were not doing so for religious reasons. In fact, it was not until the third voyage that there were any written decrees from the Spanish monarchy that even made mention of integrating the Native American populations to the Christian faith (Doc 17, 'Instructions to Columbus for Colonization of the Indies')
ReplyDeleteGreat post. A document that I found to be interesting, yet short, was Document 6. Although the portion in question is merely a signature, I feel as though it really showed how Columbus viewed himself and gives an insight into some of his goals. I think adding this near where you said religion was in the forefront of Columbus' mind could have benefitted your argument. Don't get me wrong though, I think you wrote a solid blog here.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, there was a religious undertone for these voyages, but the main reason was to bring riches for Spain and to find a route to Asia to best the Portuguese. Document 7 and Document 9 both make mention of Columbus doing the work of God, but notice that neither was written until at least two decades after his voyages. It just seems like De Las Casas and Giustiniani were trying to paint a personal friend or idol of theirs in a good light.
ReplyDeleteVery well done. I took a similar angle on my post. I think that Columbus was a very spiritual person. I also liked your introduction paragraph. I thought that you might have wanted to use a quote to emphasize the excitement of the first voyage. A good one can be found on page 14 of Symcox and Sullivan. "What came to be known as the "Enterprise of the Indies" now began to take shape."
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