Columbus Leaves Spain

Today I met a very interesting and somewhat confused man by the man of Christopher Columbus. He told me about finding Indians and the "New World". Here’s Christopher...

Christopher Columbus

Q: Tell me a bit about your past

A: I was born in October of 1451 and always wanted to be an explorer. I have always considered myself to be a navigator, colonizer and explorer. I was born is Genoa (a part of modern day Italy), and my father was a wool-weaver, and later opened a cheese stand as well. I had a mother too; she stayed at home to watch after me and my three brothers. IN 1470, we moved to Savona and I ended up getting hired in the service of Rene of Anjou to help support his attempts to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. In 1473, I began apprenticing my business agent for Centurione, Di Negro and the Spinola families of Genoa.

Q: I know that you went on 4 round-trip voyages the New World, and I must say, that sounds rather expensive! Who paid for you to make these trips?

A: I feel so bad for the fools I asked to fund me and they refused! I discovered new land for the taking! Places this world didn't know existed! I asked many people, which included John II, Genova and Venice, and King Henry VII of England. I finally set my sights on Spain and went to ask the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. They had just united many kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by getting married. On May 1st, 1486, after permission to have an audience from the monarchs, I presented my plan to Queen Isabella. She referred it to a committee, and the committee said I had calculated the distance to Asia too short and that it was impractical and told Isabella to pass on the adventure. To keep me from leaving and taking my ideas with me though, they gave me an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedis. After much lobbying and 2 years of negotiations, I finally got permission to go in 1492!

Q: Tell me about your voyages

A: Why yes, fun times those were! We saw land early on, which gave us the confidence we needed to continue our voyages. We met interesting people who were natives to the Islands and land that we discovered. We called them Indians because we all believed that we had found the Indies. We used three ships for these voyages, these ships are like my saviors, and they took us all the way to these distant lands! They are named The Santa María, The Niña and La Pinta. I finally came back to Spain in 1493, after I had discovered a lot of new places. In 1948, I discovered the South American Mainland; in 1502 I found the Gulf of Mexico and my biggest achievement, America in 1492. There were many other places besides them, but those were the big finds. Those were the places that put my name on the map of historical adventurers!

Q: That sounds really fun! Now I'm sure when you arrived people treated you a little different, right?

A: Oh yes they did. The contract we made before I left made me very rich. They gave me a lot in that contract; I can't help but wonder if it was because they didn't think I would make it back from this New World alive. I also got a lot of praise upon my return. I was bestowed with the highest honors you could get!

Q: That’s all very exciting and interesting, and I can probably guess, but how do you think you impacted the future? Like 2010?

A: Well, I discovered uncharted territories. I made discoveries of places that no one knew existed besides native, pardon my language, savages. We can and helped them and I'm sure the inhabitants now are more European than native. That would probably be my greatest achievement and I can only hope that those people do good things with the land I gave them!