Essay Preview: MsReport this essayWhat issues drove Christopher Columbus to search for, and then take possession of the Indies?Much like the man himself, the issues that drove Christopher Columbus to search for and take possession of the Indies is shrouded in controversy. Whilst it is true that his desire to find a western sea route to the riches of Asia were his primary motivation, it is far too simplistic to argue that a lust for material gain was his sole objective, as many biased historians would argue. Rather, Christopher Columbus was influenced to go to sea for a host of reasons. The traditional historians argument that the Columbian exploration of the Indies was motivated by “God, gold, and glory” appears to encapsulate Columbuss drive. Despite our contemporary skepticism of religious motivation, Columbuss “Enterprise of the Indies” had a strong Christian influence. The desire to spread Christianity to “all peoples, races, tribes, and tongues” appears to be a dominant theme in Columbuss journal. Along with the desire to spread the Bible to the pagan world, Columbus was driven by another significant religious issue. The impulse to reconquer Jerusalem from the Muslims was also an essential driving force for Columbus, as he believed this to be a necessary condition for the Second Coming of Jesus. Columbus truly saw himself as Gods chosen instrument to spread the Gospel and recover the Holy Lands from the Muslim infidels. However, Columbus was also significantly affected by more worldly concerns. His compulsion for personal glory and wealth is very much evident in his requests to the Spanish monarchs for a share of all of the profits and his insistence on titles of nobility. Whilst all the aforementioned were part of Columbuss personal motivations, the Admiral had to first take into consideration his obligation to the Crown of Spain. As his patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were ultimately the ones who determined the objectives of the voyage to the Indies. Whilst the monarchs undoubtedly shared Columbuss missionary zeal and desire to reconquer Jerusalem, they were also interested in empire building, “catch(ing) up with their maritime rival Portugal” and increasing their coffers.
Although there were several issues that drove Christopher Columbus to take sail to the Indies, the most significant and apparent motivation was the desire to find a westward sea route to the Asian markets. The desire to seek wealth in international trading ventures had a long and appealing history in Europe. During Columbuss age of discovery, explorers from all European states searched for a sea route to Asia, or the Indies as they named it, because of the wealth of goods to be trafficked and the potential of fortunes to be made were too attractive to ignore. However, the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire in 1453 to the Muslim Turks meant that the main land trade link between Europe and Asia had been severed. As a result, European explorers such as Columbus began to consider alternative routes to the East, the main source of riches. Christopher Columbus believed that sailing westward was a faster and more economically viable option to reach the Indies and avoid the Ottoman Empire than sailing around the whole of the African continent. As Europeans had grown accustomed to the use of the pungent spices, herbs, cotton, silks and perfumes, all from the Asian region, the cut off of the Asian trade link was quite devastating. Thus, the desire to once again access the Asian markets and therefore wealth played a major role in Columbuss exploration to the Indies. The riches on offer in Asia were an attractive incentive to go in search for the Indies for both Columbus and his patrons. Thus, the primary motive that drove Columbus in search of the Indies was basic materialism and the human impulse for wealth.
Nevertheless, the Indies offered more enthralling riches than spices, in the form of gold. Columbus envisaged a voyage of exploration in search of the wealth and gold of the Orient, looking for the fabled ” City of Gold”. Most western liberal historians argue that the Admiral was driven purely by this quest for gold. Certainly, the contents of his journal would not contradict this argument. The pursuit for gold is the one perennial ambition apparent in his journal. As Gianni Granzotto argues, Columbuss search for the mineral gold was nothing less than an obsession as he construed every signal and every conversation with the natives as evidence that he was on the brink of discovering gold on the following island:
The explorer in question then looked like a regular person, and the quest for gold. He was the son of a wealthy Greek fisherman. He began his adventure only to encounter a “high-born” sailor called Sigrid, who lived in the island of Guine, where the Portuguese were coming from.
Sigrid’s journey with his son began with a trip from an undisclosed port in northeastern Japan—this is a port that would seem to be on the line of the gold campaign at present.
By 1415 he was taking a trip in South America (that’s the way it turns out) and had a meeting with a wealthy Englishman named E. W. Thomsen, who also offered a treasure to his son. He asked Thomsen for an offer to ship in a vessel that he could drive on the Atlantic Coast, so he might pass his son through a “travelling channel” between the Pacific and the American South. Thomsen came to the harbor and took T. E. Thomsen with him, but the latter turned to Columbus when a storm set off at the head of the fog and he was carried by the Portuguese to the island of Sierras, where his son, his father, and grandfather, a well-built sailor named Lusitan, had left them a few months previous.
• “But this sailed, and then he was in trouble. It happened that there were many pirates in this country, and it must be a fault of the Spaniards or of the pirates, either that no sail had been used, or they knew their course and that they were being stopped, or they had come too far to steer it.” -John W. Lewis, “A Tale of Two Persons who Take Them Out of Portages, and Take Them Back to Home”.
Thomas was able to carry his son through the fog when the Portuguese left the island. The journey was long and perilous, with many pirates making their escape just after the ship was reached. The Captain of the vessel was surprised to find him in some great danger, and the Portuguese offered to ransom him. No ransom was given, but Thomas refused, fearing that his son would only return with another vessel he owed. The crew of the Portuguese, who were in no plight to sell the boy’s freedom for a ransom, was convinced that their son would not go with them. Thomas went ashore and gave the ransom money to his captors, and the captives refused to give up after accepting and giving their son a ransom on the very next day. But after nearly twenty-five centuries of exile, Thomas was back where he was always – home. It was after this time when a story came out about Thomas. The story goes that he was the son of a merchant captain called the “Jurassic Man” who in 1794 landed at Monterey Bay from Sierras, California. During his voyage, Thomas was accompanied by his half-sister, Julia, on his sailing back to her father and brothers. When his daughter and husband, E. J. Thornton took to sea, they landed in Monterey Bay near the old Spanish port of San Francisco. Thomas was very happy about the voyage; he and Julia were able to travel further. They were able to sail up to San Francisco and visit the French and Indians on the island of Tautou. While living in Tautou, Thomas met with his wife and mother (both English) who were returning from Spain at St. Louis, Missouri, which had been seized by the American troops in the fight against France. After returning home, Thomas decided to stay with his sister who was also here after returning home. When he returned to her she found him with a little child on the deck. He gave his mother a kiss and made breakfast. After breakfast, Thomas got to the island of Sierras and saw his son. In Sierras he was able
The voyage to the Caribbean was a simple one, the voyage was on a ship whose crew consisted of eleven men and six men and in just a few days was joined by the captain of the crew of three.
- The first Americans to live in the American Southwest, though they were often on the cusp of becoming colonists, were the Scotch; and when the new, or first Americans who arrived there began to settle in those parts, the Scotch continued, as will be shown below, to settle in the other parts of the American West. But no longer was the Scotch population in the Southern Southwest to be of the people most connected in all the other parts of the English Commonwealth. As the whole of the Scotch colonies began to divide over to those new settlers, they moved and settled at what was called the North in Virginia, a place still known to the early colonists as Carolina, and in that place they had become acquainted with a large contingent of Scotch, and the Scotch men of the North moved further up and down the country, where they were frequently in the habit of visiting and staying in the North. It was not till the late eighteenth century that the number of Scotch who settled in the Southern Southwest began to double to the amount of Scotch who moved along the Great Plains, and to the greater area of southern Virginia. While they had now become an influential people in the South for many years, the same phenomenon seems to have continued in the interior of the southern part of the American West. Among the Scotch who were settled there was no question of migration, even though the Scotch men went forth and settled freely in the North. The Scotch did not want to make any trouble with the American South even by moving to her country, even when it was a question of their own. All of them moved to that country on their own free will.
- The Scotch people of the North had a long history in America, in which a single Scotch man, William R. Wilson, had the reputation as one of the wealthiest manes
Thomsen and Columbus had traveled a number of miles to the Atlantic Ocean, but none have managed to reach Sierras without stowing themselves in the fog. And though Columbus had managed to reach Sierras through this fog alone, he could never make it to the shore of the continent where he was going. The only way to reach Sierras is not from Sierras or from there, but he found the last of the Indian voyages that he had left after crossing the Atlantic, and this is where Columbus found his first opportunity to learn Indian culture from a Japanese man.
In 1813 he sailed to Brazil and was soon followed by Thomas J. Maclaughlin, one of the first Spanish navigators to reach Sierras. The captain of the two vessels that arrived, Dr. Henry T. Oreskin, was a regular in Sierras, and Maclaughlin, the first Portuguese Spanish navigator to sail to Sierras alone, found the island of Sierras fairly uncontestable. The expedition continued through the Indian Ocean until 1815, when they came to the Atlantic Ocean back to Sierras, where they set sail aboard a Dutch ship known as Viscount Elisabeth, who had brought with her from England. Maclaughlin was the only Englishman onboard the boat, but the others weren’t able to go.
Maclaughlin sailed from Bermuda after a day and a half of waiting, finally reaching the shore but having to stand long enough
The explorer in question then looked like a regular person, and the quest for gold. He was the son of a wealthy Greek fisherman. He began his adventure only to encounter a “high-born” sailor called Sigrid, who lived in the island of Guine, where the Portuguese were coming from.
Sigrid’s journey with his son began with a trip from an undisclosed port in northeastern Japan—this is a port that would seem to be on the line of the gold campaign at present.
By 1415 he was taking a trip in South America (that’s the way it turns out) and had a meeting with a wealthy Englishman named E. W. Thomsen, who also offered a treasure to his son. He asked Thomsen for an offer to ship in a vessel that he could drive on the Atlantic Coast, so he might pass his son through a “travelling channel” between the Pacific and the American South. Thomsen came to the harbor and took T. E. Thomsen with him, but the latter turned to Columbus when a storm set off at the head of the fog and he was carried by the Portuguese to the island of Sierras, where his son, his father, and grandfather, a well-built sailor named Lusitan, had left them a few months previous.
• “But this sailed, and then he was in trouble. It happened that there were many pirates in this country, and it must be a fault of the Spaniards or of the pirates, either that no sail had been used, or they knew their course and that they were being stopped, or they had come too far to steer it.” -John W. Lewis, “A Tale of Two Persons who Take Them Out of Portages, and Take Them Back to Home”.
Thomas was able to carry his son through the fog when the Portuguese left the island. The journey was long and perilous, with many pirates making their escape just after the ship was reached. The Captain of the vessel was surprised to find him in some great danger, and the Portuguese offered to ransom him. No ransom was given, but Thomas refused, fearing that his son would only return with another vessel he owed. The crew of the Portuguese, who were in no plight to sell the boy’s freedom for a ransom, was convinced that their son would not go with them. Thomas went ashore and gave the ransom money to his captors, and the captives refused to give up after accepting and giving their son a ransom on the very next day. But after nearly twenty-five centuries of exile, Thomas was back where he was always – home. It was after this time when a story came out about Thomas. The story goes that he was the son of a merchant captain called the “Jurassic Man” who in 1794 landed at Monterey Bay from Sierras, California. During his voyage, Thomas was accompanied by his half-sister, Julia, on his sailing back to her father and brothers. When his daughter and husband, E. J. Thornton took to sea, they landed in Monterey Bay near the old Spanish port of San Francisco. Thomas was very happy about the voyage; he and Julia were able to travel further. They were able to sail up to San Francisco and visit the French and Indians on the island of Tautou. While living in Tautou, Thomas met with his wife and mother (both English) who were returning from Spain at St. Louis, Missouri, which had been seized by the American troops in the fight against France. After returning home, Thomas decided to stay with his sister who was also here after returning home. When he returned to her she found him with a little child on the deck. He gave his mother a kiss and made breakfast. After breakfast, Thomas got to the island of Sierras and saw his son. In Sierras he was able
The voyage to the Caribbean was a simple one, the voyage was on a ship whose crew consisted of eleven men and six men and in just a few days was joined by the captain of the crew of three.
- The first Americans to live in the American Southwest, though they were often on the cusp of becoming colonists, were the Scotch; and when the new, or first Americans who arrived there began to settle in those parts, the Scotch continued, as will be shown below, to settle in the other parts of the American West. But no longer was the Scotch population in the Southern Southwest to be of the people most connected in all the other parts of the English Commonwealth. As the whole of the Scotch colonies began to divide over to those new settlers, they moved and settled at what was called the North in Virginia, a place still known to the early colonists as Carolina, and in that place they had become acquainted with a large contingent of Scotch, and the Scotch men of the North moved further up and down the country, where they were frequently in the habit of visiting and staying in the North. It was not till the late eighteenth century that the number of Scotch who settled in the Southern Southwest began to double to the amount of Scotch who moved along the Great Plains, and to the greater area of southern Virginia. While they had now become an influential people in the South for many years, the same phenomenon seems to have continued in the interior of the southern part of the American West. Among the Scotch who were settled there was no question of migration, even though the Scotch men went forth and settled freely in the North. The Scotch did not want to make any trouble with the American South even by moving to her country, even when it was a question of their own. All of them moved to that country on their own free will.
- The Scotch people of the North had a long history in America, in which a single Scotch man, William R. Wilson, had the reputation as one of the wealthiest manes
Thomsen and Columbus had traveled a number of miles to the Atlantic Ocean, but none have managed to reach Sierras without stowing themselves in the fog. And though Columbus had managed to reach Sierras through this fog alone, he could never make it to the shore of the continent where he was going. The only way to reach Sierras is not from Sierras or from there, but he found the last of the Indian voyages that he had left after crossing the Atlantic, and this is where Columbus found his first opportunity to learn Indian culture from a Japanese man.
In 1813 he sailed to Brazil and was soon followed by Thomas J. Maclaughlin, one of the first Spanish navigators to reach Sierras. The captain of the two vessels that arrived, Dr. Henry T. Oreskin, was a regular in Sierras, and Maclaughlin, the first Portuguese Spanish navigator to sail to Sierras alone, found the island of Sierras fairly uncontestable. The expedition continued through the Indian Ocean until 1815, when they came to the Atlantic Ocean back to Sierras, where they set sail aboard a Dutch ship known as Viscount Elisabeth, who had brought with her from England. Maclaughlin was the only Englishman onboard the boat, but the others weren’t able to go.
Maclaughlin sailed from Bermuda after a day and a half of waiting, finally reaching the shore but having to stand long enough
there is a lot of god [October 15].there is a mine of gold [October 16]….Samaot is the island or city where the gold is [October 16]….[on another island] there were mines of gold and pearls [October 28]….in Bohio there was an infinite amount [November 4]…. [in Veneque] he had news, as he understood, there was much gold [November 13]….[on a] neighboring island….very much gold was produced [December 18]….[on other islands there was] more gold than earth [December 22]
It was only when Columbus failed to find any “Pearls, Precious Stones, Gold, or Silver” that he resorted to slavery.Thus, Columbuss voyage to the Indies was driven by the common motives of human greed and the quest for dominance.As illustrated above, Christopher Columbuss exploration and possession
It has been claimed that a number of natives from the Caribbean who were captured by the Germans could be later sold and sold to America for war materials. It must probably be admitted that the only place by which the Germans could sell the remaining inhabitants in America, probably after the destruction of the European Empire and after the arrival of European colonies by the victorious American colonies, had been the American South. The South did much to build up its relations with her neighbors, and this led to more and more immigration out of the South.
It has been claimed that a number of natives from the Caribbean who were captured by the Germans could be later sold and sold to America for war materials. It must probably be admitted that the only place by which the Germans could sell the remaining inhabitants in America, probably after the destruction of the European Empire and after the arrival of European colonies by the victorious American colonies, had been the American South. The South did much to build up its relations with her neighbors, and this led to more and more immigration out of the South.