Columbus Day: History, Progress, and Tragedy

Columbus Day is problematic with good reason. It reminds us about the history of European colonialism, which began with Christopher Columbus’ demonstration of sailing across the Atlantic and back.

Columbus was not alone. His partners were the rulers of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile.

Historical context

In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV agreed to the Spanish Inquisition. It gave Ferdinand and Isabella the authority to pursue and kill anyone who did not practice the Catholic religion. This included Christian heretics, Jews, and Muslims. Spain intensified the war against the Muslims who had lived on the Iberian Peninsula for more than 700 years. On January 2, 1492, Spain captured the city of Granada and expelled the Muslims. On March 31, 1492, they announced the Alhambra Decree, which expelled all practicing Jews from Spain.

Decades before his voyages, Columbus was obsessed with the idea that there was land with riches to be exploited across the Atlantic Ocean. Although he came from a family where his father was a craftsman, he envisioned himself as the founder of a noble family with wealth and power.

Columbus’s early life and navigation education

His early life is obscured because of conflicting reports. He said he was born in what is now Genoa in modern-day Italy, probably in 1446. In 1470, he settled in Portugal where he learned the most advanced navigational technologies. Between 1482 and 1484, he sailed with Portuguese navigators down the coast of Africa to the area that is now called Ghana. This gave him an opportunity to learn about the winds and currents in the Atlantic Ocean. It also gave him an opportunity to gain experience with the astrolabe. This is an ancient instrument improved in 1480 by Martin Behaim, an advisor to the king of Portugal. It made it possible for a mariner to determine how far a ship is from the equator. Using this new tool and other instruments like a compass, he had the ability to estimate where his ship was in the open sea.

It was also in Portugal that Columbus became familiar with the writings of the Muslim astronomer Al-Farghani. Columbus’ son, Ferdinand, said this confirmed his father’s belief that land lay not far to the west of Europe. In 1484, Portugal’s King John II secretly took the plans that Columbus had prepared and sent a single ship to the Azores with instructions to continue west. They encountered a terrible storm and returned before finding land. When Columbus discovered the deceit, he secretly left Portugal, returned to Genoa, and traveled on to Spain. There were already scholars and advisors to Ferdinand and Isabella who were familiar with Columbus’ ideas and encouraged him.

But, in 1485, Ferdinand and Isabella were involved in the expensive war with the Muslims and a costly project was politically impossible. That all changed with the defeat of the Muslims in 1492. By the end of that year Columbus was equipped with three ships and set sail.

Goals of Columbus’s voyages

The Spanish monarchs and Columbus were primarily interested in gaining wealth. For Columbus he also wanted to achieve his goal of establishing a noble family. Their interests are illustrated by the content of the agreement they made called the “Capitulations of Santa Fe.” Columbus was given the hereditary noble title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and promised that he would be the Viceroy and Governor-General over any lands he claimed for Spain.

Columbus was promised 10% of the value of all trade and riches, such as spices and gold. In other words Ferdinand and Isabella got 90% of the plunder. Columbus also was given judicial authority and exclusive control over future voyages to the territories he visited. So the monarchs were relieved of the expense of governing any new lands. The document also required Columbus to spread Christianity to all people that he encountered.

Today we would call Ferdinand and Isabella Christian supremacists because they thought that their Christianity made them superior to other people, so they could kill anyone who was not a Catholic Christian.

This attitude of superiority justified their perspective about land. They believed that the land of the Iberian Peninsula rightfully belonged to Spanish Christians. And they thought that they could claim any land not occupied by Christians.

Outcomes: Technological progress and human tragedy

When Columbus returned to Spain in 1493, he had demonstrated that the latest navigational technology could be used to navigate the oceans and connect all humans. There was great celebration surrounding his success. He made two more transatlantic voyages and attempted to establish a government in Hispaniola, but in 1506 he died in poverty in Spain. The Spanish monarchs broke their agreement with him. His dreams of establishing a noble bloodline were unfulfilled.

Columbus was a rare individual who was possessed by a love of sailing, an inquisitive mind, a knack for understanding and applying new technologies, and an ambition to be rich and famous. His tenacity resulted in demonstrating the correctness of some scholars that land was west of Europe (although they thought the land was China). He had the courage to trust new technology to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. And he had the ego to approach royalty and ask to be a noble although his father was a craftsman. In many ways, Columbus was a product of the times he lived in. If Spain had betrayed him like Portugal did, the new navigation technologies and the scholarship of astronomers would have resulted in someone else sailing across the Atlantic in the 15th century.

Ferdinand and Isabella were very common Europeans. They went on to establish a Spanish empire that lasted for 300 years. They partnered with the Catholic Church to enslave non-Europeans and to kill those who stood in their way of extracting wealth from land that other people occupied. Other European monarchs followed their lead. One hundred years later, the British monarch sent settlers to what is now the United States. These settlers occupied land that others lived on. Like the Spanish, they enslaved and killed the native people. They demonstrated that it was not necessary to use the Catholic Church to adopt the same strategies based on European superiority. In 1776, the colonists declared independence from Britain, in part, because they wanted to occupy land to the west of their settlements and exterminate the natives.

This very rare individual, Columbus, was the first European to demonstrate that it is possible for all people to learn about and from each other. He was not interested in that, but since then new technologies have increased humanity’s ability to communicate with each other. Today it is imperative that we take an interest in rejecting the approach of Ferdinand and Isabella, which in the United States has evolved into racism and white people claiming privilege.

There certainly has been some progress. People around the world are committed to working for social justice and an end to the idea of superiority. The Catholic Church began a process of promoting social justice in 1891 when Pope Leo XIII began the development of Catholic social teaching. And in 2015, Pope Francis apologized for what he called the “grave sins” committed against indigenous peoples during the colonial period.

However, the ghosts of Ferdinand and Isabella continue to haunt humanity. The tragedy is that humans have not embraced Columbus’ wonderful discovery that it is possible to navigate across oceans and return home again. We have not embraced our opportunity and responsibility to make world history, to learn from and support each other. Rather we have allowed greed to result in exploitation of each other and, thereby, followed in the footsteps of Ferdinand and Isabella.