Columbus Sets the Context for His Voyage

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, Diario (1492)

The year 1492 was a momentous one in Spanish history. With the fall of the Muslim state of Granada, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille completed the Christian reconquista (reconquest) of the Iberian Peninsula. Having driven the “infidel” from its last stronghold, they turned to the “enemy within,” issuing a proclamation expelling all Jews from their lands. It was at this moment, fired with a crusading spirit and eager to gain access to the wealth of Asia, that Ferdinand and Isabella chose to sponsor the exploratory westward voyage of Christopher Columbus. As you read the introduction from Columbus’s Diario (diary), compiled at the request of his sponsors, notice the connections Columbus makes between the events described above and his own voyage. What does his introduction suggest about the role of religion in sparking Spain’s involvement in westward expansion?

Whereas, Most Christian and Very Noble and

Very Excellent and Very Powerful Princes, King

and Queen of the Spains and of the Islands of

the Sea, our Lords: This present year of 1492,

after Your Highnesses had brought to an end

the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe and

had concluded the war in the very great city

of Granada, where this present year on the

second day of the month of January I saw the

Royal Standards of Your Highnesses placed by

force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra,

which is the fortress of the said city; and I

saw the Moorish King come out to the gates of

the city and kiss the Royal Hands of Your

Highnesses and of the Prince my Lord; and

later in that same month, because of the

report that I had given to Your Highnesses about

the lands of India and about a prince who is

called “Grand Khan,” which means in our

Spanish language “King of Kings”; how, many times,

he and his predecessors had sent to Rome to

ask for men learned in our Holy Faith in order

that they might instruct him in it and how the

Holy Father had never provided them; and thus

so many peoples were lost, falling into idolatry

and accepting false and harmful religions;

and Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians

and Princes, lovers and promoters of the Holy

Christian Faith, and enemies of the false

doctrine of Mahomet and of all idolatries and

heresies, you thought of sending me, Christóbal

Colón, to the said regions of India to see

the said princes and the peoples and the lands,

and the characteristics of the lands and of

everything, and to see how their conversion to

our Holy Faith might be undertaken. And you

commanded that I should not go to the East by

land, by which way it is customary to go, but

by the route to the West, by which route we do

not know for certain that anyone previously

has passed. So, after having expelled all the

Jews from all of your Kingdoms and Dominions,

in the same month of January Your Highnesses

commanded me to go, with a suitable fleet, to

the said regions of India. And for that you

granted me great favors and ennobled me so

that from then on I might call myself “Don”

and would be Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea

and Viceroy and perpetual Governor of all the

islands and lands that I might discover and

gain and [that] from now on might be discovered

and gained in the Ocean Sea; and likewise my

eldest son would succeed me and his son him,

from generation to generation forever. And I

left the city of Granada on the twelfth day of

May in the same year of 1492 on Saturday, and

I came to the town of Palos, which is a seaport,

where I fitted out three vessels very

well suited for such exploits; and I left the

said port, very well provided with supplies

and with many seamen, on the third day of

August of the said year, on a Friday, half an

hour before sunrise; and I took the route to

Your Highnesses’ Canary Islands, which are in

the said Ocean Sea, in order from there to

take my course and sail so far that I would

reach the Indies and give Your Highnesses’

message to those princes and thus carry out

that which you had commanded me to do. And

for this purpose I thought of writing on this

whole voyage, very diligently, all that I

would do and see and experience, as will be

seen further along. Also, my Lord Princes,

besides writing down each night whatever I

experience during the day and each day what I

sail during the night, I intend to make a new

sailing chart. In it I will locate all of the

sea and the lands of the Ocean Sea in their

proper places under their compass bearings

and, moreover, compose a book and similarly

record all of the same in a drawing, by latitude

from the equinoctial line and by longitude

from the west; and above all it is very

important that I forget sleep and pay much

attention to navigation in order thus to carry

out these purposes, which will be great labor.

From The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, trans. Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelly, Jr. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), pp. 17, 19, 21.