The maiden voyage of Christopher Columbus: the quest to find trade routes

if Christopher Columbus is to be alive today, no one could imagine how famous

and influential he would be; some people will say the significance of the voyage of Christopher Columbus can not be over-emphasized, explorers and great seafarers have been know to engage on the voyages in search of west indies, but Christopher Columbus maiden voyage to the west indies can not be seen as insignificant on the discovery of the vast empire and civilization that has been in existence for thousands of years. today on HistoricalForte we explore the great explorer's first voyage to the Americas.

first voyage

for months Christopher Columbus has been trying to convince the king and queen of Spain (king Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile)  to finance

his voyage, and finally nailing the deal in the first quarter of 1492; Christopher Columbus departed mainland Spain on August 3, 1492. He quickly made port in the Canary Islands for a final restocking and left there on September 6. He was in command of three ships: the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María. Although Columbus was in overall command, the Pinta was captained by Martín Alonso Pinzón and the Niña by Vicente Yañez Pinzón.
Land was sighted at 2 AM on 12 October by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermejo) aboard Pinta. Columbus called the island San Salvador, the natives called it Guanahani. The indigenous people he encountered, the Lucayan, Taíno or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. He wrote with such awe of the friendly innocence and beauty of the natives. "These people have no religious beliefs, nor are they idolaters. They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons."
On this first voyage, Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba where he landed on 28 October. Martín Alonso Pinzón, captain of the Pinta, left the other two ships without permission and sailed on his own in search of an island called "Babeque," where he had been told by his native guides that there was much gold. Columbus continued with the Santa Maria and Niña eastward, and arrived at Hispaniola on December 5. Here, the Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas morning 1492 and had to be abandoned.
He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. The Niña could not hold all of the remaining crew, so Columbus was forced to leave about 40 men at La Navidad to await his return from Spain. Columbus departed from La Navidad on January 2, 1493.
Now down to just one ship, Columbus continued eastward along the coast of Hispaniola, and was surprised when he came upon the Pinta on January 6.
The two ships departed Hispaniola from Samana Bay (in the modern Dominican Republic) on January 16, but were again separated by a fierce storm in the North Atlantic on February 14; Columbus and Pinzón each believed that the other had perished. Columbus sighted the island of Santa Maria in the Azores the next day.
After a run-in with the local governor, he left the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into Lisbon. He anchored next to the King's harbour patrol ship on 4 March 1493, where he was told a fleet of 100 caravels had been lost in the storm. Not finding the king in Lisbon, Columbus wrote a letter to him and waited for the king's reply, which requested that he go to Vale do Paraíso to meet with His Majesty. Some think that his landing in Portugal was intentional. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe. He did not reach Spain until 15 March.
Meanwhile, Pinzón and the Pinta had missed the Azores and arrived at the port of Bayona in northern Spain. After a stop to repair the damaged ship, the Pinta limped into Palos just hours after the Niña. Pinzón had expected to be proclaimed a hero, but the honor had already been given to Columbus. Pinzón died a few days later.
Columbus was received as a hero in Spain. He displayed several kidnapped natives and what gold he had found to the court, as well as the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple fruit, the turkey and the hammock. He did not bring any of the East Indies spices, such as the expensive black pepper, ginger or cloves.

relevance of the first voyage

In review, it is somewhat surprising that what is today considered one of the most important voyages in history was something of a failure at the time. Columbus had promised to find a new, quicker route to the lucrative Chinese trade markets and he failed miserably. Instead of holds full of Chinese silks and spices he returned with some trinkets and a few bedraggled natives from Hispaniola: some ten more had perished on the voyage. In addition, he had lost the largest of the three ships entrusted to him.

Columbus actually considered the natives his greatest find. He thought that a new slave trade could make his discoveries lucrative. Columbus was hugely disappointed a few years later when Queen Isabella, after careful thought, decided not to open the New World to slave trading.

Columbus never believed that he had found something new: he maintained, to his dying day, that the lands he discovered were indeed part of the known Far East. In spite of the failure of the first expedition to find spices or gold, a much larger second expedition was approved, perhaps in part due to Columbus’ skills as a salesman.

posted: T_rex

sources: 

www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/.../columbus-reports-his-first-voyage-1493

www.thelatinamericahistory.com