Columbus

In the letter of Christopher Columbus to king and queen of Spain, Columbus imagined an ideal society of colonization at the island, he considered the island as a springboard to the land of “India”. In the letter he showed the idea of setting four township at the island for the convenience to “thousands of colonists”. In the letter Columbus placed himself as the king of new territory. He wanted to control the town’s growing, control gold mine by giving the gold mine licenses, so he could maximize the profit. The first explorer was Juan Ponce de León who explored Florida. In the 14 petition and proposal to king and queen, 10 of talk about how to divide the gold and who hold the property of those gold. It is showed that Columbus was an avarice man, and this “India” colony provide some extremely avarice dream.

Columbus. C. (1497), Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ehost/detail?sid=0733c110-1fe0-476b-98ea-5cb7eb2f70fd@sessionmgr103&vid=0&format=EB#AN=1028000&db=nlebk

According to the article “The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America”, A band of Viking expeditioners, led by Leif Eriksson reach land of America first. It was around 985 A.D. Almost half millenniums before Christopher Columbus finding. Leif Eriksson and his father reach Greenland after being expelled. That group of Vikings went to a place called “Helluland” which believe to be Baffin Island. Some Norsemen voyaged to a location called Markland, which most likely to be Labrador nowadays. Recently, Archaeologists had found out the concrete evidence for Vikings’ voyage. An international team of archaeologists found the settlement and Norse village around A.D 1000. Those evidence concreted the fact that Viking had come thousand years ago.

Klein. C. (10/8/2013), The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America, History Stories, http://www.history.com/news/the-viking-explorer-who-beat-columbus-to-america

In the letter from Columbus to the king and queen in Spain. He shared what he thought right after landing on the new territory. From the article we can see that he mentioned India many times. Thinking this place should be India and pointed another island the province of Cathay. In this article, he mentioned there are a lot of resources such as copper mine and gold mine. However, those stuff may only be his wishfulness. He also mentioned some detail when met with native Americans. He described that those people were curious to them and were timid and powerless.

Columbus. C. (1497), Letter of Columbus to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery, http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzIwMDg0NDhfX0FO0?sid=0733c110-1fe0-476b-98ea-5cb7eb2f70fd@sessionmgr103&vid=0&format=EB

This is Columbus’ logbook in his first voyage. It was some detailly record on his first voyage. Before, 11 October, many sailors reported finding the land, but all be found lie. Several days before 11 October, land bird was showed but sailors complain about the distance. The only thing that Columbus could do was use the reward to pacify their angry. In 11 October, Columbus finally reach the land, he wrote a lot all about the detail of their action after that and claimed that this land belong to the king and queen of spain.

Columbus. C. (1492). Excerpts from Christopher Columbus’ Log, 1492 A.D., http://www.franciscan-archive.org/columbus/opera/excerpts.html