Christopher Columbus Failure Essay

Nothing certain is known about Columbus’ early years. According to a passage in the log of the first ocean crossing, he first went to sea at the age of eighteen; and in 1472 he referred to himself as a “Genoese wool draper.” Shortly afterward, in 1473, Columbus and his father moved to Savona, from which port Columbus made voyages on behalf of Genoese firms.
The principal theoretical assumptions drawn from classical sources: Hebrew, Arab, and European sources that made possible the discovery of the New World were two major but fortunate errors: an exaggerated extension of the inhabited landmass eastward and a considerable reduction in the terrestrial meridian, which was estimated to be about one-fourth less than it actually is. Columbus correlated

Toscanelli’s data with ancient and medieval sources and arrived at a colossal miscalculation.
Columbus’ miscalculations should not be construed as a lack of the necessary nautical and cosmographical training. His observations on magnetic declination, its variation, and the daily movement of the lodestar around the pole reveal that he was a very competent navigator.
Columbus submitted his plan for a voyage of discovery to the Portuguese king. John II, who rejected it. In 1485 or 1486 Columbus moved to Spain, but little is known of his activities there, nevertheless, Columbus was compelled to wait for favorable political and economic conditions in Spain before submitting his request.
Spain’s precarious political and economic situation quelled much of the enthusiasm for Columbus’ explorations, especially in view of the successful expedition (1497) of Vasco da Gama, who returned to Lisbon in 1499 after having reached the southern tip of India.

Nevertheless, Columbus, taking his brother Bartolomeo and his thirteen-year-old son, Fernando, sailed from Seville with a fleet of four caravels on 3 April 1502, still in search of a passage to the Indian Ocean. He stopped briefly at Santo Domingo to replace a damaged caravel; but Nicolas de Ovando, his successor as governor, refused his request for aid and denied him permission to land. Setting off again, Columbus sailed south of Jamaica and reached the Gulf of Darien. His discovery there of a Mayan canoe persuaded him that he was on the brink of finding a civilization more advanced than that of the natives previously encountered; and he sailed further south, convinced that he would soon reach the long-sought passage to India. He discovered Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, from which hostile natives and malaria forced him to retreat. Columbus took refuge in Jamaica, his vessels unseaworthy and his crew on the verge of mutiny. Two of his officers, Diego Mendez and Bartolomeo Fieschi, outfitted a canoe and courageously paddled the 108 miles to Santo Domingo. It was nearly a year before they were granted permission by Ovando to outfit a ship, which rescued Columbus and his men on 28 June 1504.

Returning to Spain broken and ill, Columbus died ignorant of the extent of his discoveries.