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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus. Contracts and Writings. The Business of Discovery Santa Fe Capitulations, April 17, 1492. Genre: Contract. Business partnership between Christopher Columbus and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

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Christopher Columbus

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  1. Christopher Columbus Contracts and Writings

  2. The Business of DiscoverySanta Fe Capitulations, April 17, 1492 • Genre: Contract. • Business partnership between Christopher Columbus and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. • Columbus becomes viceroy and governor general of any territory he encounters. • Columbus receives 1/10 of “all and any merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices” • on vessels “outfitted for trade and business” Columbus can contribute 1/8 of the cost of outfitting, and receive 1/8 of profits that result.

  3. The (Feudal) Aristocracy of DiscoveryGranada Capitulations, April 30, 1492 • Genre: Contract (but service/reward rather than merchandise/profit) • If he is successful, Columbus will receive a hereditary title so that he and his children can join the ranks of the land-holding aristocracy. • “You will be empowered from that time forward to call yourself Sir Christopher Columbus, and thus your sons and successors in this office and post may entitle themselves sir, admiral, viceroy, and governor of them” (63). • Note: Columbus had already managed to marry above his status as a commoner. His wife, Felipa Moniz Perestrelo, was an ex-governor’s daughter. He never married his second partner, Beatriz de Arana, perhaps because she was a commoner.

  4. The Experience of DiscoveryEntries from the Ship Log, 1492-1493 • Written by Columbus; transcribed, summarized, and edited to an unknown extent by Bartholomé de Las Casas, a Dominican friar, reformer, and historian of the Spanish American colonies. • Genre: travel literature? • Missionary journey: “Your Highnesses . . . thought to send me . . . to . . . determine what method should be undertaken for their conversion to our holy faith” (66).

  5. The Experience of DiscoveryEntries from the Ship Log, 1492-1493 • Why do you think the first mention of a possible missionary goal appears in the Ship’s Log? • On his first voyage, Columbus interacts only with the Taino people of Hispaniola, whose culture seems to place great emphasis on hospitality to foreigners. Suppose he had landed in the territory of the more aggressive Caribs? • How does Columbus’s experience of the New World, as recorded in his Ship’s Log, either confirm his initial goals, change them, or add new goals? Find specific examples.

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