reaching the new world 1490-1512

• Spain reaches the 'New World', c1490-1512


  Spain was politically united in 1479 under the joint rule of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. By about 1490, it was religiously united too, as Isabella's religious enthusiasm led to the driving out of Muslims and Jews from the land.
• A united, Christian Spain could look to Europe for its future prosperity through trade and political alliances - or it could look westwards.
• To the west lay the great Ocean Sea (the Atlantic Ocean), which no sailor had ever crossed. Crossing it could lead to the discovery of a sea route to the riches of the East Indies.
• Christopher Columbus


  Believed he could find a sea route to the East Indies
• Columbus' first voyage


  1. Left Spain in September 1492

  2. Made landfall (reached land) six weeks later

  3. Reached the islands of the Caribbean

  4. Returned to Spain in triumph, with gold, tobacco and natives
• Columbus' further voyages


  • Organised a colony
  • Tried to encourage the spread of Christianity
  • Made treaties with the natives
  • Almost wiped them out by unintentionally bringing European diseases
• Most people in 1490 knew that the world was round.
• In 1490, the Catholic Church, headed by the pope in Rome, was the only Christian Church in Europe.
• Stories of discoveries of strange places and mythical creatures

  • The Island of Atlantis
• The spice trade with the East Indies was well-established and extremely profitable.
• The overland route to the East Indies was becoming increasingly dangerous as attacks from bandits became more and more frequent.
• The Portuguese had sailed south down the west coast of Africa and had almost reached the Cape of Good Hope.
• The Spanish had rediscovered the Canary Islands, and the Portuguese had discovered Madeira and the Azores, in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Monarchs going to war would ask for the blessing of the pope in order to justify their territorial invasions.
• Popes encouraged and supported religious wars, and were frequently involved in the peace treaties that followed a war.
• Many people believed that exploration and the discovery of new lands was part of a huge crusade to spread Christianity throughout the world.
• Christopher Columbus


  • Born around 1451 in Genoa, Italy
  • Worked as a seaman on many different voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, and the coastal waters of the Atlantic Ocean
  • Settled in Lisbon, Portugal, where he married and had a son
• In 1486, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand refused to support Columbus' plan, as they were involved in conquering Granada, a Muslim state in the south of Spain, and had neither the time nor the money to support Columbus at that time.
• Reasons why Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to sponsor Columbus in 1491


  • Isabella's crusade to turn Spain into a completely Christian country had succeeded
  • Isabella was ready to continue crusading outside Spain, and was anxious to set up a great Christian mission in the East Indies
  • Isabella's personal priest and close friend, Juan Perez, was sympathetic to Columbus' enterprise
  • Spain would gain in international status if a Spanish-funded expedition found a sea route to the Indies before Portugal
  • A successful voyage would bring riches to the Spanish treasury and prosperity to Spain's merchants
• Columbus was given the title of 'Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea', would be appointed governor of the newly colonised lands, and would have the right to one tenth of the produce of any new territories he discovered.
• Frequent attacks on merchants travelling the overland route between the East Indies and Europe
• The refusal of John II of Portugal to sponsor Columbus in 1484
• Spain's desire for international importance
• Knowledge that the world was round
• Ferdinand and Isabella's sponsorship of Columbus


  Caused by the reasons above
• Columbus' first voyage in 1492
• A royal decree required the Spanish port of Palos to provide Columbus with all the services he required
• The Pinzon brothers, captains of the Nina and the Pinta, recruited most of the 80 or so men who were going to sail
• There were neither soldiers nor any would-be settlers on board: this was a voyage of exploration and discovery
• Unusually, for the time, there was no priest either
• The ships were equipped with the usual supplies that would have been taken on exploratory voyages along the coast of Africa
• Columbus also took a number of blank pages: he was intending to keep a journal to record the voyage-something which was most unusual for the time
• Longitude, which tells sailors their east-west position, was unknown at the time of Columbus
• Latitude, which tells sailors their north-south position, was worked out in Columbus' time by measuring the angle of the sun at midday, using a quadrant
• Dead reckoning was used by sailors to work out their position, by calculating speed and distance from the starting point
• At 8 o'clock on the morning of 3 August 1492, the three ships slipped out of Palos harbour, heading for the Canaries - islands owned by Spain
• Shortly after setting out, Columbus had news from the captain of another ship that three Portuguese caravels were lurking in the eastern Atlantic, probably hoping to obstruct his voyage
• Columbus realised that the sailors might become distressed the further they sailed from the Canaries without sighting land
• On 10 September, after four days' sailing, he began keeping two sets of logs: in one, he recorded accurately the distance they had sailed - and this he kept secret; in the other, he recorded a shorter distance - so as not to frighten his crew
• By 24 September, the crews became restless. None of the sailors had been out of sight of land for so long before. The crew seemed close to mutiny