This story can be read independently... but it would make much more sense if it is read as a continuum of my previous post "Tarık bin Ziyad's famous speech in Gibraltar and 780 years of Muslim sovereignity in Spain"
Isabella was the queen of Castile. She married with Ferdinand II of Aragon. The marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand joined the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. The two shared power equally, established a code of law, strengthened the monarchy and facilitated the dismantling of power of the nobles within their kingdom. During their reign, they supported each other in accordance with their joint motto: Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando ("They amount to the same, Isabella and Ferdinand").
On January 2, 1942, the Spanish forces of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile laid siege to the walled Granada for 4 months till Emir Muhammad XII of Granada agrees to surrender. Fall of Granada ended the 780 years long Muslim existance in the Iberian Peninsula. This is called as reconquista.
This was a turning point for the Iberian Peninsula, completing the re-conquest of Spain. Thus established the foundation for the political unification of Spain that occurred during the reign of their grandson, Carlos I of Spain. Spain was united under the crown, power was centralized. The reconquista was successfully concluded. A legal framework was created. The Catholic Church was reformed. Even without the benefit of the American expansion, Spain would have been a major European power.
However, there was a brave Spaniard called Christopher Columbus who was going to change all rules of the game... I will go on with him soon but lets turn back to Royal family once more. In spite of military and political successes, the queen Isabella was unhappy because Ferdinand the king was impotent. (this is known as a fact since upon king's death, doctors have found many foods which is known as sexual afrodiziac in his stomach during autopsy).
It seems Christopher Columbus was more capable of than he seems. The King have heard things which have driven him crazy. He had to get rid of him.
Columbus had plans. He was planing to find a way to go to India and looking for sponsorship for this expensive but if achieved, very profitable trip. He prepared a proposal and applied to King of Portugal in 1985. The king forwarded his application to a committee which rejected him because his forecast of 2800 miles was too much optimistic and therefore underestimating the total cost of the trip.
Columbus also applied to Spain in 1986, long before the reconquista. He could get an acceptance but could not started the journey since they could not had an agreement over the terms of the patronage.
Some say the Kingdom had many expenses to finance the reconquista and political instability to finance this adventerous trip. Some say Isabella needed him around for obvious reasons and did not wanted him to leave. We will never know.
However we know something, as the Kingdom captured the whole peninsula, Columbus' terms were approved. They say the King didnt want him to be around anymore. It was a win-win situation for both the king and Columbus. Columbus was going to leave to realize his dreams and the King will be alone with Isabella. However, the impotent king was thinking himself a bit smarter than he was. The king was believing that the world is flat like the vast majority. So the Columbus was going to fall from the edge of the world.
Columbus departed on August 3, 1492 from Palos de la Frontera with three ships; one larger carrack, Santa Maria, nicknamed Gallega (the Galician), and two smaller caravels, Pinta (the Painted) and Santa Clara, nicknamed Nina after her owner.
Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands, which were owned by Castile, where he restocked the provisions and made repairs. On 6 September he departed San Sebastian de la Gomera for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.
On 12 October 1492, the land was seen by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermejo) aboard Pinta. Columbus called the island (in what is now The Bahamas) San Salvador.
Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba and landed on 28 October.
Columbus headed back for Spain, but another storm forced him to land into Lisbon. He anchored next to the King's harbor patrol ship on 4 March 1493 in Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. He crossed the bar of Saltes and entered the harbour of Palos on 15 March 1493. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe.
Columbus' discovery set the country on the course for the first modern world power, starting the Golden Age of Spain that has lasted 200 years, making himself the most successful and famous Spanish ever. I would like to see the face of the impotent king Ferdinand when Columbus turned back with a full ship of gold and slaves from the new world:)
No achievement comes without a price. There is increasing modern scientific evidence that this voyage also brought syphilis back from the New World. Many of the crew members who served on this voyage later joined the army of King Charles VIII in his invasion of Italy in 1495 resulting in the spreading of the disease across Europe and as many as 5 million deaths.
Between 1492 and 1503, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, all of them under the sponsorship of the Crown of Castile. These voyages marked the beginning of the European exploration and colonization of the American continents, and are thus of enormous significance in Western history. Columbus himself always insisted, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, that the lands that he visited during those voyages were part of the Asian continent. Columbus's refusal to accept that the lands he had visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia might explain, in part, why the American continent was named after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci and not after Columbus.
This always sounded a bit funny to me. How can someone can mix a place that he has never been with another place that he has also never been:)
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