Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

== Quest for Asia ==

=== Background ===
[[File:Atlantic Ocean, Toscanelli, 1474.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli|Toscanelli]]'s notions of the geography of the Atlantic Ocean (shown superimposed on a modern map), which directly influenced Columbus's plans]]

Under the [[Mongol Empire]]'s hegemony over Asia and the ''[[Pax Mongolica]]'', Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage on the [[Silk Road]] to [[India]], parts of [[East Asia]], including [[China]] and [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], which were sources of valuable goods. With the [[fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1453, the Silk Road was closed to Christian traders.<ref name="DavidannGilbert2019">{{cite book |last1=Davidann |first1=Jon |last2=Gilbert |first2=Marc Jason |title=Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1453–Present |year=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-75924-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f6GDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39 |page=39}}</ref>

In 1474, the Florentine astronomer [[Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli]] suggested to King [[Afonso V of Portugal]] that sailing west across the Atlantic would be a quicker way to reach Asia than the route around Africa, but Afonso rejected his proposal.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=108}}<ref name="Boxer1967">{{cite book |last1=Boxer |first1=Charles Ralph |title=The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650 |year=1967 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2R4DA2lip9gC&pg=PA2}}</ref> In the 1480s, Columbus and his brother proposed a plan to reach the [[East Indies]] by sailing west. Columbus supposedly wrote to Toscanelli in 1481 and received encouragement, along with a copy of a map the astronomer had sent Afonso implying that a westward route to Asia was possible.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=227}} Columbus's plans were complicated by [[Bartolomeu Dias]]'s rounding of the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1488, which suggested the [[Cape Route]] around Africa to Asia.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=}}

Columbus had to wait until 1492 for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his voyage across the Atlantic to find gold, spices, a safer route to the East, and converts to Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muzio |first=Tim Di |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-LaDwAAQBAJ |title=The Tragedy of Human Development: A Genealogy of Capital as Power |year=2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-78348-715-8 |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Echevarría |first1=Roberto Gonzalez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8lrcKp81eawC |title=The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature |last2=Pupo-Walker |first2=Enrique |year=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-34069-4 |page=63}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Johanyak |first1=D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UzFAAAAQBAJ |title=The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia |last2=Lim |first2=W. |year=2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-10622-2 |page=136}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=William Casey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UElGCn0QN3gC&pg=PT166 |title=Ambition, A History: From Vice to Virtue |year=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-18984-1}}</ref>

[[Carol Delaney]] and other commentators have argued that Columbus was a [[Millennialism|Christian millennialist]] and [[apocalypticist]] and that these beliefs motivated his quest for Asia in a variety of ways. Columbus often wrote about seeking gold in the log books of his voyages and writes about acquiring it "in such quantity that the sovereigns... will undertake and prepare to go conquer the [[Holy Sepulcher]]" in a fulfillment of [[Biblical prophecy]].{{efn|In an account of his fourth voyage, Columbus wrote that "[[Jerusalem]] and [[Mount Zion|Mount Sion]] must be rebuilt by Christian hands".<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Sheehan |first1=Kevin Joseph |title=Iberian Asia: the strategies of Spanish and Portuguese empire building, 1540–1700 |year=2008 |id={{ProQuest|304693901}} |oclc=892835540}}{{page needed|date=June 2020}}</ref>}} Columbus often wrote about [[Conversion to Christianity|converting]] all races to Christianity.<ref name="jstor3879352">{{cite journal |last1=Delaney |first1=Carol |author-link=Carol Delaney |date=8 March 2006 |title=Columbus's Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f671/e4f2cd4ba48c3d113fde22094738b87058aa.pdf |journal=[[Comparative Studies in Society and History]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=260–92 |doi=10.1017/S0010417506000119 |jstor=3879352 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226123645/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f671/e4f2cd4ba48c3d113fde22094738b87058aa.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2020 |s2cid=144148903}}</ref> Abbas Hamandi argues that Columbus was motivated by the hope of "[delivering] Jerusalem from Muslim hands" by "using the resources of newly discovered lands".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hamdani |first1=Abbas |year=1979 |title=Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] |publisher=[[American Oriental Society]] |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=39–48 |jstor=598947}}</ref>

=== Geographical considerations ===
Despite [[Myth of the flat Earth|a popular misconception]] to the contrary, nearly all educated Westerners of Columbus's time knew that the [[Spherical Earth|Earth is spherical]], a concept that had been understood since [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]].{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=244}} The techniques of [[celestial navigation]], which uses the position of the Sun and the stars in the sky, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners.<ref name="Willoz-Egnor2013">{{cite web |last1=Willoz-Egnor |first1=Jeanne |title=Mariner's Astrolabe |url=https://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=25 |url-status=live |year=2013 |access-date=5 July 2021 |website=[[Institute of Navigation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202740/http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=25 |archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="Smith2002">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Ben |title=An astrolabe from Passa Pau, Cape Verde Islands |journal=International Journal of Nautical Archaeology |date=1 January 2002 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=99–107 |doi=10.1006/ijna.2002.1021 |bibcode=2002IJNAr..31...99S |url=https://www.academia.edu/31744402}}</ref><!-- Please do not remove url just because the DOI is given; the webpage has a link to a free download, and the very good paper can be read right there. -->

However, Columbus made several errors in calculating the size of the Earth, the distance the continent extended to the east, and therefore the distance to the west to reach his goal.

First, as far back as the 3rd century&nbsp;BC, [[Eratosthenes]] had correctly computed the circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two remote locations.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe |last=Ridpath |first=Ian |publisher=Watson-Guptill |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8230-2512-1 |location=New York |page=31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Carl |last=Sagan |author-link=Carl Sagan |title=Cosmos |publisher=[[Random House]] |url=https://archive.org/details/cosmossaga00saga/page/14/mode/2up?q=Eratosthenes |location=New York |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-394-50294-6 |pages=34–35 |access-date=20 February 2022 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the 1st century&nbsp;BC, [[Posidonius]] confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but Ptolemy's use of the smaller, old-fashioned units of distance led Columbus to underestimate the size of the Earth by about a third.<ref name="Freely2013">{{cite book |last=Freely |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsWSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT36 |title=Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe |publisher=[[Abrams Books]] |location=New York |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4683-0850-1 |page=36}}</ref>

[[File:ColombusMap.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|"Columbus map", drawn c.&nbsp;1490 in the [[Lisbon]] mapmaking workshop of Bartholomew and Christopher Columbus<ref>"Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", p. 37. {{ISBN|978-2-35404-007-9}}</ref>]]

Second, three [[cosmographical]] parameters determined the bounds of Columbus's enterprise: the distance across the ocean between Europe and Asia, which depended on the extent of the [[oikumene]], i.e., the Eurasian land-mass stretching east–west between Spain and China; the circumference of the Earth; and the number of miles or [[League (unit)|leagues]] in a degree of [[longitude]], which was possible to deduce from the theory of the relationship between the size of the surfaces of water and the land as held by the followers of [[Aristotle]] in medieval times.<ref name="Randles1990">{{cite journal |last1=Randles |first1=W. G. L. |title=The Evaluation of Columbus' 'India' Project by Portuguese and Spanish Cosmographers in the Light of the Geographical Science of the Period |journal=Imago Mundi |date=January 1990 |volume=42 |issue=1 |page=50 |doi=10.1080/03085699008592691 |s2cid=129588714 |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/~corry/teaching/histint/download/Randles_Columbus.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.tau.ac.il/~corry/teaching/histint/download/Randles_Columbus.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |issn=0308-5694}}</ref>

From [[Pierre d'Ailly]]'s ''{{lang|la|[[Imago Mundi (Pierre d'Ailly)|Imago Mundi]]}}'' (1410), Columbus learned of [[Alfraganus]]'s estimate that a degree of [[latitude]] (equal to approximately a degree of [[longitude]] along the equator) spanned 56.67&nbsp;[[Arabic mile]]s (equivalent to {{convert|66.2|nmi|km|1|abbr=off|sp=us|disp=comma}} or 76.2&nbsp;mi), but he did not realize that this was expressed in the Arabic mile (about {{Convert|1,830|m|mi|abbr=out|sp=us|disp=or}}) rather than the shorter [[Roman mile]] (about 1,480&nbsp;m) with which he was familiar.<ref name="Mahmud2017">{{cite journal |last1=Khairunnahar |last2=Mahmud |first2=Khandakar Hasan |last3=Islam |first3=Md Ariful |title=Error calculation of the selected maps used in the Great Voyage of Christopher Columbus |journal=The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II |year=2017 |volume=XLI |page=67 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348442261 |access-date=9 January 2022 |publisher=Jahangirnagar University |issn=1682-7422}}</ref> Columbus therefore estimated the size of the Earth to be about 75% of Eratosthenes's calculation.<ref name="McCormick2012">{{cite web |last1=McCormick |first1=Douglas |title=Columbus's Geographical Miscalculations |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/columbuss-geographical-miscalculations |website=IEEE Spectrum |access-date=9 January 2022 |date=9 October 2012}}</ref>

Third, most scholars of the time accepted Ptolemy's estimate that [[Eurasia]] spanned 180° longitude,<ref name="Gunn2018">{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=Overcoming Ptolemy: The Revelation of an Asian World Region |date=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-9014-3 |pages=77–78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCRyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |quote=Constructed on a framework of latitude and longitude, the Ptolemy-revival map projections revealed the extent of the known world in relation to the whole. Typically, they displayed a Eurasian landmass extending through 180° of longitude from a prime meridian in the west (variously the Canary Islands or Cape Verde) to a location in the "Far East."}}</ref> rather than the actual 130° (to the Chinese mainland) or 150° (to Japan at the latitude of Spain). Columbus believed an even higher estimate, leaving a smaller percentage for water.<ref name="Zacher2016">{{cite book |last1=Zacher |first1=Christian K. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |pages=676–677 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA676}}</ref> In d'Ailly's ''{{lang|la|Imago Mundi}}'', Columbus read [[Marinus of Tyre]]'s estimate that the longitudinal span of Eurasia was 225° at the latitude of [[Rhodes]].<ref name="Dilke2016">{{cite book |last1=Dilke |first1=O. A. W. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=452 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA452 |chapter=Marinus of Tyre}}</ref> Some historians, such as [[Samuel Eliot  Morison]], have suggested that he followed the statement in the [[Biblical apocrypha|apocryphal]] book [[2 Esdras]] ([[:wikisource:Bible (King James)/II Esdras#Chapter 6|6:42]]) that "six parts [of the globe] are habitable and the seventh is covered with water."<ref name="Morison1974">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |title=The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492–1616 |date=1974 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501377-1 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4sOAQAAMAAJ&q=%222%20Esdras%22}}</ref> He was also aware of Marco Polo's claim that Japan (which he called "Cipangu") was some {{Convert|2414|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the east of China ("Cathay"),<ref name="Butel2002">{{cite book |last1=Butel |first1=Paul |title=The Atlantic |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-84305-3 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLGIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47}}</ref> and closer to the equator than it is. He was influenced by Toscanelli's idea that there were inhabited islands even farther to the east than Japan, including the mythical [[Antillia]], which he thought might lie not much farther to the west than the [[Azores]],{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=}} and the distance westward from the [[Canary Islands]] to the Indies as only 68 degrees, equivalent to {{Convert|3080|nmi|abbr=on}} (a 58% error).<ref name="McCormick2012" />

Based on his sources, Columbus estimated a distance of {{convert|2,400|nmi|abbr=on}} from the Canary Islands west to Japan; the actual distance is {{convert|10600|nmi|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=110}}<ref name="Edson2007">{{cite book |last1=Edson |first1=Evelyn |title=The World Map, 1300–1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation |year=2007 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-8589-1 |page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhgYlhXJy_QC&pg=PA205}}</ref> No ship in the 15th century could have carried enough food and fresh water for such a long voyage,<ref name="Taylor2002">{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alan |title=American Colonies: The Settling of North America (The Penguin History of the United States, Volume 1) |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-200210-0 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPoAQRgkrOcC&pg=PA34}}</ref> and the dangers involved in navigating through the uncharted ocean would have been formidable. Most European navigators reasonably concluded that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was unfeasible. The Catholic Monarchs, however, having completed the {{lang|es|[[Reconquista]]}}, an expensive war against the [[Moors]] in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], were eager to obtain a competitive edge over other European countries in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus's project, though far-fetched, held the promise of such an advantage.<ref>{{cite book |first=De Lamar |last=Jensen |date=1992 |title=Renaissance Europe |publisher=[[D.C. Heath and Company]] |location=Lexington, Massachusetts |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-669-20007-2 |page=341}}</ref>
[[File:Christopher Columbus at the gates of the monastery of Santa Maria de la Rabida with his son Diego (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|''Christopher Columbus at the gates of the monastery of Santa María de la Rábida with his son [[Diego Columbus|Diego]]'', by [[Benet Mercadé]]]]

=== Nautical considerations ===
Though Columbus was wrong about the number of degrees of longitude that separated Europe from the Far East and about the distance that each degree represented, he did take advantage of the [[trade winds]], which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. He planned to first sail to the Canary Islands before continuing west with the northeast trade wind.<ref name="Gómez2008">{{cite book |last1=Gómez |first1=Nicolás Wey |title=The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies |year=2008 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23264-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLntAAAAMAAJ&q=%22northeastern%20trade%20winds%22 |page=37 |quote=It is also known that wind patterns and water currents in the Atlantic were crucial factors for launching an outward passage from the Canaries: Columbus understood that his chance of crossing the ocean was significantly greater just beyond the Canary calms, where he expected to catch the northeastern trade winds—although, as some authors have pointed out, "westing" from the Canaries, instead of dipping farther south, was hardly an optimal sailing choice, since Columbus's fleet was bound to lose, as soon it did, the northeasterlies in the mid-Atlantic.}}</ref> Part of the return to Spain would require traveling against the wind using an arduous sailing technique called [[Point of sail#Close-hauled|beating]], during which progress is made very slowly.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=132}} To effectively make the return voyage, Columbus would need to follow the curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where he would be able to catch the [[westerlies]] that blow eastward to the coast of Western Europe.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=314}}

The navigational technique for travel in the Atlantic appears to have been exploited first by the Portuguese, who referred to it as the {{lang|pt|[[volta do mar]]}} ('turn of the sea'). Through his marriage to his first wife, Felipa Perestrello, Columbus had access to the nautical charts and logs that had belonged to her deceased father, [[Bartolomeu Perestrello]], who had served as a captain in the Portuguese navy under [[Prince Henry the Navigator]]. In the mapmaking shop where he worked with his brother Bartholomew, Columbus also had ample opportunity to hear the stories of old seamen about their voyages to the western seas,<ref name="Rickey1992">{{cite journal |last1=Rickey |first1=V. Frederick |title=How Columbus Encountered America |journal=Mathematics Magazine |date=1992 |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=219–225 |jstor=2691445 |issn=0025-570X}}</ref> but his knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns was still imperfect at the time of his first voyage. By sailing due west from the Canary Islands during [[Atlantic hurricane season|hurricane season]], skirting the so-called [[horse latitudes]] of the mid-Atlantic, he risked being becalmed and running into a [[tropical cyclone]], both of which he avoided by chance.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=198–199}}

=== Quest for financial support for a voyage ===
[[File:Columbus offers his services to the King of Portugal - Daniel Nicholas Chodowiecki (cropped).png|thumb|upright=0.75|''Columbus offers his services to the King of Portugal''; [[Daniel Chodowiecki|Chodowiecki]], 17th&nbsp;century]]

By about 1484, Columbus proposed his planned voyage to King [[John II of Portugal]].<ref name="Rickey1992224">{{cite journal |last1=Rickey |first1=V. Frederick |title=How Columbus Encountered America |journal=Mathematics Magazine |date=1992 |volume=65 |issue=4 |page=224 |jstor=2691445 |issn=0025-570X}}</ref> The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on the grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400&nbsp;nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=68–70}} In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards [[Bartolomeu Dias]] returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near the [[Cape of Good Hope]]).<ref name="Pinheiro-Marques2016">{{cite book |last1=Pinheiro-Marques |first1=Alfredo |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=97 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |chapter=Diogo Cão}}</ref><ref name="SymcoxSullivan2016">{{cite book |last1=Symcox |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Sullivan |first2=Blair |title=Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-08059-2 |pages=11–12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVEBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |quote=in 1488 Columbus returned to Portugal and once again put his project to João II. Again it was rejected. In historical hindsight this looks like a fatally missed opportunity for the Portuguese crown, but the king had good reason not to accept Columbus's project. His panel of experts cast grave doubts on the assumptions behind it, noting that Columbus had underestimated the distance to China. And then in December 1488 Bartolomeu Dias returned from his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. Certain now that they had found the sea route to India and the east, João II and his advisers had no further interest in what probably seemed to them a hare-brained and risky plan.}}</ref>
[[File:Rabida1.jpg|thumb|[[La Rábida Friary|Monastery of La Rábida]], in which Columbus stayed in the years before his first expedition]]
Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] and [[Isabella I of Castile]], who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who in turn referred it to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated the distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an allowance, totaling about 14,000 {{lang|es|[[maravedis]]}} for the year, or about the annual salary of a sailor.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=84}} In May 1489, the queen sent him another 10,000 {{lang|es|maravedis}}, and the same year the monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their dominion to provide him food and lodging at no cost.<ref>Durant, Will ''The Story of Civilization'' vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, p. 260.</ref>

Columbus also dispatched his brother [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]] to the court of [[Henry VII of England]] to inquire whether the English Crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early 1491.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=86, 92}} By that time, Columbus had retreated to [[La Rábida Friary]], where the Spanish Crown sent him 20,000 ''maravedis'' to buy new clothes and instructions to return to the [[Cortes Generales|Spanish court]] for renewed discussions.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=92}}

=== Agreement with the Spanish Crown ===
[[File:Various roofs and towers of Alhambra, from Generalife gardens, Granada, Spain.jpg|thumb|The [[Alhambra]], where Columbus received permission from the [[Catholic Monarchs]] for his first voyage<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morrison |first=Geoffrey |date=15 October 2015 |title=Exploring The Alhambra Palace And Fortress In Granada, Spain |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/10/15/exploring-the-alhambra-palace-granada-spain/ |url-status=live |access-date=24 May 2021 |website=Forbes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016073235/http://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/10/15/exploring-the-alhambra-palace-granada-spain/ |archive-date=16 October 2015}}</ref>]]

Columbus waited at King Ferdinand's camp until Ferdinand and Isabella conquered [[Granada]], the [[Emirate of Granada|last Muslim stronghold]] on the Iberian Peninsula, in January 1492. A council led by Isabella's confessor, [[Hernando de Talavera]], found Columbus's proposal to reach the Indies implausible. Columbus had left for France when Ferdinand intervened,{{Efn|Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered."{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–132}}}} first sending Talavera and Bishop [[Diego Deza]] to appeal to the queen.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–32}} Isabella was finally convinced by the king's clerk [[Luis de Santángel]], who argued that Columbus would take his ideas elsewhere, and offered to help arrange the funding. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch Columbus, who had traveled 2 leagues (over 10&nbsp;km) toward Córdoba.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–132}}

In the April 1492 "[[Capitulations of Santa Fe]]", King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella promised Columbus that if he succeeded he would be given the rank of ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea'' and appointed [[Viceroy]] and Governor of all the new lands he might claim for Spain.<ref name="Lantigua2020">{{cite book |last1=Lantigua |first1=David M. |title=Infidels and Empires in a New World Order: Early Modern Spanish Contributions to International Legal Thought |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49826-5 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RzhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 |quote=The ''Capitulaciones de Santa Fe'' appointed Columbus as the official viceroy of the Crown, which entitled him, by virtue of royal concession, to all the honors and jurisdictions accorded the conquerors of the Canaries. Usage of the terms "to discover" (''descubrir'') and "to acquire" (''ganar'') were legal cues indicating the goals of Spanish possession through occupancy and conquest.}}</ref> He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to one-tenth ({{lang|es|[[diezmo]]}}) of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. He also would have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture in the new lands, and receive one-eighth ({{lang|es|ochavo}}) of the profits.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=662}}<ref name="González-Sánchez2006">{{cite book |last1=González Sánchez |first1=Carlos Alberto |editor1-last=Kaufman |editor1-first=Will |editor2-last=Francis |editor2-first=John Michael |editor2-link=J. Michael Francis |title=Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-421-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA175 |chapter=Capitulations of Santa Fe |pages=175–176}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/mardigitalrevistas/cuadernosihcn/50cuaderno/cap02.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/mardigitalrevistas/cuadernosihcn/50cuaderno/cap02.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |title=Cristóbal Colón en presencia de la muerte (1505–1506) |first=Mario Hernández |last=Sánchez-Barba |journal=Cuadernos Monográficos del Instituto de Historia y Cultural Naval |issue=50 |location=Madrid |year=2006 |page=51}}</ref>

In 1500, during his third voyage to the Americas, Columbus was arrested and dismissed from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conducted a lengthy series of court cases against the Castilian Crown, known as the {{lang|es|[[pleitos colombinos]]}}, alleging that the Crown had illegally reneged on its contractual obligations to Columbus and his heirs.<ref name="Márquez1982">{{cite book |last1=Márquez |first1=Luis Arranz |title=Don Diego Colón, almirante, virrey y gobernador de las Indias |date=1982 |publisher=Editorial CSIC – CSIC Press |isbn=978-84-00-05156-3 |page=175, note 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kRhygUNmg4UC&pg=PA175 |language=es}}</ref> The Columbus family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as viceroy but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes initiated by heirs continued until 1790.<ref name="McDonald2005" />