Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

=== 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>