5.12 Spain, Columbus, and the Great Dying

The eagerness of the people of the Renaissance to recreate a golden age – a “rebirth” of civilization – fueled the search for more land, more wealth and more power. Many important voyages of discovery of the early modern period were undertaken by agents of the Spanish monarchy, starting with that of Christopher Columbus in 1492. They were inspired by religious fervor as much as a practical desire for riches – fresh off the successful Reconquista, Queen Isabella agreed with Columbus’s vision. The voyage was thought to be feasible both because all educated people already accepted that the world was round (common knowledge since the days of ancient Greece) and because the circumference of the globe was not really clear to them; it simply was not known how long one would have to sail west to reach the east. Columbus himself had totally inaccurate beliefs about the distance between Europe and Asia – he based his geography on an ancient (and completely inaccurate) account by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy and he thought that Asia was not far west of Europe. Despite being disliked and distrusted by most of the rulers he had approached in the past, Columbus succeeded in winning Isabella over to his vision, and she paid to outfit him with a tiny fleet. Columbus departed in August of 1492 with three small boats – the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria – and 90 men. They arrived in the Bahamas in October.

Columbus ended up spearheading everything the Spanish empire was to represent in the Americas: brutality against the native “Indians,” attempts to convert Indians by force, intense greed for precious metals, and the introduction of pathogens against which the native people had absolutely no resistance.

Historians refer to the demographic catastrophe that accompanied the European encounter with the Americas and the unexpected transmission of diseases as the Great Dying. As much as 90% of the native people of the Americas died within a few generations of Columbus’s arrival. While the Spanish and Portuguese did win some noteworthy military engagements with native forces, due largely to their use of steel weapons and horses, their true military advantage lay in germ warfare.

The quest for more power, wealth and land led to the creation of empire. Almost immediately after Columbus’s return to Spain after his expedition, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain grasped the significance of his discovery and actively funded more expeditions and, soon, colonists. The Spanish crown also quickly tried to cement its hold on the New World – they petitioned the pope to grant them everything across the Atlantic. After papal intervention and negotiations between the Spanish and Portuguese, the Spanish were to receive everything west of an arbitrary line on the map 1,100 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, with everything to the east granted to the Portuguese. Practically speaking, this meant that the Portuguese concentrated their colonization efforts on Brazil, Africa, and India, while the Spanish concentrated on the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Needless to say, the other European powers were not about to honor this agreement, called the Treaty of Tordesillas and dating to 1494, but it gave the Spanish and Portuguese a considerable head start.

The Conquistadors were the military explorers sent by the Spanish crown to the Americas to claim land, convert “heathens,” and enrich both themselves and the crown. They were usually poor noblemen with few prospects back in Spain; in the first generation of explorers many were essentially unemployed knights. Some conquistadors simply launched expeditions to the New World without royal authorization, hoping to seize enough plunder to receive retroactive royal approval.

“Europe Finds a New World.” The Conquest of Mexico. 1991. Films on Demand. Through “Conquistadors Dehumanize New World Peoples.” The Conquest of Mexico. 1991. Films on Demand. 4:34.

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Europeans were not the only explorers. A number of Africans also participated in exploration of the New World and some became conquistadors themselves.

“African-Spanish Conquistadors.” The Black Atlantic (1500-1800): The African Americans—Many Rivers to Cross. 2013. Films on Demand. 2:25.

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