Today in History: Read the contract Christopher Columbus signed on this day, tasking him with finding the Indies, in 1492
Christopher Columbus is widely regarded as the man who discovered the 'New World' in 1492, sparking the continuous colonisation of the Americas by the Europeans.
While the earliest record of settlers in the Americas predates Christopher Columbus by close to 500 years, he is still considered by many as the first man to discover the Americas.
In the early 1490s, Columbus proposed to the Spanish that he travel West in search of the East, believing he would be able to come up with a more direct route to reach the Indies (Asia).
Italian-born Columbus would sign a contract on 17 April 1492 that assigned to him the task of sailing West.
In the contract, officiated over by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, it was stated that he shall spread the word of God in his travels and that any islands or mainlands he discovers shall become his property.
He set off on his first voyage on 3 August, 1492, but didn’t reach mainland North or South America – instead he reached what is now the West Indies.
He reached mainland South America on his third voyage in 1498, and finally mainland North America on his fourth and final voyage in 1502. A translated version of the contract printed in JB Thatcher’s Christopher Columbus, His Life and Work Volume 2 (1903) reads:
“The things supplicated and which your Highnesses give and declare to Christopher Columbus in some satisfaction … for the voyage which now, with the aid of God, he is about to make therein, in the service of your Highnesses, are as follows:
“Firstly, that your Highnesses as Lords that are of the said oceans, make from this time the said Don Christopher Columbus your Admiral in all those islands and mainlands which by his hand and industry shall be discovered or acquired in the said oceans, during his life, and after his death, his heirs and successors, from one to another perpetually, with all the preeminences and prerogatives belonging to the said office …
“Likewise, that your Highnesses make the said Don Christopher your Viceroy and Governor General in all the said islands and mainlands and islands which as has been said, he may discover or acquire in the said seas; and that for the government of each one and of any one of them, he may make selection of three persons for each office, and that your Highnesses may choose and select the one who shall be most serviceable to you, and thus the lands which our Lord shall permit him to discover and acquire will be better governed, in the service of your Highnesses …
“Item, that all and whatever merchandise, whether it be pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other things whatsoever, and merchandise of whatever kind, name, and manner it may be, which may be bought, bartered, discovered, acquired, or obtained within the limits of the said Admiralty, your Highnesses grant henceforth to the said Don Christopher, and will that he may have and take for himself, the tenth part of all of them, deducting all the expenses which may be incurred therein; so that of what shall remain free and clear, he may have and take the tenth part for himself, and do with it as he wills, the other nine parts remaining for your Highnesses …
“Item, that in all the vessels which may be equipped for the said traffic and negotiation each time and whenever and as often as they may be equipped, the said Admiral Don Christopher Columbus may, if be wishes, contribute and pay the eighth part of all that may be expended in the equipment. And also that he may have and take of the profit, the eighth part of all which may result from such equipment …
“These are executed and despatched with the responses of your Highnesses at the end of each article in the town of Santa Fe de la Vega de Granada, on the seventeenth day of April in the year of the nativity of our Savior Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and ninety-two.”
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