Basic HTML Version
How
erica
Brought
EtJropeans Hope
1t
was a bench–
mark year for
~~~!!!!!!!!!!!~~~
many Europeans.
The Continent was in a state
of discouragement and de–
spair.
Men lamented decaying insti–
tutions and the incursion of an
alien Turkish empire. Much of
southeastern Europe had passed
to Ottoman rule.
Christendom was in bad shape.
The Papacy hit bottom in 1492
when the notorious Rodrigo Borgia
became Pope Alexander VI.
The Nuremberg Chronicle
talked about "the calamity of our
time ... in which iniquity and evil
have increased to the highest
pitch." This respected newspaper
gave its readers six blank pages to
by
John Ross Schroeder
record happenings between 1493
and the Day of Judgment.
This particular edition gloomily
forecast the end of the world soon!
Such was the state of Europe in the
early 1490s.
Four Voyages West
Things always are darkest just be–
fare a new light dawns. Enter
Christopher Columbus- a man im–
bued with a unique vision. A
Spanish-speaking Catholic from
ltaly, h.aving Hebrew ancestry, he
didn't exactly find what he was
looking for. But it turned out aJI
the better for the fl agging Eu–
ropean spi rits. His vision was to
find a shorter route to the lndies in
Asia. What Columbus found was a
large body of land that carne to be
called America (the name courtesy
of a German geographer in honor
of Amerigo Vespucci, another ex–
plorer and a contemporary of
Columbus).
Financing the first voyage did
not come easily. Columbus and his
brother Bartholomew spent eight
long years trying to sell bis vision
to the royal courts of Europe. His
persistence prud off. Queen Isabella
of Spain got a glimpse of Colum–
bus' vision. She and joint ruler,
King Ferdinand, agreed to under–
write the enterprise.
Armed with a letter of introduc–
tion to the Emperor of China,
Columbus set sai l in command of
The Niña, The Pinta
and
The
,-rJ
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