Student Question
What was Columbus's purpose for writing the first voyage letter?
Quick answer:
Columbus's purpose in writing the letter from his first voyage is to inform Ferdinand and Isabella that his journey has been a success. He claims to have found islands off the west coast of India, not far from China. He also wants the king and queen, as well as the rest of Europe, to know he has claimed these islands for Spain and believes they will be lucrative possessions. Notably, he makes no claim of having discovered a new continent.
Columbus had several purposes in writing the letter from his first voyage to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. First, he wanted to reassure these patrons that his journey was a success: they did not waste their funds. Second, he wanted to announce he had successfully found a western route to India. Columbus was still unaware that he had bumped into islands in the Caribbean on the shore of a new and unknown continent. As he wrote in his letter, he believed he had discovered islands in the Indian Ocean to the west of India. He believed these islands were not far from China.
Not only did Columbus want to announce he had succeeded in his journey, he wanted to inform his sponsors (and the rest of Europe) that he has claimed the islands he and his men explored for Spain. He also wanted to show the trip was...
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not a waste of money by describing the islands as full of favorable prospects for colonization and for the acquisition of valuable resources. He explained that the natives there had no weapons and were timid and friendly, implying that Spain would have no problem taking possession of these lands.
Although Columbus chiefly wished to proclaim he had found the western part of India and promote its potential, he also stated that the natives would be easily converted to Catholicism. This adds a veneer of disinterested respectability to what he primarily presented as a good financial prospect for Spain.
Notably, Columbus makes no claim to have discovered a new continent, though that is in fact what he had done.
Why did Christopher Columbus write letters?
In 1492, Christopher Columbus set forth from Spain with the aim of discovering a direct navigable route from Europe to Asia. A direct navigable route between the two continents would have made intercontinental trade much easier. Columbus did not discover any such route, however, but instead accidentally "discovered" the American continent. He landed first on an island in what is now known as the Bahamas but which at the time was known as Guanahaní. When he returned to Spain, he wrote a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to announce his discovery of the continent. This, ostensibly, was his main reason for writing the letter.
In his letter to the king and queen, Columbus also described the native people he met on the American continent. He noted that the indigenous people were "timid and full of terror." He also noted that they seemed to have no form of government and, significantly, that they were unarmed. He also suggested that because the native people were so timid and vulnerable, Spain might easily invade and conquer the territory. In fact, Columbus boasted that he had already taken possession of much of the land in Spain's name, simply by declaring that the land now belonged to Spain and planting the king's flag in the soil.
It is clear, therefore, that Columbus wrote this letter not only to inform the king and queen about a new land that he had discovered, but also to encourage them to invade and conquer the land for Spain.