Gold/God/Glory:
Spain was opened to an accident world when they sent columbus off on his quest to find the Indies. It was a quest in which Spain wanted glory over Europe, and gold from the trade. If it had been the Indies, Spain would have found a back route and the middle men in the middle east would have been cut out. Portugal would have had some fierce competition from the back route traders. Eventually after Spain realized what they had discovered then it became a quest for God. While the gold mines and such did fuel Spain's economy the whole Catholic missionary thing was more important. Columbus did go back to the Americas after his first visit, but on the ground to bring catholicism to the indians. Sadly....Columbus went crazy, or so it is said and died a few years after his great discovery. Personal gain and glory went to the explorers who decided to conquer the indians in the name of Spain, but Spain in turn got the glory. The whole God part came as an after thought and I can't help but winder if they would have tried to convert the Chinese and Asians whom they would have traded with, or if it was only because it was an unknown people.
2 comments:
Just a question... how did Columbus find out he wasn't actually in the Indies? How long did it take him to figure it out?
Columbus was actually not the one who figured out that he had sailed to America. He died in 1506 with the belief that he had in fact made it to the Indies. It was when Magellan sailed west for Asia in 1519 that they realized Columbus had actually discovered the New World.
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