Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus

2. The First Spanish Voyage to the New World

2 The First Spanish Voyage to the New World In the fifteenth century, Seville and Lisbon emerged as centers for merchants and traders trying to extend Europe's long-range trade routes in new and more profitable directions. The traditional eastern orientation of Mediterranean businessmen was threatened by increasing pressure on the spice roads by the Turks. At the same time, the exploration of the West African coast by the Portuguese offered a profitable alternative to the difficult Asian trade (Braudel 1972-74; Pike 1966, 1972; Sauer 1966). The trading families of the city-state of Genoa were especially damaged by Turkish incursions on their eastern colonies and were faced with trade orientations shifting from east to west. Individually , the Genoese families employed a historically successful response to competing possibilities by diversifying; they sent representatives to live in many trading ports in the known world, including the trading centers of Andalusia. By the end of the fifteenth century, there were large and growing colonies of Genoese in Seville and Lisbon (Pike 1966:1-6). They were involved in a wide range of commercial activities, including moneylending and the short-distance trade of grain. They also continued to pursue long-distance trade to the east and north, taking advantage of the pivotal location of Seville and Lisbon between the Atlantic and Mediterranean markets. Their ships traveled from the tip of Africa to Iceland. 1 'In 1477 Cristobal Colon, who had been at sea for 16 years, sailed from Lisbon to Iceland and later to Africa's Gold Coast (Morison 1942:24-25). 35 36 * Hispaniola Lisbon and Sevillein the late fifteenth century were also markets for venture capital-money that could be invested in high-risk but potentially high-return enterprises (Floyd 1973; Perez de Tudela 1983; Pike 1972). The Portuguese success in West Africa reinforced the belief that vast wealth accrued to those who opened up new markets and managed to retain some control over their exploitation. A good example was the fortified trading factory of Sao Jorge da Mina in Ghana, established by Don joao II of Portugal in 1481 (Braudel 1972-74, 1982). Don Diogo d'Azambuja headed the expedition and directed the construction of a castle at the place now called Cape Coast. In 1481, Sao Jorge da Mina was near the forward edge of Portugal's exploratory thrust down the African coast, and it represented a considerable risk on the part of the Portuguese princes and the explorers themselves. Although the ships never left sight of land, the 5,500-km (3,400 mi) voyage to Sao Jorge da Mina was nearly as long as the 6,400-km (4,000 mi) trip to the New World. An ambitious Genoese sailor named Cristobal Colon may have participated in d'Azambuja's 1481 expedition (Morison 1942). In any case, Colon visited Sao Jorge da Mina shortly after its founding. On this and similar voyages for Portuguese entrepreneurs or for the Portuguese crown, Colon gained experience in sailing unknown coasts and in dealing with non-European people. Colon and Toscanelli Colon's personal ambition to sail west across the Atlantic dated to before the trip to the Gold Coast. His remarkable correspondence with the Florentine geographer and astronomer Paolo Toscanelli was going on in the 1470s and ended with Toscanelli's death in 1482. In the seafaring countries of the Mediterranean and Europe, Toscanelli was considered one of the foremost experts on geography and navigation in the period (Markham 1893; Morison 1942; Todorov 1984; Vignaud 1902). Toscanelli combined his calculations of the shape and size of the world with a careful reading of the accounts of the Far East that had been trickling westward with the spice caravans since the thirteenth century. Combining the classic geographic reconstructions of Ptolemy, and including the evidence of Marco Polo's accounts of his expedition to China of the 1270s (and Polo's uncles' trip of the 1260s), Tosca- First Spanish Voyage to the New World * 37 nelli produced a map of the world and estimates of the distance between Portugal and the lands described by the Polos. In reply to Colon's request for information Toscanelli's letter begins as follows: Paul, the Physician, to Cristobal Colombo greeting. I perceive your magnificent and great desire to find a way to where the spices grow, and in reply to your letter I send you the copy of another letter which...