Columbus announces his ‘discovery’ of the Americas

The explorer’s letter sparks an age of colonisation

WhenChristopher Columbus put pen to paper on 15 February 1493, even he could scarcely have imagined that he was writing one of the most important letters in history. The previous August, the Genoese seaman had set sail from Spain, hoping to find a route to the Indies across the Atlantic. Now, returning home with empty ships, he was keen to mollify his financial backers with news of his extraordinary discoveries.

According to Columbus, he had reached the Indies, “all of which I took possession for our Highnesses, with proclaiming heralds and flying royal standards, and no one objecting”. The natives, he reported, were cowardly and half-dressed, “like beasts”, and ripe for conquest. Indeed, he was at pains to portray the islands as a paradise of natural resources, “very suitable for planting and cultivating”, with “many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals”.

The most eye-catching part of Columbus’s famous letter was his warning that “monsters” might be lurking somewhere in the Indies. The natives had told him of long-haired cannibals who ate human flesh. But that, he added, should not put his backers off. If the Spanish monarchs continued to support him, there was no limit to the wealth they might gain.

Columbus’s letter was a sensation, and news soon spread far and wide. Within weeks, a Spanish version was being printed in Barcelona, and within a year, different Latin versions had been printed in Rome, Paris, Basel and Antwerp. By 1500, some 3,000 copies were circulating across Europe. The age of colonisation had begun.