"Will Durant Explores the Life and Voyages of Columbus"

Columbus it was manifest destiny that someone in this age would dare the perils of the Atlantic to find India or cafe for 2,000 years legend had told of an Atlantis across the sea and later myths had placed beyond the Atlantic a fountain whose waters conferred eternal youth the failure of the Crusades compelled the discovery of America the domination of the eastern Mediterranean by the Turks the closing or obstruction of land routes by the Ottomans at Constantinople and by anti-christian dynasties in Persia and Turkestan made the old avenues of east-west trade costly and dangerous Italy and even France might cling to the remnants of that trade over every discouragement of tolls and war but Portugal and Spain were too far west to make such arrangements profitable their problem was to find another route Portugal found one around Africa nothing was left for Spain but to try a passage west the growth of knowledge had long since established the sphericity of the earth the very errors of science encouraged audacity by under estimating the width of the Atlantic and picturing Asia is lying ready for conquest and exploitation on the farther side Scandinavian Mariners had reached Labrador in 986 and 1,000 and it brought back news of an immense continent in 1477 if we may believe his own account Christopher Columbus visited Iceland and presumably heard proud traditions of Leif Eriksson voyage to Vinland all that was needed now for the great adventure was money bravery abounded Columbus himself in the mayor at so or will that he made before setting out on his third voyage across the Atlantic named Genoa as his birthplace it is true that in his extant writings he always calls himself by the Spanish name Cristobal Cologne never by the Italian name Christopher L Columbo but this was presumably because he was writing in Spanish living in Spain or sailing for a Spanish sovereign not because he had been born in Spain possibly his forebears had been Spanish Christianized Jews who had migrated to Italy the evidence of Hebraic blood and sentiment in Columbus is almost convincing his father was a weaver and Christopher o appears to followed that crap for a time in Genoa and Savona the biography written by his son Ferdinand credits him with studying astronomy geometry and cosmography at the University of Pavia but the university records do not list him and he himself tells us that he became a sailor at 14 for in Genoa every road leads down to the sea in 1476 a ship on which he was heading for Lisbon was attacked by pirates the vessel foundered Columbus relates that with the support of some wreckage he swam six miles to the shore but the great Admiral had high powers of imagination a few months later he says he sailed for England as seamen or captain thence to Iceland thence to Lisbon there he married and settled down as a maker of maps and charts his father-in-law was a mariner who had served Prince Henry the Navigator doubtless Columbus heard from him some glowing tales of the Guinea coast in 1482 probably as an officer he joined a Portuguese fleet that sailed that coast to El Nina he read with interest and many annotations Pope Pius the second historia rerum gist Arun which suggested the circumnavigate a of Africa but his studies more and more inclined him to the west he knew that stray bow in the first century of our era had told of an attempt to circle the globe he was familiar with Senecas lines an age will come in after years when ocean will loose the bonds of things and an immense land will appear and the Prophet typhus will reveal new worlds and Thule possibly Iceland will no longer be the end of the earth he had read the book of ser Marco Polo which glorified the riches of China and placed Japan 1500 miles east of the mainland of Asia he made over a thousand notes in his copy of peer dieese imago Mundi he accepted the prevailing estimate of the Earth's circumference as 18,000 to 20,000 miles and combining this with follows displacement of Japan he reckoned that the nearest Asiatic islands would be some 5,000 miles west of Lisbon he had heard of a letter in 1474 in which the florentine physician Paolo Tosca Nellie had advised King Afonso v of Portugal that a shorter way to India than that around Africa could be found by sailing thousand miles west Columbus wrote a Tuscan le and received an encouraging reply his purpose matured and seized in his brain about 1484 he proposed to john ii of portugal that the king should equip three vessels for a year of exploration across the atlantic in fact that columbus should be appointed great Admiral of the ocean and perpetual governor of whatever lands he might discover and that he should receive a tenth of all revenues and precious metals thereafter derived from those lands by Portugal obviously the idea of spreading Christianity was secondary to material considerations the king submitted the proposal to a committee of savants they rejected it on the ground that Columbus's estimate of the distance across the Atlantic as merely 2,400 miles was far too small it was approximately correct from the Canary Islands to the West Indies in 1485 to Portuguese navigators proposed a similar project to King John but agreed to finance it themselves John gave them at least his blessing they sailed in 1487 followed to northern a route encountered rough westerly winds and turned back in despair Columbus renewed his appeal in 1488 the king invited him to an audience Columbus came just in time to witness the triumphant return of Bartolomeo - from a successful rounding of Africa absorbed in prospects of an African route to India the Portuguese government abandoned consideration of a passage across the Atlantic Columbus turned to Genoa and Venice but they too gave him no encouragement for they had a vested interest in the eastward route to the east he commissioned his brother to sound out Henry the seventh of England who invited Columbus to a conference when the invitation reached him he had already committed himself to Spain he was now in 1488 some 42 years old tall and thin with long face ruddy complexion eagle nose blue eyes freckles bright red hair already turning gray and soon to be white his son and his friends described him as modest grave affable discreet temperate in eating and drinking fervently pious others alleged that he was vain that he paraded and inflated the titles he received that he enabled his ancestry in his imaginary and his writings and that he bargained avidly for his share in the new world's gold however he was worth more than he asked he deviated occasionally from the Ten Commandments for at Cordova after his wife's death Beatriz Enrique's for him an illegitimate son in 1488 Columbus did not marry her but he provided well for her in his life in his will and as most dignitaries in those agile times had such byproducts no one seems to have been put out by the accident meanwhile he had laid his petition before Isabella of Castile this on May 1st 1486 she referred it to a group of advisers presided over by the saintly Archbishop Talavera after long delay they reported the plan to be impracticable arguing that Asia must be much farther west in Columbus opposed nevertheless Ferdinand and Isabella gave him an annuity of 12,000 Mara babies or about 840 dollars and in 1489 they furnished him with a letter ordering all Spanish municipalities to provide him with food and lodging perhaps they wish to keep an option on his project lest by some chance it should bestow a continent on a rival king but when the talavera committee after reconsidering the scheme again rejected it Columbus resolved to submit it to Charles the 8th of France fry one Paris head of the monastery of Larrabee de dissuaded him by arranging another audience with Isabella she sent him 20,000 Mara babies to finance his trip to her headquarters at the Cee'd city of Santa Fe he went she heard his plea kindly enough but her advisors once more discountenanced the idea he resumed his preparations for going to France in January of 1492 at this critical juncture a baptized Jew prodded the march of history luis de santander finance minister to ferdinand reproached Isabella for lack of imagination and enterprise tempted her with the prospect of converting Asia to Christianity and proposed to finance the expedition himself with the aid of his friends several other Jews dong-hyuk Abravanel Juan Cabrera Abram Senor supported his play Isabella was moved and offered to pledge her jewels to raise needed some something there judged this unnecessary he borrowed 1,400,000 maar Avedis from the fraternity of which he was treasurer he added 350,000 out of his own pocket and Columbus somehow got together 250,000 more on April 17 1492 the King signed the requisite papers then or later he gave Columbus a letter to the Khan of Caffe it was China not India that Columbus hoped to reach and which to the end of his life he thought he had found on August 3rd the Santa Maria his flagship the Pinta and anaemia sailed from Palos with 88 men and provisions for a year to America they headed south to the Canary Islands seeking winds from the east before they faced into the West after a long stay at the islands they ventured forth on September 6th along the 28th parallel of latitude not quite far enough south to get the full boon of the Tradewinds we know now that is still more southerly crossing would have shortened the distance in tribulation to America the weather was kindly like April in Andalusia Columbus noted in his log the only thing wanting was to hear nightingales 33 days passed anxiously Columbus underestimated to his men the nautical mileage of each day but as he overestimated his speed his statements were unwillingly correct the calms persisting he changed his course whereupon even more than before the crew felt lost in the aimless wastes of the sea on October 9th the captains of the Pinta and the Nina boarded the flagship and pleaded for an immediate turnabout back to Spain Columbus promised that in less land were sighted in three days he would do as they wished on October 10th his own crew mutiny but he appeased them with the same pledge on October 11th they drew from the ocean a green branch bearing flowers their trust in the Admiral returned at two o'clock the next morning under a nearly full moon Rodrigo de Triana the lookout on the Nina shouted tierra tierra it was land at last when Dawn came they saw naked natives on the beach Oh of good stature the three captains who rode to the shore by armed men they knelt kissed the ground and thanked God Columbus christened the island San Salvador holy Savior and took possession of it in the name of Ferdinand Isabella and Christ the savages received their future and slavers with civilised courtesies the Admiral wrote in order that we might win good friendship because I knew that they were a people who could better be freed and converted to our Holy Father by love than by force I gave to some of them red caps into some glass beads and many other things of slight value in which they took much pleasure they remained so much our friends that it was a marvel and later they came swimming to the ship's boats and brought us parrots and cotton thread and many other things and in exchange we gave them little glass beads finally they exchanged with us everything they had with goodwill the report of the friendly flowing savage which was to be which Rousseau Chateaubriand Whitman may have begun then and there but among the first things that Columbus learned on the island was that these natives were subject to slave raids by other native groups and that they themselves or their ancestors had conquered earlier indigenous two days after landing the Admiral struck an ominous note in his journal these people are very unskilled in arms with fifty men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished but alas there was no gold in San Salvador on October 14th the little fleet sailed again seeking Sepang go Japan and gold on October 28th the landing was made on Cuba there too the natives were well disposed they tried to join their visitors in singing the Ave Maria and did their best to make the sign of the Cross when Columbus showed them gold they seemed to indicate that he would find some at a point in the interior which they called Cubano calm it is mid Cuba mistaking this for El Grande Khan the Great Khan of China he sent two Spaniards with full diplomatic credentials to find that elusive potentate they returned without locating the Khan but with a pleasant account of the courtesies with which they had been everywhere received they brought also the first report by Europeans of American tobacco they had seen male and female natives smoking tobacco herbs rolled into a cigar which was inserted into the nose disappointed Columbus left Cuba on December 4th taking with him by force five native youths to serve as interpreters and seven women to comfort them all died enroute to Spain meanwhile Columbus is senior captain martin alonso pinzón had deserted with his ship to hunt gold on his own on December 5th Columbus reached Haiti there he remained for weeks welcomed and feasted by the natives he found some gold and felt himself a bit closer to the con but his flagship grounded on a reef and was smashed to pieces by waves and rocks on the eve of the Christmas that he had planned to celebrate us the happiest of his life luckily the Nina was nearby to rescue the crew and the kindly natives ventured out in their canoes to help salvage most of the cargo before the vessel sank the chieftain consoled Columbus with hospitality and gold and assurances that there was plenty of the murderous metal in Haiti the Admiral thanked God for the gold forgave him for the shipwreck and wrote in his journal that Ferdinand and Isabella would now have fun sufficient to conquer the Holy Land he was so impressed with the good manners of the natives that he left part of his crew as a settlement to explore the island while he returned to Spain to report his discoveries On January 6th 1493 pin stone rejoined him with the Pinta his apologies were accepted for Columbus was loath to sail back with only one ship On January 16th they began the journey home it was a long and miserable voyage all through January the winds were hostile and on February 12th a violent storm buffeted the tiny ships which were not much more than seventy feet long as they approached the Azores Ben's own deserted again hoping to be the first to reach Spain with the great news that Asia had been found the Nina anchored off Santa Maria in the Azores On February 17th after crew went ashore partly to make a pilgrimage to a shrine of the Virgin they were arrested by the Portuguese authorities and were kept in jail for four days while Columbus fretted offshore they were released and anaemia sailed again but another storm drove it from its course splitted sails and so depressed the sailors that they vowed to spend their first day on land fasting on bread and water and observing the Ten Commandments on March 3rd they cited Portugal and though Columbus knew that he was risking a diplomatic mess he decided to diss Park at Lisbon rather than attempt the remaining 225 miles to Palos with one sale john ii received him with courtesy Vanina was repaired and on March 15 it reached Palos after infinite oil and terror said Columbus 193 days after leaving that port Martine Benson had landed on northwestern Spain several days before and it sent a message to Ferdinand and Isabella but they refused to see him or his messenger the Pinta sailed into Palos a day after the Nina been sown fled in fear and disgrace to his home took to his bed and died three the waters of bitterness Columbus was welcomed by king and queen at Barcelona lived six months at the court and received the title almiranta del Marciano Admiral of the ocean sea by which was meant the Atlantic west of the Azores he was made governor of the new world or as he described himself vice king and general governor of the islands and Terra Firma of Asia and India as john ii was rumored to be fitting out a fleet across the atlantic ferdinand appealed to Alexander the sixth to define the rights of Spain in the ocean sea the Spanish Pope in a series of Bulls in 1493 a lot of to Spain all non-christian lands west and to Portugal all those east of an imaginary line drawn north and south 270 miles west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands the Portuguese refused to accept this line of demarcation and war was imminent when the rival governments by the Treaty of Tordesillas On June 7th 1494 agreed that the line should run along a meridian of longitude 250 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands for discoveries before that date but 370 leagues West for later discoveries the eastern corner of Brazil lies east of this second line the papal bulls turned the new terrain Indies scholars like Pietro Marti a donkey era accepted Columbus's notion that he had reached Asia and this delusion persisted till Magellan circumnavigated the globe hoping for gold Ferdinand and Isabella provided Columbus with a new fleet of 17 vessels equipped with 1200 semen animals to start flocks and herds in the Indies and five ecclesiastics to Shrive the Spaniards and convert the Indians the second voyage sailed from Seville on September 25th 1493 39 days later as against 70 days for the first voyage the watch sided an island which Columbus because the day was Sunday named Dominica no landing was made there the Admiral scented bigger prey he passed through the westernmost group of the Lesser Antilles and was so impressed by their number that he named them Anza Mueller Haney's eleven thousand virgins they are still the Virgin Islands sailing on he discovered Puerto Rico he'd a lead there briefly then hurried on to see what had happened to the Spanish settlement that he had left in Haiti ten months before hardly a man remained of it the Europeans had roamed the island robbing the natives of gold and women it established a tropical paradise with five women to each man they had quarrelled and murdered one another and nearly all the rest had been killed by the outraged Indians the fleet sailed eastward along the Haitian coast On January 2nd 1494 the Admiral landed men and cargo to found a new settlement which he called Isabella after supervising the construction of a town and the repair of his ships he left to explore Cuba unable to circumnavigate it he concluded that it was the mainland of Asia perhaps the mêlée Peninsula he thought of rounding it and circling the globe but his ships were not equipped for it he turned back toward Haiti on October 29 1494 wondering how his new settlement had fared he was shocked to find that it had behaved like its predecessor that the Spaniards had raped Native women stolen Native stores of food and kidnapped native boys to serve as slaves and that the natives had killed many Spaniards in revenge the missionaries had made little attempt to Christianize the Indians one friar had joined a group of malcontents who had sailed back to Spain to give the sovereigns a discouraging report of Haiti's reputed resources Columbus himself now became a slave dealer he sent out expeditions to capture 1,500 natives 400 of these he gave to the settlers 500 he dispatched 200 of these died on the voyage the survivors were sold at Seville but died in a few years unable to adjust themselves to the colder climate or perhaps to the savagery of civilization leaving orders with his brother but allow me to transfer the settlement from Isabella to a better site at Santo Domingo now ciudad trujillo Columbus sailed for Spain on March 10th fourteen ninety six and reached Cadiz after an unhappy voyage of 93 days he presented his sovereigns with Indians and gold nuggets it was not much but it modified the doubts that had formed at court about the wisdom of pouring more money into the Atlantic the Admiral was uncomfortable on land the salt of the sea was in his blood he begged for at least eight ships for another trial of fortune the sovereigns consented and in May 1498 Columbus sailed again this third voyage moved Southwest to the tenth meridian of latitude then followed this to west on July 31st the true side of the great island which the pious commander named Trinidad and on August 31st he saw the mainland of South America perhaps a year before perhaps a year after Vespucci after exploring the Gulf of Perea he sailed Northwest and reached Santo Domingo August 31st this third settlement had survived but one of every four of the five hundred Spaniards that he had left there in 1496 was suffering from syphilis and the settlers had divided into two hostile groups that were now on the verge of war to appease the discontent Columbus allowed each man to apropriate a large tract of land and to enslave the natives dwelling on it this became the rule in the Spanish settlements war now with hardships disappointments arthritis and a disease of the eyes Columbus almost broke down under these problems his mind clouded occasionally he became irritable querulous dictatorial ever Isha's and ruthless in his punishments so at least many of the Spaniards claimed and they fretted under an Italians rule he recognized that the problems of managing the settlement were alien to his training and temperament in October 1499 he sent to caravels to Spain with a request that Ferdinand and Isabella should appoint a Royal Commissioner to help him the island the sovereign's took him at his word and appointed francisco de Bobadilla but going beyond the Admirals request they gave their Commissioner full authority even over Columbus well the DIA reached Santa Domingo while Columbus was away and there in many complaints of the manner in which Christopher row and his brothers Bartolome and Diego had ruled what was now called Hispaniola when Columbus returned Bobadilla had him cast into jail with manacles on his arms and fetters on his feet after a further inquest the Commissioner sent the three brothers in Chains to Spain on October 1st 1500 arriving at Cadiz Columbus wrote a pitiful letter to friends at court it is now 17 years since I came to serve these princes with the enterprise of the Indies they made me pass eight of them in discussion and at the end rejected it as a thing of jest nonetheless I persisted there in over there I have placed under their sovereignty more land than there is in Africa and Europe and more than 1,700 Islands in seven years I by the divine will made that conquest at the time when I was entitled to expect rewards in retirement I was incontinently arrested and sent home loaded with chains the accusation was brought out of malice on the basis of charges made by civilians who had revolted and wished to take possession of the land I beg your Grace's with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highnesses have confidence to read all my papers and to consider how I who came from so far to serve these princes now at the end of my days have been despoiled of my honor and my property without cause wherein is neither justice nor mercy Ferdinand was busy dividing the kingdom of Naples with Louis the 12th six weeks went by before he ordered Columbus and his brothers released and summoned them to court king and queen received them in the Alhambra consoled them and restored them to affluence but not to their former authority in the new world by the capitulations or agreement that they had signed in 1492 the sovereigns were bound to leave Columbus full authority in the lands he had discovered but they felt that he was no longer fit to exercise it they named Don Nicolas de Orlando as new governor of the Indies however they allowed the Admiral to collect all his property rights at Santa Domingo and all that was hitherto him of the gold diggings and trade Columbus lived the rest of his life a rich man but he was not content he input tuned the king and queen for one more fleet until they were not yet clear that the enterprise of the Indies would bring them in that game they felt that they owed in another trial on may 9 1502 from Cadiz Columbus began his fourth voyage with four ships and 140 men including his brother Bartolome and his son Fernando On June 15 he sided Martinique on June 29th feeling a storm in the air and in his joints he anchored off a sheltered spot of the Haitian Shore near Santo Domingo a fleet of 30 ships was in the main harbor about to sail for Spain Columbus sent word to the governor that a hurricane was brewing and advised him to detain the vessels for a while Vonda rejected the warning and dispatched the fleet the hurricane arrived the Admirals ship survived it with minor damage of the governor's fleet all vessels but one were wrecked 500 lives were lost including bobba Diaz and a rich cargo of gold was surrendered to the sea Columbus now began unsuspectingly the most arduous and tragic months in his troubled career continuing westward he reached Honduras and explored the coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica in hope of finding a strait that would let him circumnavigate the earth on December 5th 1502 a tempest of wind and rain arose who's mad forces vividly described in Columbus's journal for nine days I was as one loss without any hope of life eyes never beheld the sea so high angry and covered with foam the wind not only prevented our progress but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter hence we were forced to keep out in his bloody ocean seething like a pot on a hot fire never did the sky look more terrible for one whole day and night it blazed like a furnace and the lightning broke forth with such violence that each time I wondered if that had carried off my spars and sails the flashes came with such fury and frightfulness that we all thought the ships would be blasted all this time the water never ceased to fall from the sky I do not say it rained for it was like another deluge the men were so worn out that they longed for death to end their dreadful suffering to add to the terror of wind water lightning and rocky reefs nearby a waterspout a spray spreading twister in the sea appeared perilously close to the ships and shooting water up to the clouds Columbus took out his Bible and read from it how Christ had stilled the storm at Capernaum then he exercised the waterspout by tracing with his sword across in the sky whereupon we are told the Tower of water collapsed after twelve awful days the fury passed and the fleet rested in a harbour near the present eastern end of the Panama Canal there Columbus and his men celebrated sadly the Christmas of 1502 and the New Year's Day of 1503 not knowing that the Pacific was only 40 miles away further misfortunes came thirteen sailors rowing the flagships boat up a river to find fresh water were attacked by Indians all that one of the Spaniards were killed and the boat was lost two vessels had to be abandoned as to worm-eaten to be seaworthy the other two leaked so badly that the pumps had to be worked night and day finally the worms proved stronger than the men and these surviving ships had to be beached on a shore of Jamaica On June 25th 1503 there the hapless crew remained a year and five days depending for food on the precarious friendship of the natives who themselves had little to spare Diego Mendez whose calm courage in all this adversity kept Columbus from complete despair volunteered to lead six Christians and ten Indians in a dugout canoe 455 miles 80 of them out of sight of land to Santo Domingo to solicit aid on that venture their water ran out and several Indians died Mendez reached his goal but obonda would not or could not spare a vessel till May 1504 to go to the Admirals relief by February the Jamaica Indians had reduced their gifts of food to the stranded crew to the point where the Spaniards began to starve Columbus had with him regiomontanus 'as ephemeris which calculated a lunar eclipse for February 29th he called in the native Chiefs and warned them that God in his anger at their letting his men starve was about to blot out the moon they scoffed but when the Eclipse began they hardly brought food to the ships Columbus reassured them saying that he had prayed to God to restore the moon and had promised him that the Indians would properly feed the Christians there after the moon reappeared four more months passed before help came even then the ship that Ogando sent Leakes so badly that it was barely able to return to Santo Domingo Columbus with his brother and son sailed in a stouter vessel to Spain arriving November 7th after a long and stormy voyage the king and queen were disappointed that he had not found more gold or a straight to the Indian Ocean and neither Ferdinand nor Isabella who was dying had time to receive the white haired sailor finally home from the sea his tents from Haiti were still paid to him he suffered from arthritis but not from poverty when at last Ferdinand consented to see him Columbus older than his 58 years could hardly bear the long journey to the court at Segovia he demanded all the titles rights and revenues promised him in 1492 the Kingdom murdered and offered him a rich estate in Castile Columbus refused he followed the court to Salamanca and via the lead and they are broken in body and heart he died May 20th 15:06 no man had ever so remade the map of the earth for the new perspective now that he had shown the way a hundred other Mariners rushed to the new world that name was apparently first used by a Florentine merchant whose own name now describes the Americas Amerigo Vespucci was sent to Spain by the Medici to straighten out the affairs of a Florentine banker in 1495 he won a contract to cut out 12 vessels for Ferdinand he caught the exploration fever and in letters later written two friends in Florence he claimed that he had made four voyages to what he termed Nova mondo and that on one of these On June 16 14 97 he had touched the mainland of South America as John Cabot reached Cape Breton Island in the Gulf of st. Lawrence On June 24th 1497 and Columbus sighted Venezuela in 1498 masucci's account could give him the credit of being the first European to reach the mainland of the Western Hemisphere since Leif Erikson circa 1000 in fee and inaccuracies in best poochie's reports have cast doubt on his claims but it is noteworthy that in 1505 Columbus who by that time should have been able to judge Vespucci reliability and trusted him with a letter to the Admiral San Diego in 1508 Vespucci was made balota my or chief of all the pilots of Spain and held that position till his death a latin version of one of his letters was printed at san ta in lorraine in april 1507 martin balsa mueller professor of cosmography in the university of santa a quoted the letter in his cosmography I introduced EO which he published there in that year he accepted Vespucci account as trustworthy and suggested that the name Amory gay or America should be given to what we now term South America in 1538 their hardest Mercator applied America on one of his famous maps to all the Western Hemisphere it is agreed that in 1499 if not in 1497 Vespucci sailing with Alonso de Ojeda explored the coast of Venezuela in 1500 shortly after Cabral's accidental discovery of Brazil recently been sown who had commanded the Nina on Columbus's first voyage explored the Brazilian coast and discovered the Amazon in 1513 Vasco núñez de Balboa sighted the Pacific and Ponce de Leon dreaming of a Fountain of Youth discovered Florida the discoveries begun by Henry the Navigator advanced by Vasco da Gama culminating in Columbus and rounded out by Magellan affected the greatest commercial revolution in history before the coming of the airplane the opening of the western and southern seas to navigation and trade ended the Mediterranean epic in the history of civilization and began the Atlantic era as more and more of America's gold came to Spain economic decline progressed in the Mediterranean States and even in those South German cities which like Augsburg and Nuremberg had been commercially tied with Italy the Atlantic nations found in the new world an outlet for their surplus population their reserve energy and their criminals and developed their avid markets for European goods industry was stimulated in Western Europe and demanded the mechanical inventions and forms of power that made the Industrial Revolution new plants came from America to enrich European agriculture the potato tomato artichoke squash maize the influx of gold and silver raised prices encouraged manufacturers harassed workers creditors and feudal lords and generated and ruined Spain's dream of dominating the world the moral and mental effects of the explorations rivaled the economic and political results Christianity was spread over a vast hemisphere so that the Roman Catholic Church gained more adherents in the new world and the Reformation took from her in the old the spanish and portuguese languages were given to latin america and produced their vigorous independent literature's european morals were not improved by the discoveries the lawless brutality of the colonists flowed back to europe with returning seamen and settlers and brought an intensification of violence and sexual irregularity the european intellect was powerfully moved by the revelation of so many people's customs and cults the dogmas of the great religions suffered by mutual attrition and even while Protestants and Catholics raised their hostile certainties to ruinous Wars these certitudes were melting away into the doubts and consequent tolerance of the Enlightenment above all a pride of achievement inspired the human mind just when Copernicus was about to reduce the cosmic importance of the earth and its inhabitants men felt that the world of matter had been conquered by the courage of the human mind the medieval motto for Gibraltar nay plus ultra was denied by abbreviation it became now plus ultra more beyond all limits were removed all the world was open everything seemed possible now with a bold and optimistic surge modern history began