The following essay purports to outline why religion was the central motive for many of the events and transformations in the history of the Hispanic World. The primary source to be considered is Christopher Columbus’s letter to the Catholic Monarchs (1493). I will focus predominantly on Columbus’ voyage to the New World but appreciate that religion was also a main force for many alternative events in the making of the Hispanic world, for example, Spain’s colonisation of the Americas which I will briefly mention towards the end of the essay.
It is indisputable that the main aim of Christopher Columbus’s voyage emerged from religion and that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain saw his accomplishments mainly in the light of the spreading of Christianity. Thus, when Columbus secured these lands for the Spanish crown, not only had he obtained the responsibility of conquering them, but he intended to convert the natives to the Catholic faith. J.R. Fisher declares that “among the complex motives that inspired Columbus in his long endeavors to secure financial support for his proposed voyage to 'The Indies' the prospect of finding gold was prominent”. However, this can be easily falsified as his devotion to religion during the voyage is revealed by the names he assigned to the islands he discovered, for example, San Salvador (for their salvation), Trinidad (for the Trinity), Santa Maria (for the Virgin Mary), Isla de la Asunción (for the Assumption of Mary). For this reason, there is no doubt that Christopher Columbus’s voyage was undertaken for religion's sake.
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Secondly, according to Carol Delaney’s work “Columbus’s Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem”, Columbus wanted to carry out a new Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land (Jerusalem) from the atheists as it was the land of the Bible and where Jesus had tread. This desire was part of an extensive, apocalyptic story in which Columbus and many of the people of his time believed. That story, originally from the biblical book of Revelation, maintains that the conversion of everyone to Christianity and the re-conquest of Jerusalem are essential conditions that must be fulfilled before the “Second Coming” when Christ will return before the “End of Days.” “Columbus felt strongly the imminence of this event; he also came to feel that he had a providential role to play in the drama”. In his letter he honors the beauty of the islands in the Indies: “The most temperate airs, the trees and fruits, and grasses are beautiful in the extreme and very different from ours”, “the mountains are all of a thousand shapes and all most beautiful and most fertile and walkable and full of trees, it seems they reach to heaven” and “all these islands are heavily populated by the best sinless and guileless people there are under heaven”. Yet even though he had undergone a voyage across the never-before-crossed ocean, neither its beauty nor the kindness of the natives made him stay longer than he intended. He continues; that he wants to discover the mainland and needs to locate valuable materials such as spices, aloe, mastic, and gold. Upon reading the letter for the first time, I couldn't understand why he seemed so motivated to find gold but this understanding changes when you realize that finding gold was required not only to repay the investors in the voyage (and to encourage them to invest in another) but also essential if he was ever to finance another Crusade and at the time it was thought to be a worthwhile and the duty of a Christian. This, suggests that religion was an umbrella motive for Columbus and all other motives that may seem apparent in the letter, such as gold, root back to religious intentions.
However, a study of the source could suggest that Columbus may have been motivated by reasons other than God, for example, glory. For example, as mentioned above, Columbus describes the lands as ‘the most beautiful’ and ‘the most fertile’. It could be inferred that he optimistically describes the land as perfect for taking advantage of the Spanish empire, suggesting that Columbus’ voyage could be prompted by a hope for high renown or honor won by conquering the lands, thus glory. Additionally, the letter reads ‘the town of La Navidad, supplied with provisions for more than a year and a good amount of artillery and quite without danger from anyone, because of the great friendship of the local king, he who bragged of calling me and considering me a brother’. This could imply that Columbus loves the status of it and is hungry for glory. Nevertheless, an extract from Delaney’s work states that Columbus was a religious man…attested by his son and others who knew him, including Bartolome ́ de las Casas…Here is what he says of Columbus: “He observed the fasts of the church most faithfully, confessed and made communion often, read the canonical offices like a churchman or member of a religious order, hated blasphemy and profane swearing, was most devoted to Our Lady and to the seraphic father St. Francis; seemed very grateful to God for benefits received from the divine hand. . . . And he was especially affected and devoted to the idea that God should deem him worthy of aiding somewhat in recovering the Holy Sepulchre” (c.1527 [Morison 1942, I: 63]). This undeniably suggests that Columbus was a very religious man, so it is extremely likely that his expedition was preponderantly launched for religious purposes.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, another transformation in the history of the Hispanic World that was driven by religion was Spain’s colonization of the Americas. To understand this connection, I will highlight some of the main points found in the work about Alonso de Sandoval’s theologically and philosophically based beliefs of slavery i.e. in his De in Tauranga lithium salute. Alonso de Sandoval was a Spanish Jesuit priest and a missionary in Colombia. His role as a missionary signifies that he decided to commit to making known Jesus and his message through direct preaching of the Good News of the Gospels through charitable, educational, or other works. He devoted himself to the evangelization of African slaves arriving in Cartagena, today’s Colombia, which was then the main harbor for the trade of Black slaves in the Hispanic colonies. The primary aim of Alonso de Sandoval was to endorse that African people who arrived in the New World needed to be baptized, i.e., Christianised because this was the only method to recover spiritual health - the soul’s salvation i.e. meaning they could have an afterlife, and the chance at a better life in the future. This is evident through his works when he identifies and outlines the diversity of African cultures; he describes tattoos and scarification to help other Jesuits in Cartagena teach African slaves about Christianity. For example, ‘we have noted that some Biafaras have a tattoo of a circle around their navels’, and ‘Banhuns have two or three lines of tattoos the thickness of a small, pointed garbanzo bean’. He suggests that they use these visual cues to work out which language the slaves use and then find interpreters who speak the same language to ‘help them understand baptism and confession’. Thus, making his work a manual to other Jesuits on how to Christianise slaves.
In conclusion, although Columbus’ objectives can be misperceived as a hunger for glory, religion is the most significant theme when studying the history of the Hispanic World, and the desire to launch a new Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the infidels and the spreading of the Catholic faith were main goals for Columbus. Likewise, Sandoval’s work acts as a manual for fellow Jesuits on how to Christianise African slaves during the colonization of the Americas. Therefore, God and Christianity were absolute driving forces for such events throughout the making of the Hispanic world.
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