Christopher Columbus

When Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, this started a series of great comparisons and contrasts between this explorer and others.
Columbus saw himself as a divinely religious person sent by God not to discover a new world, but to “be the messenger of a new heaven and a new earth” and that God would show him where to find it. His numerous religious observances and constant reminders to others that he was a “Christ-bearer” could make one conclude that this mystic is more of a medieval man, than a renaissance man. However, although Columbus might have been highly medieval in his ways, he was also a renaissance man as well. He studied heavily in the sciences of navigation, cosmology, and ancient texts, and like most renaissance men, dreamed of wealth and power.
Upon exploring the different islands, it seems that most every island Columbus claims, he claims for or names in honor of God or of the crown. This helps to justify Columbus’ religious and...