Letter+to+Luis+de+Sant'+Angel


 * A**uthor: Christopher Columbus; Italian sailor on a voyage chartered by the Spanish crown, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; He believes that he has found islands in the East Indies near India. He wants to convey the results of his voyage and discovery to "one of his leading supporters in the Spanish Court."


 * P**lace and Time: During his voyage back to Spain in 1493, Columbus penned this letter.


 * P**rior Knowledge: Columbus' letters set the precedent for all Spanish Conquistadores who followed him. Through his letters, he wanted to gain more financial support to return to the New World and continue his quest for "God, gold and glory." Columbus, especially, was an incredibly ambitious and determined person. Therefore, it is important to remember that when reading and interpreting the letter. There are always instances of "truth-stretching" in the letters of Conquistadores, but we must be careful where we ascribe these instances.


 * A**udience: The source was clearly created for Luis de Sant' Angel. This does affect the reliability of the source because Columbus would have depended on Luis de Sant' Angel to gain financial backing for future trips. When interpreting this letter, it becomes less like a letter between amigos and more like a marketing pitch so that Columbus can gain funding, support, and most importantly, a title: "Admiral of the Ocean Sea."


 * R**eason: This source was produced so that Columbus could explain the results of his voyage firsthand to distinguished members of the court before anyone else. He knew that since he had not found exactly what he stated he would find when setting out on this voyage that he would have to distract the court from this fact by embellishing what he did find. The long voyage back allowed him to reflect on his discoveries and phrase them in the most advantageous way.


 * T**he Main Idea: The source is trying to convey that Columbus has found what he said he would: a route to India. On the islands en route to India, there are many attractive qualities that may be of interest to financial benefactors, such as royalty and the Church: gold, natural and ecological resources in abundance that are different from Spain, people who can be duped easily by worthless European commodities, people receptive to conversion to Christianity, people who may be used as a labor source in order to harvest the abundant natural resources, and unarmed people who could be easily dominated if necessary.


 * S**ignificance: This source allows readers to learn exactly what Columbus was thinking. Much has been made in the recent historiographical era about Columbus' role in the exploitation and genocide of Native Americans. This source allows us to assess his opinions about Native Americans. While disparaging and exploitative in some regards, he also has positive things to say about Native American culture. More importantly, it demonstrates Columbus' insatiable ambition to discover a route to Asia and to do so by any means possible, even if it means stretching the truth and manipulating and using others.