page_title: Voyages of Christopher Columbus
section_title: Spanish procurement
hierarchical_section_title: Voyages of Christopher Columbus / Background to the voyages / Funding campaign / Spanish procurement
caption_attribution_description: English: Christopher Colombus and Queen Isabella of Castile. Detail of the monument to Colombus at the Plaza de Colón ("Columbus Square") in Madrid (Spain), built from 1881 to 1885. Español: Cristóbal Colón y la Reina Isabel de Castilla. Detalle del monumento a Colón de la Plaza de Colón de Madrid (España), erigido entre 1881 y 1885.
context_page_description: In 1492, a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas, continents which were virtually unknown to and outside of the Old World political and economic system. The four voyages of Columbus led to the widespread knowledge that a continent existed west of Europe and east of Asia. This breakthrough in geographical knowledge inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, colonization, biological exchange, and trans-Atlantic trade, whose effects and consequences persist to the present, and are sometimes cited as the start of the modern era.
  Columbus was an Italian-born navigator sailing for the Crown of Castile in search of a westward route to the Indies, the vaguely rumored East Asian sources of spices and other precious oriental goods obtainable only through arduous overland routes. Although he did not realize it, this search failed when he encountered the New World between Europe and Asia. Columbus made a total of four voyages to the Americas between 1492 and 1502.
context_section_description: King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469, uniting the two largest kingdoms into what would later be the Spanish Crown. They were known jointly as the Catholic Monarchs, and ruled their kingdoms independently, but had common internal and foreign policies.
  Columbus was granted an audience with them; on May 1, 1489, he presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who referred them to a committee. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised the monarchs not to support the proposed venture.
  However, to expand the Spanish empire and Catholicism in the name of Spanish Kings, and to assure a better market position in trading, the Queen gave Columbus an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedis and part of the newly conquered lands.
  After continually lobbying at the royal court and enduring two years of negotiations, Columbus finally succeeded in January 1492. Queen Isabella's forces had just conquered the Moorish Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold of Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, for Castile. Isabella and Ferdinand received Columbus in the Alcázar (castle) in Córdoba to support his plans.
  The monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous but, as his son later wrote, the monarchs were not confident of his return.
  According to Columbus's contract made for the expedition commission by Queen Isabella for Castile, if Columbus claimed any new islands or mainland for the Crown, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of the newly colonised lands. He had the right to nominate three people, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to ten per cent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity.
caption: Columbus and Queen Isabella. Detail of the Columbus monument in Madrid (1885).
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "b'Detalle del MONUMENT, ... ]", "Image Make": "CEC", "Image Model": "DV", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "480", "Image YResolution": "480", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:08:27 19:44:57", "Image Artist": "b'Luis Garc\\xeda (foto/photo)'", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "b'Luis Garc\\xeda; Creativ, ... ]", "Image ExposureTime": "1/30", "Image ExifOffset": "692", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1210", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5189", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1481089/16777216", "EXIF FNumber": "3", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:08:25 19:55:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:08:25 19:55:05", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "275639/138384", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/4", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2111", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1835", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "RelatedSound", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "113", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}