. He took refuge in Portugal where he was left poor. After his youth days had ended, it was time to find his profession as a man.

In the 15th Century Spain, trade was a primary source of their economy. The Turks conquered Constantinople and the Eastern Mediterran

Columbus failed to achieve the purpose of each of the four voyages. Although there were several benefits, most factors of the trips were failures. Spain initially wanted to find a Western sea trade route to the Spice Islands of China and Japan. It would bring wealth from trading. Columbus found no such route. As the voyages went on, colonization was key. Several colonies were established, but all had problems and were failures. An important part of Spanish life was Catholicism. They wanted to spread the religion to the inhabitants of the islands Columbus came in contact with. This idea did not work. The natives did not convert as the Spaniards desired. Catholicism went down along with the colonies. The relations between the natives and Spaniards turned into a Spanish conquest of the islands, they took control, gold, and slaves. The voyages did not result in wealth as expected in the first proposals. They did not acquire a trade route, and the gold mines did not have enough gol!

Columbus established colonies in the islands which would be settled, and be founded as a mining and farming colonies that would produce their own food and create a profit by remitting gold to Spain. These colonies failed. "In selecting as the site for his second settlement the unprotected, unhealthy shore that he named Isabella, Columbus made his first serious blunder. Isabella never prospered, and Columbus paid it little attention," (Parry, 349). In Columbus's second voyage, he returned to his colony of La Navidad on November 27, 1493. The fort was completely destroyed, and all men were killed. The settlers fought among themselves about local women. They were also killed by the Taínos because the Spaniards stole, took some as slaves, and raped their women. The climate was a drastic change to the Spaniards, which created an unhealthy environment. Everyone got sick, and there was nothing to eat. They complained of only tapioca, corn, fish, and yams to eat (Information Finder!

A purpose of establishing colonies was to spread Catholicism. Passengers, starting from the second voyage, were sent to spread Catholicism to the inhabitants of the islands, and to bring reverence to the colonies. Columbus wanted to go to the mainland and neighboring islands to train and have the inhabitants practice Catholicism. "To make them Christians...and conversion of great numbers to our holy faith, with acquisition of great lordships and rides and all their inhabitants for Spain," Columbus, journal dated November 12, 1493 (Rethinking Columbus, 81). However, the colonies did not work, so spreading Catholicism went down with them. The priests could not spread Catholicism to the inhabitants. They did not want to switch their religions. The settlers also failed to bring the religion to the inhabitants. The attempt at spreading Catholicism to the lands in the West was ineffectual.

Economic failures of the voyages started when Columbus landed on the islands, because even though finding gold for Spain was the goal, Columbus became greedy. Even when they first sighted land on October 12, 1492 on the first voyage, Columbus took the credit of sighting land and receiving 10,000 maravidas per year from Juan Rodriguez Bermejo who discovered it from the crows nest (Zinn, 2). The Spaniards greed began when they killed some Taínos natives because they refused to trade as many bows and arrows as they wanted. Columbus took native prisoners

Some topics in this essay:
Rodriguez Bermejo, Europeans Columbus, Columbus Zinn, Exhibit Internet, Spaniards Spanish, China Japan, Rethinking Columbus, Finder Lunenfeld, Columbus Appendix, South America, trade route, western sea trade, inhabitants islands, western route, spread catholicism, columbus returned, sea trade, bring wealth, western sea, amount gold, china japan, sea trade route, spice island trade, island trade ports, base future exploration,