uguese explorers began trying to circle Africa in order to reach Asia. At about the same time, Christopher Columbus became convinced that a new route to Asia could be found by traveling westward and by thus circling the globe.
In the words of Sale (1990), Columbus' personal motivations for this quest can be found in his drive for "God, gold, and glory" (p. 17). He was convinced that he had been chosen by God to find a westward passage. He believed that his mission included the conversion of the "lost souls" of Asia to the Christian God (Wilford, 1991, p. 159). Columbus' religious motives were even stronger during his later voyages to the New World, when he became obsessed with the idea of finding the legendary Garden of Eden (Dor Ner, 1991, p. 245). However, Columbus was driven by a desire for fame and fortune as well as for the fulfillment of God's purpose. Columbus' material interests were revealed even during his earliest negotiations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. In return for his discovery of a new westward route to Asia, he made the unprecedented demand that he be rewarded with "no less than one tenth of all the wealth" that was acquired from that route (Koning, 1991, p. 37). After he arrived in the islands of the Caribbean, Columbus spent very little time and effort in converting the people that he encountered there. Rather, he focused his energy on the building of forts and the subjugation of the Indians. By that time, it was apparent that his motivation had shifted and that he had conceived of a plan to build "not just a trading port but an outright colonial settlement, an outpost of empire where Spaniards would settle and prosper, living off the labor of the natives" (Sale, 1990, p. 111).
Christopher Columbus, the son of a weaver, was born in 1451 in the northern Italian town of Genoa. He had two brothers, Bartolome and Diego, who later became partners in his expeditions (Koning, 1991,...