The Return of the King (movie)

It has been estimated that the gross income from non-box office sales and merchandise has been at least equal to the box office for all three films; if this is so, the total gross income for the trilogy would be in the region of $6 billion, a very respectable return for a $300 million investment (although not by any means the best profit ratio ever seen in Hollywood - that prize belongs to The Blair Witch Project). Despite the uncertainty, textbooks in the United States use this image so uniformly that it has become the face of Columbus in popular culture. These figures do not include income from DVD sales, TV rights, etc. The image at the beginning of this article (and which is shown again to the right for the reader's convenience) dates from close to Columbus's time, but historians do not know whether the artist painted it from personal knowledge of his appearance. This compares favorably to the first two films of the trilogy: in their first 35 weeks of theatrical release in North America, the gross income of the first two movies was $313,364,114 and $339,789,881. They depict him variously with long or short hair, heavy or thin, bearded or cleanshaven, stern or at ease. It was the second film in history to earn over $1 billion in box office revenue in its initial release (the first being Titanic in 1997). Over the years historians have presented many images that reconstruct his appearance from written descriptions.

The worldwide revenue is slightly enhanced compared to the earlier movies when converted to US Dollars because of the decline in the dollar's exchange rate in 2003. Nobody has ever found an authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus. The final North American box office stands at $377,027,325, and the worldwide take is $1,118,888,979 (about $741 million overseas). Since there is no evidence that any previous trans-Atlantic voyages transported slaves for sale, he was the first known European to transport slaves eastward across the Atlantic, and so is seen by some as the founder of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans were transported westward across the Atlantic for sale as slaves in the atrocity of the Middle Passage. According to Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/), between the time of the film's release, its winning the Academy Award for Best Picture on Sunday, February 29, 2004, and Thursday, March 11, 2004, Return of the King had earned approximately $1,052,547,293 in worldwide box office revenue—$368,875,000 in North America, and $683,649,123 in sixty countries worldwide. Columbus is also viewed as a villain by some African-Americans because of his transporting of Native Americans to Europe for sale as slaves. These forecasts proved accurate. classrooms.

(The general opinion in movie circles in 2003 was that a movie had to earn more than $150 million to be considered a "blockbuster"). The view of Columbus as a villain received mass exposure in the United States when an episode of the TV show "The Sopranos" included a shot of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn and demonstrated a common reaction to critical pedagogy in U.S. If this proved to be true, then this would be the first blockbuster movie trilogy for each successive film to earn more at the box office than its predecessor, when all three films were blockbuster successes. (For more, see Columbus Day.) The genocide and atrocious acts committed by the Spanish against the natives (the Tainos in particular) are well documented in terrifying detail by Bartolomé de Las Casas in his letters and book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. See Native American Genocide for more details. The substantial increase in initial box office totals caused optimistic studio executives to forecast that The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would surpass The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in total earnings. They did this because they found Columbus guilty of 'imperialist genocide'. This was nearly twice the first-day total of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (which earned $18.2 million on its first day of release in 2001), and a significant increase over The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as well (which earned $26.1 million on its first day in December of 2002). On October 12, 2004, supporters of Chávez destroyed a 100-year old statue of Columbus in Caracas.

New Line Cinema reported that the film's first day of release (a Wednesday) saw a box office total of $34.5 million—an all-time single-day record for a motion picture released on a Wednesday (until Spider-Man_2 came along and grossed $40.4 million). It was in this spirit that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed, in October, 2002, a decree changing the name of Venezuela's "Columbus Day" to "The Day of Indigenous Resistance" in honor of the nation's indigenous groups. After two years of attention and acclaim since the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, audience anticipation for the final installment of the trilogy had reached a fever pitch when the movie was finally released to theaters on December 17, 2003. Official celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage in 1992 were muted, and demonstrators protested marking the anniversary at all. Note: because the box-office receipts below are not adjusted for Inflation, they have little objective meaning—thanks to increasing ticket prices, new films will inevitably break such "records" continually, although low inflation between 2001 and 2003 means that US domestic figures are roughly comparable (world-wide income comparisons, translated into US dollars, are more problematical because of a substantial decline in the dollar's value in 2003). Much criticism focuses on the continuing positive Columbus myths and celebrations (such as Columbus Day) and their effects on American thought towards present-day Native Americans. The film remains faithful to the book in quoting the last lines spoken by Gandalf ("I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil", although Gandalf has some minor dialogue following this in the movie) and by Sam ("Well, I'm back."). The modern vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters and by many scholars as being politically motivated and non-historical.

The film's closing scene shows Sam returning from saying farewell at the Grey Havens and coming back to the Shire and his home and family (returning at night in the book, during the day in the film). These groups point to Columbus as one of their own to show that Mediterranean Catholics could and did make great contributions to the USA. These denouments are only briefly summarized in the films, where we get a hint of Frodo's periodic bouts of illness following his return to the Shire, we see Sam getting married to Rosie, and we follow Gandalf's and the Ring-bearers' departure from the Grey Havens. In the United States, the admiration of Columbus was particularly embraced by some members of the Italian American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. Following the destruction of the One Ring, most of the second book of The Return of the King involves tying up loose ends (although Tolkien considered the "Scouring of the Shire" to be one of the most important chapters of the trilogy, it is completely omitted from the film). Columbus's defiance of convention in sailing west to get to the far east was hailed as a model of "American"-style can-do inventiveness. Other alterations to the story include:. This tale was used to show that Columbus was enlightened and forward looking.

Fans hoped that several other key scenes from the book would be included in the extended cut, although inevitably not all of them were:. The myth that Columbus thought the world round while his contemporaries believed in a flat earth was often repeated. In the book Gríma simply throws the Palantír at the company, not realising its value. Monuments to Columbus (including the Columbian Exposition in Chicago) were erected throughout the United States and Latin America, extolling him as a hero. In the theatrical version there is no explanation as to how the Palantír fell into the water. Hero worship of Columbus perhaps reached its zenith around 1892, the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas. (This is an homage to Lee's Dracula movies; Peter Jackson wanted to be the last director to drive a stake through his heart.) The Palantír then falls into the water where it is found by Pippin. Bush, June 8, 1989).

Saruman falls from the tower and is impaled on a wooden stake projecting from a mill-wheel. W. (This is apparently a reference to Denethor's madness.) Saruman is finally stabbed by Gríma Wormtongue (which in the book occurs at the end of the Scouring of the Shire) and Gríma is shot by Legolas (in the book he is shot by a Hobbit). He "set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith" (George H. In the extended edition Saruman appears on the roof of Orthanc bearing a Palantír and taunts Gandalf and his company with hints of a darkness in the heart of Middle-earth which will destroy them. He has often been hailed as a man of heroism and bravery, and also of faith: he sailed westward into mostly unknown waters, and his unique scheme is often viewed as ingenious. In the book, the fall of Saruman takes place at the end of the scouring, but in the film's theatrical release Saruman is left trapped in the tower of Orthanc by the Ents. Traditionally, Columbus is viewed as a man of heroic stature by the European-descended population of the New World.

Jackson felt that it would tax the audience's patience to mount another battle scene after the critical conflict, the defeat of Sauron, had already been resolved. The casting of Columbus as a figure of "good" or of "evil" often depends on people's perspectives as to whether the arrival of Europeans to the New World and the introduction of Christianity or the Roman Catholic faith is seen as positive or negative. A sequence that did not make it from the book into the film at all despite the hopes of many fans, was the "Scouring of the Shire", in which the Hobbits return home at the end of their quest to find they have some fighting to do, owing to Saruman's takeover of the Shire. The mythology of Columbus has cast him as an archetype for both good and for evil. There are further rumours of an even more spectacular Lord of the Rings Trilogy box set in the future, and Jackson has half-seriously mentioned the possibility of re-editing the trilogy into a TV miniseries, along the lines of the Godfather movies. Christopher Columbus has had a cultural significance beyond his actual achievements and actions as an individual; he also became a symbol, a figure of legend. Fans also hoped that the extended discs would feature deleted scenes and outtakes, but none are included except for a few in the behind-the-scenes documentaries. Furthermore, the disinternment of his brother's body shows him to be a different age, by nearly a decade, than the "Bartolome Colombo" of the Genoese family.

A Collectors' Box Set was also released, which also included a sculpture of Minas Tirith and a bonus 50-minute music documentary DVD, Howard Shore: Creating The Lord of the Rings Symphony: A Composer's Journey Through Middle-earth. Fighting against Ferdinand and being illegitimate were two excellent reasons for keeping his origins obscure. The extended DVD is actually a 4-disc set like its predecessors, with the movie and commentaries occupying Discs 1 and 2 and the behind-the-scenes material on discs 3 and 4. This same theory suggests he was the illegitimate son of a prominent Catalan sea-faring family, which had served as mercenaries in a sea battle against Castilian forces. (In the Director and Writers' Commentary on the extended DVD edition he jokes about including some scenes in a 25th Anniversary edition, provided he is not too senile to remember by then.). Also, that he married a Portuguese noblewoman is presented as evidence that his origin was of nobility rather than the Italian merchant class, since it was unheard of during his time for nobility to marry outside their class. He also stated that not all of the unused footage shot for the movie would necessarily appear in the extended cut. According to historian Charles Merrill, analysis of his handwriting indicates that it is typical of someone who was a native Catalan, and Columbus's phonetic mistakes in Castilian are "most likely" those of a Catalan.

He mentioned the inclusion of the "Mouth of Sauron" scene, as well as Frodo and Sam running with the Mordor orcs. He also kept his journal in Latin, and a "secret" journal in Greek. In January 2004, Peter Jackson indicated that the then recently completed extended edition is actually four hours and ten minutes long. Latin, on the other hand, was the language of scholarship, and here Columbus excelled. Other rumours suggested that the extended DVD might be a five or six-disc set, with the movie occupying three discs rather than two, and that the extended cut might be as long as six hours. Pidal doubts that Columbus could ever tell Portuguese and Spanish apart, which is why he did not make the effort to learn them properly. The early release of the standard edition had led some fans to hope that the extended edition might be released as early as August, but the release was actually put back from mid-November, presumably because of the amount of work involved in preparing the extra footage and bonus material. But Pidal does not accept the hypothesis of a Galician origin for Columbus by noting that where Portuguese and Galician diverged, Columbus always used the Portuguese form.

The release of the theatrical edition had originally been scheduled for worldwide release in late August but actually appeared on May 25. Pidal and many others detect a lot of Portuguese in his Spanish, where he mixes, for example, falar and hablar. Christopher Lee apparently reconciled his differences with Peter Jackson because he appears on the behind-the-scenes documentaries and Cast Commentary on the extended DVDs. The first testimony of his use of Spanish is from the 1480s. The final ten minutes of the extended DVD comprises a listing of the names of the charter members of the official fan club. This same Spanish is used by poets like Fernán Silveira and Joan Manuel. These were released on December 10 2004 in the UK and December 14 in the U.S., with an expanded length of 250 minutes (4 hours, 10 minutes) (slightly shorter in PAL versions). He suggests that Columbus learned Spanish in Portugal through its use in Portugal as or "adopted language of culture" from 1450.

Peter Jackson confirmed that this scene, although not in the theatrical release, would be included in the extended VHS and DVD editions. In his letters he refers to himself frequently, if cryptically, as a "foreigner." Ramón Menéndez Pidal studied the language of Columbus in 1942, suggesting that while still in Genoa, Columbus learned notions of Portugalized Spanish from travelers, who used a sort of commercial Latin or lingua franca (latín ginobisco for Spaniards). According to British newspaper reports appearing on November 13, 2003, Christopher Lee was unhappy to learn that a seven-minute scene featuring a confrontation at Isengard in which Gandalf casts Saruman out of the order of Wizards, would not be appearing in the finished film, and he decided to boycott the premiere as a result. Bartolomé de las Casas in his Historia de las Indias explained that Columbus did not know Castilian well and that he was not born in Castile. Gandalf is now certain that Sauron will come after Pippin, thinking he has the ring. Phillips and Phillips point out that five hundred years ago, the Latinate languages had not distanced themselves to the degree they have today. Pippin is left deeply shaken, but lives. There is also a note in non-Genoese Italian in his own Book of Prophesies exhibiting, according to historian August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling." Columbus took great care and pride in writing this form of Italian.

Barely able to resist the Eye's power, Pippin is nearly broken into submission, but Gandalf and Aragorn wrest it from his tortured fingers. However, many people become "tongue-tied" when using what is to them an intimate childhood language. Whilst gazing into the crystal ball, Pippin is spied by Sauron and through a psychic link, the dark lord attempts to interrogate the hobbit. Genoese Italian was not a written language in the 15th century, but one would expect a better transliteration into this dialect from a native speaker. That night, after a post-battle party in Edoras, Pippin, fascinated by the seeing stone, takes it from Gandalf, ignoring Merry's urgings to leave it alone. However, it displays both Castilian and Portuguese influences. He is stabbed in the back, and plummets from Orthanc's top to be impaled on one of his machines, dropping from his sleeve a palantir, which Gandalf takes. There is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in an Italian edition of the History of Plinius that he read in his second voyage to America.

Before he can give them more information, he is attacked by his servant Wormtongue. Although Genoese documents have been found about a weaver named Colombo, it has also been noted that, in the preserved documents, Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Castilian, and that he used the language, with Portuguese phonetics, even when writing personal notes to himself, to his brother, Italian friends, and to the Bank of Genoa. They are informed by Saruman that Sauron the trilogy's main antagonist, is readying his forces for a final strike. It is certain that Columbus taught himself to read and write after arriving in Portugal, learned cutting-edge navigational and trading skills from the Portuguese, was commissioned by Castile, received financial backing from Genoese bankers, and was informed, in his own words, by "wise people, ecclesiastics and laymen, Latins and Greeks, Jews and Moors and with many others of other sects." He was, in other words, a man of the Mediterranean. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Theoden, the victors of the Battle of the Hornburg, there confront the traitorous wizard, Saruman. However, the actual phrase, "Non confundar in aeternam" (in Latin), is perhaps more accurately translated "Let me never be confounded," and is contained in several Psalms. The plot then switches back to Isengard. It has even been suggested that the epitaph on his tomb, translated as "Let me not be confused forever," is a veiled hint left by Columbus that his identity was other than he publicly stated during his life.

As this sequence ends, we find Frodo, Sam and Gollum approaching the mountains of Mordor, Mount Doom's eruptions disturbingly close. There is a village named Pirgi in the island of Khios where to this day many of its inhabitants carry the surname "Colombus.". The film begins with a flashback sequence, wherein we discover how the character Gollum first came across the One Ring. The island of Khios was under the Genoese rule (1346 - 1566 AD), for the period of his life, and therefore it was part of the Republic of Genoa. The Lord of the Rings; The Return of the King picks up the story from the end of The Two Towers. He also referred to himself as "Columbus de Terra Rubra"(Columbus of the Red Earth), Khios was known for its red soil in the south of the island where the mastic trees that the Genoese traded grow. This ensured that all three movies were consistent in terms of story, acting, effects, and direction. The main point of this theory is that Columbus never said he was from Genoa but from the Republic of Genoa, and that he kept his journal in Latin and Greek instead of the Italian of Genoa.

The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is highly unusual in that it is to date the only movie series whose separate installments were written simultaneously and shot all at once, so that it could be considered three parts of a single very long film. It is also speculated that Columbus may have come from the island of Khios (or Chios) in Greece. Other key events include the Siege of Gondor; the re-forging of the shards of Narsil into Aragorn's new sword Andúril; Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas' journey through the Paths of the Dead; the epic Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the charge of the mûmakil (everything being carefully choreographed in advance, a process Jackson describes as like planning a real battle); Merry and Éowyn's role in the defeat of the Lord of the Nazgûl; the destruction of the One Ring and the final fall of Sauron; Aragorn's assumption of the throne; and the departure of several of the heroes to the Undying Lands. In sum, he was a "secret agent". These include the scene in which the monstrous Shelob attacks Frodo and is wounded by Sam. The corollary of the above is that he was (i) knowingly diverting the Castilian kings from their target – India and (ii) had all the reasons to hide his identity and origin, as Portugal was the biggest rival of Spain (Castille) in its sea ventures. This film contains key scenes that occurred in the middle portion of the novel The Lord of the Rings but were not included in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Since he never signed his name conventionally, the pseudonymus theory is reinforced, his name meaning in Latin "Bearer of Christ" (Christo ferens) "and of the Holy Spirit" (Columbus, dove in Latin), a reference to the Order of Christ which succeeded the Templars in Portugal and initiated the age of exploration.

Close-ups of the city are represented by sets and long shots by a large and highly-detailed model, often populated by CGI characters. This is based on interpretation of some facts and documents of his life (as above), but mostly on an analysis of his signature under the Jewish Kabbalah, where he described his family and origin (by Macarenhas Barreto: "Fernandus Ensifer Copiae Pacis Juliae illaqueatus Isabella Sciarra Camara Mea Soboles Cubae.", or "Ferdinand who holds the sword of power of Beja (Pax Julia in Latin), coupled with Isabel Sciarra Camara, are my generation from Cuba"). The filmmakers have taken great care to base the city closely upon Tolkien's description in The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 1. The Portuguese-origin thesis has him using Colom as a pseudonym. The city of Minas Tirith, glimpsed briefly in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is seen in all its glory. In accordance with this theory, he named the island of Cuba after the Portuguese town Cuba in Alentejo — the town where he, according to Portuguese historians, had been born under the name of Salvador Fernandes Zarco (SFZ), son of Fernando, Duke of Beja, and Isabel Sciarra — and grandson of Cecília Colonna. In his degraded state Gollum is "played" in the movies by a CGI character whose movements are sometimes derived from a motion-capture suit worn by Serkis, and sometimes from footage of Serkis interacting with the other actors and then digitally replaced by Gollum. Documents found in the Alentejo region of Portugal suggest he may have been born there.

This scene was actually held over from the previous film because it was felt that it would have a greater emotional impact if audiences had already seen what the Ring's influence had done to Sméagol. A few others also claim that Columbus was actually Catalan (Colom). As confirmed in the feature on Gollum in the Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Andy Serkis appears in person in a flashback scene playing Sméagol before his degradation into Gollum. Because the often subversive elements of the island gave its inhabitants a bad reputation, he would have masked his exact heritage. It tied with Ben-Hur and Titanic for the most Oscars ever won by a single film, and broke the previous record for a sweep set by Gigi and The Last Emperor (See Movies with eight or more Oscars). Another theory is that he was from the island of Corsica, which at the time was part of the Genoese republic. On February 29, the film won 11 Academy Awards, winning in every category for which it was nominated. However, not only was his mysticism profoundly Catholic, recent disinterment of his son retrieved his Y chromosome (which is passed completely unchanged from father to son) has ruled out Jewish ancestry, at least in the male line.

On January 27, 2004, the film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score (Howard Shore), and Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, Best Music (Song), Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects; however, none of the ensemble cast received any acting nominations. In Spain, even converted Jews were much mistrusted; it was suggested that many conversos were still practicing Judaism in secret. The first two films were The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, although the film's story includes later events in the section of the book The Two Towers as well as most of The Return of the King. Others had said that he was a converso (Spanish Jew converted to Christianity). Further premieres took place in major cities around the world in the days leading up to the film's worldwide theatrical release on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 with a runtime of 200 minutes (that is, 3 hours and 20 minutes). Some Basque historians have claimed that he was Basque. The film premiered in Wellington, New Zealand, on December 1, 2003, attended by the director and many of the stars. One hypothesis is that Columbus served under the French caper Guillaume Casenove Coulon and took his surname, but later tried to hide his piracy.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In New York City, rival statues of Columbus were underwritten by the Hispanic and the Italian communities, and honourable positions had to be found for each, at Columbus Circle and in Central Park. R. The issue of Columbus's 'nationality' became an issue after the rise of nationalism; the issue was scarcely raised until the time of the quadricentenary celebrations in 1892 (see Columbian exposition), when Columbus's Genoese origins became a point of pride for some Italian Americans. R. It has been suggested that this might have been because he was hiding something—an event in his origin or history that he deliberately kept a secret. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the third part of a film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, based on J. Very little is really known about Columbus before the mid-1470s.

In the books Celeborn also takes a later ship, as do Legolas and Gimli. Although in the popular culture he is generally assumed to be Italian (Genoese), his actual background is clouded in mystery. In the book, Frodo and Sam join with Bilbo and the elves in the woods while traveling to the harbor. Serious doubts have been expressed regarding Columbus's national origin. In the film, it is not revealed that Frodo is to sail to the west with Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn until after most of them have boarded the ship. He was canonized by the antipope Gregory XVII, leader of the breakaway Palmarian Catholic Church. In the film, Frodo jumps on him one last time and causes them both to fall; it is subsequently revealed that he was able to catch himself on the rock below the precipice, from which Sam pulls him back (after a brief hesitation by an apparently suicidal Frodo). To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics were moved to Havana and that Columbus is still buried in the cathedral of Santo Domingo, DNA samples were taken in June 2003 (History Today August 2003).

In the book, Gollum slips accidentally into the Crack of Doom while dancing in triumph after wresting the Ring from Frodo. However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus' and containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo Domingo in 1877. Unlike the book, Merry is not taken to the Houses of Healing to recuperate from his encounter with the Witch-king (with the aid of Aragorn's knowledge of the healing herb athelas, which he also uses to heal Faramir and Éowyn), but instead rides out to the Last Battle alongside Aragorn and Gandalf. After the war of 1898, Cuba became independent and Columbus's remains were moved back to the cathedral of Seville, where they were given a pompous cataflaque. In his commentary on the extended DVD Peter Jackson admits that he was aware of the distance issue but included the scene for dramatic effect.). In 1795 the French took over, and the corpse was removed to Havana. While on fire, Denethor would have had to run across the entire city to fall like that. Even after his death, his travels continued: first interred in Valladolid and then at the monastery of La Cartja in Seville, by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola, the remains were transferred to Santo Domingo in 1542.

(In fact the "prow" of Minas Tirith, located on the Seventh Level, is on the opposite side of the city from the burial chambers where the pyre is, located on the fifth level. Following his death, the body of Columbus underwent excarnation - the flesh was removed so that only his bones remained. In the book, Denethor lights his pyre and lies down upon it to burn, clasping the palantír. He was still convinced that his journeys had been along the East Coast of Asia. In the film, the burning Denethor runs along the "prow" of Minas Tirith and falls like a meteor. On May 20, 1506, Columbus died in Valladolid, fairly wealthy due to the gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. In the book, Frodo and Sam have no break in their trust, except for a brief instant upon Frodo's rescue from the orc tower where he demands that Sam return the Ring. His family later sued for part of the profits from trade with America, but ultimately lost some fifty years later.

In the film, Gollum tricks Frodo into mistrusting Sam and sending him away, so that Frodo enters Shelob's Lair alone. Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the crown felt not bound by these contracts and his demands were rejected. In the film, there is no courier, and the Riders are spurred to help Gondor by the beacons (above). In his later years Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, pursuant to earlier agreements. In the book, Gondor's formal request for aid is sent to Rohan by a courier carrying the Red Arrow (although Rohan was already mustering to Gondor's defense, in part at Gandalf's urging). He claimed to hear divine voices, lobbied for a new crusade to capture Jerusalem, often wore Franciscan habit, and described his explorations to the "paradise" as part of God's plan which would soon result in the Last Judgement and the end of the world. In the film, Denethor refuses to light the beacon of Minas Tirith, or indeed to organize any defense of the city, so Gandalf persuades Pippin to sneak past the guards and light it, causing the rest of the beacons to be lit in response. While Columbus had always given the conversion of non-believers as one reason for his explorations, he grew increasingly religious in his later years.

In the book, the beacons of Gondor are lit before Gandalf and Pippin arrive, as a part of Denethor's careful mustering of Minas Tirith's defenses. Grudging help finally arrived on June 29, 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on November 7. The book version makes more sense when considering the maps, as Pelargir is a long way from Edoras or Minas Tirith, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli run for a short time considering the distance. In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse, using the Ephemeris of the German astronomer Regiomontanus. No rangers or southern gondorians are in the movie. Two Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by canoe to get help from Hispaniola. The dead than sail on the ships to Pelennor fields. Columbus and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year.

In the movie, Aragorn gets the dead to serve in an underground cave, exits the underground path at Pelagir to see the corsairs. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, on June 25, 1503. After the Dead defeat the corsairs, they disappear, and the ships carry Aragorn, the rangers, Legolas, Gimli, and some forces from southern Gondor to the battle of Pelennor fields. Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in St. Aragorn than leads the dead and members of his group to Pelargir to attack the corsairs. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April 16, but sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. In the book, the rangers, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn ride through the mountain path to summon the dead, than ride through the Morthond valley to the stone of Erech, where the dead agree to serve. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other ships were damaged.

Elrond's appearance partially substitutes. On April 6, one of the ships became stranded in the river. The company of Rangers of the North, who along with the two sons of Elrond join Aragorn after Saruman is defeated, do not appear at all in the film, in which Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take the Paths of the Dead alone. After much exploration, he established a garrison at the mouth of Rio Belen in January 1503. In the book, Narsil was reforged when Aragorn first brought the hobbits to Rivendell (following a prophecy that the reforging could only take place after "Isildur's Bane", the Ring, was found). In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. In the film, shards of Narsil are re-forged by Elrond at Arwen's urging, and Elrond travels to Rohan where he presents the reforged sword to Aragorn and orders him to take the Paths of the Dead. Columbus spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama on October 16.

In the extended cut Gandalf tells Pippin that the dead White Tree remains in the courtyard in the apparently forlorn hope that it will blossom again; in a later scene the tree is seen bearing a single white flower. On August 14, Columbus landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near Trujillo, Honduras. Book: After the coronation, Gandalf counsels King Elessar and shows him where to find a seedling of the White Tree.
Movie: Not included. Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. In both versions of the film the destruction of the Ring causes the Eye of Sauron to erupt in flame and then explode as Barad-dûr collapses. After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras on July 30. Book: The spirit of Sauron rises like a black cloud from the ruin of Barad-dûr before being blown away by the West wind.
Movie: Not included. Instead, the ships anchored at the mouth of the Jaina River.

In the book he is allowed to live until the battle. Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port. He then taunts Aragorn over his broken sword and Aragorn decapitates him with the reforged Andúril. A hurricane was brewing, so Columbus continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. The Mouth torments the Fellowship by claiming that Frodo has been horribly tortured and killed. On June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). Book: The Mouth of Sauron taunts Gandalf at the Black Gate and presents evidence that Frodo had been captured (which was true, although Frodo was rescued by Sam before he could be interrogated).
Movie: Included with alterations. Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his thirteen-year old son Fernando, Columbus left Cádiz, Spain on May 11, 1502.

The scene ends with Frodo and Sam pretending to fight, causing the other orcs to join in, and slipping away while they are distracted - a simplification of the original scene. Nevertheless, Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Book: Incognito in Orc armor, Sam and Frodo are forced to march with a band of Orcs who are heading for the Black Gate.
Movie: Included. As an added insult, the Portuguese had won the race to the Indies: Vasco da Gama returned in September 1499 from a trip to India, having sailed east around Africa. Takes place following the Last Debate; Sauron retaliates by showing Aragorn a vision of Arwen apparently dying, which is not in the book. Although he regained his freedom, he did not regain his prestige and lost his governorship. Book: Aragorn reveals himself and his reforged sword to Sauron using the palantír recovered at Isengard.
Movie: Included with alteration. Columbus refused to have his shackles removed on the trip to Spain, during which he wrote a long and pleading letter to the Spanish monarchs.

Book: Faramir and Éowyn meet and fall in love in the Houses of Healing.
Movie: Referred to in a brief scene in which they begin to bond. The king and queen sent the royal administrator Francisco de Bobadilla in 1500, who upon arrival (August 23) detained Columbus and his brothers and had them shipped home. Book: Aragorn cures Éowyn, Faramir, and Merry in the House of Healing.
Movie: His healing of Faramir and Merry is not included. A number of returned settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him of mismanagement. Book: Éomer grieves over the deaths of Éowyn and Théoden after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Movie: We see Éomer's shock at his sister's apparent death, and his attempts to nurse her back to health with the aid of Aragorn. He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. It is also possible, however, that the Palantir Aragorn used was the stone of Orthanc, and Denethor's seeing-stone was completely cut out of the films. Columbus repeatedly had to deal with rebellious settlers and Indians.

Denethor, in the theatrical cut, does cryptically say that "the eyes of the White Tower are not blind", and he implies that he has a Seeing-stone, which someone that read the book might understand but would be lost on a movie-only audience. Columbus returned to Hispaniola on August 19 to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were discontent, having been misled by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the new world. The implication that this is the cause of Denethor's madness is left to viewers with knowledge of the book. Initially, he described the new lands as belonging to a previously unknown new continent, but later he retreated to his position that they belonged to Asia. The vision is true as far as it goes, but Denethor does not realise the ships have been taken over by Aragorn's army.
Movie: Not included, but there is a scene after the Battle of Pelennor Fields, where Aragorn finds a Palantir in Denethor's cloak in the throne room and reveals himself to Sauron (see below). He also sailed to the islands of Chacachcare and Margarita Island and sighted and named Tobago (Bella Forma) and Grenada (Concepcion). But Sauron has infiltrated the palantír and used it to show Denethor a vision of the Black Ships. He explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River.

Book: In the Pyre of Denthor scene it is revealed that Denethor has a palantír, usually kept in a secret room at the top of the White Tower of Ecthelion, which he has been using to obtain strategic information for the defence of Gondor. From August 4 through August 12, he explored the Gulf of Paria which separates Trinidad from Venezuela. Book: The Rohirrim bypass the main road to Gondor by negotiating with the Wild Men of Drúadan Forest for passage through their woods.
Movie: There is no mention of the Wild Men or of Drúadan Forest; the Rohirrim just ride all night. After stopping in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of Trinidad on July 31. The arrival of the Rohirrim is announced by their horns, but there is no sound of a cock crowing first (despite the fact that Tolkien described this as one of his favourite images). He was accompanied by the young Bartolome de Las Casas, who would later provide partial transcripts of Columbus's logs. Shortly afterward, the Witch-king, riding his Fell Beast, intercepts Gandalf and Pippin, on Shadowfax, who are racing from the gate to the Citadel (at the summit of the city) to save Faramir from being burned alive by Denethor. On May 30, 1498, Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar, Spain for his third trip to the New World.

In the book this takes place at the gate of Minas Tirith.
Movie: When the gate is breached trolls and orcs enter the city. In his letters to the Spanish king and queen, Columbus would repeatedly suggest slavery as a way to profit from the new colonies, but these suggestions were all rejected: the monarchs preferred to view the natives as future members of Christendom. Book: The Witch-king enters Minas Tirith when its gate is breached and challenges Gandalf to fight, but as a cock crows the horns of the Rohirrim announce their arrival and the Witch-king is forced to return to meet their assault. One of the primary reasons for this was the fact that natives became infected with various diseases carried by the Europeans. Book: On the way to the Morgul Vale, Frodo, Sam and Gollum pass through the Crossroads, where there is a giant statue of a seated king with his head laying on the ground nearby, "crowned" anew with flowers that have grown there, an image of hope amidst destruction.
Movie: Included without alteration. Despite such extreme measures, Columbus did not manage to obtain much gold. Very polite." Merry promises to tell him more about pipe-weed; the relationships of Merry and Pippin with Théoden and Denethor are more significant in the books.
Movie: Just adds a scene where Merry pledges his allegiance to Théoden. Those who failed to reach their quota would have their hands chopped off.

Book: Théoden meets Merry and Pippin and calls them holbytlan, suggesting that the word hobbit is derived from Rohirric; Pippin comments that the King of Rohan is "A fine old fellow. To further this goal, he imposed a system on the natives in Cicao on Haiti, whereby all those above fourteen years of age had to find a certain quota of gold, which would be signified by a token placed around their necks. The main objective of Columbus's journey had been gold. Rounding up the slaves resulted in the first major battle between the Spanish and the Indians in the new world. The remaining 400, who Columbus had no use for, were let go and fled into the hills, making, according to Columbus, prospects for their future capture dim.

Some of the 1600 were kept as slaves for Columbus's men, and Columbus recorded using slaves for sex in his journal. After legal proceedings, the survivors were released and ordered to be shipped back home. 550 slaves were shipped back to Spain; two hundred died en route, probably of disease, and of the remainder half were ill when they arrived. Although his petition was refused by the Crown, in February, 1495 Columbus took 1600 Arawak as slaves.

However, during his second voyage he sent a letter to the monarchs proposing to enslave some of the native peoples, specifically the Caribs, on the grounds of their aggressiveness. Before he left on his second voyage he had been directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving relations with the natives. He explored the south coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula rather than an island, and several nearby islands including the Isle of Youth (La Evangelista) before returning to Hispaniola on August 20. He left Hispaniola on April 24, 1494 and arrived at Cuba (which he named Juana) on April 30 and Jamaica on May 5.

He spent some time exploring the interior of the island for gold and did find some, establishing a small fort in the interior. He established a new settlement at Isabella, on the north coast of Hispaniola where gold had first been found but it was a poor location and the settlement was short-lived. On November 22, he returned to Hispaniola, where he found his colonists had fallen into dispute with Indians in the interior and had been killed. Columbus continued to the Greater Antilles and landed at Puerto Rico (San Juan Bautista) on November 19, 1493 .

Columbus also sighted the island chain of the Virgin Islands, (which he named Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgines), and named the islands of Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Peter Island (San Pedro). The exact course of his voyage through the Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that Columbus turned north, sighting and naming several islands including Montserrat (Santa Maria de Monstserrate), Antigua (Santa Maria la Antigua), Redonda (Santa Maria la Redonda), Nevis (Santa María de las Nieve or San Martin), Saint Kitts (San Jorge), Sint Eustatius (Santa Anastasia), Saba (San Cristobal), and Saint Martin or Saint Croix (Santa Cruz). After sailing past Les Saintes (Todos los Santos), Columbus arrived at Guadaloupe (Santa Maria de Guadalupe), which he explored from November 4 through November 10. On the same day he landed at Marie-Galante (which he named Santa Maria la Galante).

On November 3, 1493, Columbus sighted a rugged island which he named Dominica. On October 13 the ships left the Canary Islands, following a more southerly course than on the first voyage. Columbus left from Cádiz, Spain for his second voyage (1493-1496) on September 24, 1493, with 17 ships carrying supplies and about 1200 men to assist in the subjugation of the Taíno and the colonization of the region. The word ají is still used in South American Spanish for chili peppers.

In his log he wrote "there is also plenty of ají, which is their pepper, which is more valuable than [black] pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome" (Turner, 2004, P11). Naturally, he did not bring any of the coveted Indian spices, such as the exceedingly expensive black pepper, ginger or cloves. He displayed several kidnapped natives and what gold he'd found to the court, as well as the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple fruit, the turkey and the sailor's first love, the hammock. He was received as a hero in Spain, and this was his moment in the sun.

He didn't reach Spain until March 15, when the story of his journey was in its third printing. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe. The relations between Portugal and Castile were poor at the time, and he was held up, but finally released. (Astoundingly, both the Niña and the Pinta were spared.) Some have speculated that landing in Portugal was intentional.

He had no choice but to land his ship in Portugal, where he was told a fleet of 100 caravels had been lost. He wrestled his ship against the wind and ran into one of the worst storms of the century. On January 4, 1493 he set sail for home, not yet understanding the elliptical nature of the trade winds that had brought him west. Columbus founded the settlement La Navidad and left 39 men.

He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. (The vast interior of the North and South American mainlands would of course be largely mapped with the leadership of native guides and interpreters.) Here the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be abandoned. He believed the peaks of Cuba to be the Himalayas, which gives one a sense of just how lost he was and how long it took the peoples of the world to map the Earth. On this first voyage, Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba (landed on October 28) and the northern coast of Hispaniola, by December 5.

No blood was shed on this first voyage; he believed conversion to Christianity would be achieved through love, not force. They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons.". "These people have no religious beliefs, nor are they idolaters. He wrote with such awe of the friendly innocence and beauty of these Indians that he inadvertently created the enduring myth of the Noble Savage.

The Native Americans he encountered, the Taíno or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. Columbus called the island he reached San Salvador, although the natives called it Guanahani. Land was sighted at 2 AM on October 12 by a sailor aboard Pinta named Rodrigo de Triana. A comparison of dates and migratory patterns leads to the conclusion that the birds were Eskimo curlews and American golden plover.

After 29 days out of sight of land, on 7 October 1492 as recorded in the ship's log, the crew spotted shore birds flying west and changed direction to make their landfall. Although the actual situation is unclear, most likely the sailors' resentments merely amounted to complaints or suggestions. A legend is that the crew grew so homesick and fearful that they threatened to hurl Columbus overboard and sail back to Spain. He first sailed to the Canary Islands, fortunately owned by Castile, where he reprovisioned and made repairs, and on September 6 started the five week voyage across the ocean.

The ships were property of Juan de la Cosa and the Pinzón brothers (Martin and Vicente Yáñez), but the monarchs forced the Palos inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. The year 1492, on the evening of August 3, Columbus left from Palos with three ships, the Santa Maria, Niña and Pinta. The terms were absurd, but his own son later wrote that the monarchs really didn't expect him to return. Columbus was to be made Admiral of the Ocean Sea and granted an inheritable governorship to the new territories he would reach, as well as a portion of all profits.

Financially broke from the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, which Columbus had already lined up. Isabella sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered.". Isabella finally turned Columbus down on the advice of her "think tank" and he was leaving town in despair when Ferdinand lost his patience.

Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba (in the monarchs' Alcázar or castle). After seven years of lobbying at the Spanish court, where he was kept on a salary to prevent him from taking his ideas elsewhere, he was finally successful in 1492. He tried to get backing from the monarchs of Aragon and Castile, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who, by marrying, had united the largest kingdoms of Spain and were ruling them together. It is probable that he made the same outrageous demands for himself in Portugal that he later made in Spain, where he went next.

The king's experts believed that the route would be longer than Columbus thought (the actual distance is even longer than the Portuguese believed), and denied Columbus's request. Columbus first presented his plan to the court of Portugal in 1485. They were right and Columbus was wrong; unless he had unexpectedly encountered a previously uncharted continent in mid-travel, he and his crew would have perished from lack of food and water. In fact, the distance is about 10,600 nautical miles (19,600 km), and most European sailors and navigators concluded that the Indies were too far away to make his plan worth considering.

Columbus calculated that the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan was 2,400 nautical miles (about 4,444 km). The true circumference of the earth is about 40,000 km (24,900 statute miles of 5,280 feet each), whereas the circumference of Columbus's earth was the equivalent of at most 19,000 modern statute miles (or 30,600 km). Finally, Columbus read maps as if the distances were calculated in Roman miles (1524 meters or 5,000 feet) rather than nautical miles (1853.99 meters or 6,082.66 feet at the equator). Moreover, Columbus believed that one degree actually covered less space on the earth's surface than commonly believed.

Columbus accepted the calculations of Pierre d'Ailly, that the land-mass occupied 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water. The problem was that the experts did not agree with his estimates of the distance to the Indies. The fact that the Earth is round was evident to most people of Columbus's time, especially other sailors and navigators (Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) had in fact accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth).

This myth can be traced to Washington Irving's novel The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828). It is sometimes claimed that the reason Columbus had a hard time receiving support for this plan was that Europeans believed that the Earth was flat. By the 1480s, he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies (then roughly meaning all of south and east Asia) by sailing west across the Ocean Sea (the Atlantic Ocean) instead. Columbus had another idea.

In response to Muslim hegemony on land, Portugal sought an eastward sea route to the Indies, and promoted the establishment of trading posts and later colonies along the coast of Africa. Christian Europe, long allowed safe passage to India and China (sources of valued trade goods such as silk and spices) under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"), was now, after the fragmentation of that empire, under a complete economic blockade by Muslim states. Both boys served as pages to Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella, and each later contributed, with fabulous success, to the rehabilitation of their father's reputation. The two had a son, Ferdinand in 1488.

They never married, but Columbus left Beatriz a rich woman and directed Diego to treat her as his own mother. She was living with a cousin in the weaving industry of Córdoba. Columbus later found a lifelong partner in Spain, an orphan named Beatriz Enriquez. Felipa died in January of 1485.

Columbus and Felipa had a son, Diego Colón in 1480. As part of his dowry, the mariner received all of Perestello's charts of the winds and currents of the Portuguese possessions of the Atlantic. Felipa's father, Bartolomeu Perestrelo, had partaken in finding the Madeira Islands and owned one of them (Porto Santo Island), but died when Felipa was a baby, leaving his second wife a wealthy widow. Columbus married Felipa Perestrello Moniz, a daughter from a noble Portuguese family with some Italian ancestry, in 1479.

He sailed to Madeira in 1478 to purchase sugar, and along the coasts of West Africa between 1482 and 1485, reaching the Portuguese trade post of Elmina Castle in the Gulf of Guinea coast. He became a merchant sailor with the Portuguese fleet, and sailed to Iceland via Ireland in 1477. At times, the brothers worked together as draftsmen and book collectors. Columbus's brother Bartolomeo worked as a mapmaker in Lisbon.

Portugal had become a center for maritime activity with ships sailing for England, Ireland, Iceland, Madeira, the Azores, and Africa. By 1477, Columbus was living in Lisbon. Columbus's ship was burned and he swam six miles to shore. Vincent, Portugal.

The fleet came under attack by French privateers off the Cape of St. A 1476, commercial expedition gave Columbus his first opportunity to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. It is believed that this is where he recruited some of his sailors. He spent a year on a ship bound towards Khios (an island in the Aegean Sea) and, after a brief visit home, spent a year in Khios.

In 1474, Columbus joined a ship of the Spinola Financiers, who were Genoese patrons of his father. Christopher received almost no formal education; a voracious reader, he was largely self-taught. During this period he studied cartography with his brother Bartolomeo. In 1470, the family moved to Savona, where Christopher worked for his father in wool processing.

Christopher had three younger brothers, Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo, and a sister, Bianchinetta. His father was Domenico Colombo, a woollens merchant, and his mother was Susanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of a woollens merchant. Columbus was born between August 26 and October 31 in the year 1451, in the Italian port city of Genoa. (See Columbus's National Origin.) The account that has traditionally been supported by most historians is as follows:.

There are various versions of Columbus's origins and life before 1476. . While regarded by some as an excellent navigator, he was seen by many contemporaries as a poor administrator and was stripped of his governorship in 1500. Columbus claimed governorship of the new territories (by prior agreement with the Spanish monarchs) and made several more journeys across the Atlantic.

Columbus' signature reads Xpo ferens ("Bearing Christ"). The Latin roots of his name can be translated "Christ-bearer, Dove". Columbus is a Latinized form of his surname. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish is Cristóbal Colón, in Catalan it is Cristòfor Colom and in Portuguese Cristóvão Colombo.

It has generally been accepted that he was Genovese, although doubts have persistently been voiced regarding this. Italian Americans hail Columbus as an icon of their heritage. Others honour him for the massive boost his explorations gave to Western expansion and culture. Some – including many Native Americans – view him as responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of indigenous peoples, exploitation of the Americas by Europe, and slavery in the West Indies.

Columbus remains a controversial figure. Unlike the voyage of the Icelanders, Columbus's voyages led to a relatively quick, general and lasting recognition of the existence of the New World by the Old World, the Columbian Exchange of species (both those harmful to humans, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites, and beneficial to humans, such as tomatoes, potatoes, maize, and horses), and the first large-scale colonization of the Americas by Europeans. He never reached the present-day United States where "Columbus Day" (12 October, the anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Bahamas) is celebrated as a holiday. Columbus landed in the Bahamas and later explored much of the Caribbean, including the isles of Juana (Cuba) and Espanola (Hispaniola), as well as the coasts of Central and South America.

This is likely due to the invention of the printing press. However, there is one thing that sets off Columbus' first voyage from all of these: less than two decades later, the existence of America was known to the general public throughout Europe. Giovanni Caboto (better known as John Cabot) was first to reach the American mainland (which Columbus did not reach until his third voyage). There are also many theories of expeditions to the Americas by a variety of peoples throughout time; see Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, one of the most consistent is the exploration (before 1472) of two, led by João Vaz Corte-Real to Terra Verde (today's Newfoundland).

Many historians today acknowledge the fact that 'Leifur Eiríksson' had travelled to North America from Iceland in the 11th century and set up a short-lived colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. Columbus was not the first European to reach the continent. The main debate was over whether a ship could circumnavigate the planet without running out of food or getting stuck in windless regions. Educated people in Columbus's time agreed that the earth was round; anyone familiar with seafaring certainly knew it, since the roundness of the earth forms the basis of celestial navigation.

The widespread notion that Columbus encountered opposition based on the idea that the earth was flat is a literary myth created by Washington Irving. He believed that the earth was a relatively small sphere, and argued that a ship could reach the Far East via a westward course. He was an explorer and trader who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12th 1492 under the flag of Castilian Spain. Christopher Columbus (1451¹ – 20 May 1506) (Cristòfor Colom in Catalan, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristóvão Colombo in Portuguese) was most probably Genoese, although some historians claim he could have been born in other places, from the Crown of Aragó to the Kingdoms of Galicia or Portugal among others.