The first lesson of the new year
Christopher Columbus (c. 1451-1506), born in Genoa, Italy, loved sailing adventures since childhood and aspired to be a navigator. Columbus was convinced of the prevailing theory of the circle of the earth at the time, and was an admirer of Marco Polo, who had been imprisoned in Genoa, and he read The Travels of Marco Polo. At that time, the myth of the wealth of China and India was widespread in Europe, so he longed for India and China. He successively asked the kings of Portugal, Spain, England, France, and other countries for funding to realize his plan to sail west to the countries of the East, but they were all refused. Columbus lobbied everywhere for more than ten years in order to realize his plan. It was not until 1492 that the king of Spain had the foresight to support Columbus's sailing plans. On August 3, the King of Spain officially conferred the rank of Admiral Columbus, and ordered him to carry the credentials of the King of Spain, lead 87 sailors, 2 Arabic interpreters, and take three sailing ships of about 100 tons, "Santa Maria", "Nina" and "Binda", from the port of Barros, Spain, and went straight west to start the voyage to find a new route.
After 70 days and nights of sailing, Columbus finally discovered the land in the early hours of October 12, 1492, which is now Waltering Island in the Bahamas. Thinking that he was in India, Columbus named the island "San Salvador", which means "savior", and raised the Spanish flag on the island. After that, Columbus led a fleet to the Americas three times, visiting many islands in the Caribbean Sea and many places in Latin America, opening up a new route across the Atlantic to the Americas.
But Columbus's voyage was clearly semi-military in nature, and they did not come to the Americas as messengers of peace, but as the vanguard of colonialists and conquerors, in search of and plunder of wealth, which preluded Spain's foreign expansion, and his discovery became a new beginning for Spain's development of the American continent, plundering colonies, and immigration.
Soon after Columbus arrived in the Americas, Spain soon occupied the Caribbean coast and the West Indies. In 1520, the Spanish conquered Mexico completely, and from this foothold began to expand into South America, then Peru and then Chile. The success of Columbus's voyage also greatly stimulated the countries and people of Western Europe to compete for expeditions, and there was an upsurge of voyages, explorations, discoveries, and colonizations in Western Europe. Explorers from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, England and the Netherlands soon traveled throughout the New World. The struggle for the plundering of the colonies also came to a fever pitch.
The long-term overseas expansion has made many colonists realize that the fleet alone is not enough, and that it is necessary to have a full-time force that can not only adapt to long-distance voyages and independent operations overseas, but also have a unified command relationship with the fleet, and accompany the fleet on expeditions all year round. Therefore, in order to accommodate the need for this overseas expansion, in 1537 King Charles I of Spain established the Spanish Marine Corps, one of the oldest in the world. It can be seen that Columbus's great geographical discovery was also one of the main promoters of the earliest establishment of the Marine Corps in Spain, and provided a "fertile soil" for the development and growth of the Marine Corps of various countries.
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