The+Capitulations

Columbus had tried many times to find someone who helped him to do the expedition around the word to reach India by crossing the Atlantic because he believes the Earth was round. Firstly Portugal and Castile didn’t believe him but the ones who pay the trip of Columbus convinced Queen Isabel of Castile. Columbus was based in this ides on the project: Go to India through another route. Arrive the Kingdom of Gran Kan that had been visited by Marco Polo. He thought that the ocean cobers a surface of the Earth that was smaller that in reality, and also he thought that the circumference of the Earth was different that in reality. The 17th of April of the year 1492 Columbus signed with the Queen “Las Capitulaciones de Santa Fé” in the town of Santa Fe de la Vega of Granada. This was a document giving privileges to Columbus in exchange of discovering America. In that time Capitulaciones meant a contract that the Monarchs had with somebody. Luis de Santagel was the secretary of Ferdinand of Aragon and he also participates. Columbus wanted the titles of Viceroy and Governor of the lands he had discovered, the title of Admiral that was a military position of the marine army and it was the same as a general in the army, Columbus also wanted economic advantages. So the Catholic Monarchs gave him the titles of: Admiral (for him and his successors), viceroy of the territories discovered,who was a man who governed a country, ruling as a representative of the Kings and governor who was the person appointed to govern a territory. He also received a title of the wealth of the territories conquered and the authority of acting when there is any problem, and contribute the eight part of the cost of the expedition and then he would received a similar quantity. Thanks to those privileges Christopher Columbus became part of the courtesan nobility. The original document is not conserved today, but there are some evidences tha prove it had existed.