Globetrotters in Search of Fame: Christopher Columbus and John Smith

During the late fifteenth, and sixteenth century the desire to expand and explore new trade routes became increasingly popular. Plague and diseases like the black death ran rampant through Europe during the 1500’s, making Europe unaccustomed to a stable and growing population, which it experienced during the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Europe began to run out of land and resources to accommodate the residents and many looked to expansion as a solution. Many parts of Europe including France, New England, and Italy also hoped to grow commercially and economically by exploring unknown lands and building territory. Numerous colonists became interested in the idea of exploring new land and all the new opportunities they could experience outside of Europe. One of the most popular explorers know as Christopher Columbus, was a well-known navigator and sailor during the time. Another popular explorer was John Smith who was an English solider, who took an interest in exploration nearly seventy-five years after Christopher Columbus’s time. Although Christopher Columbus and John Smith were both born and active in different time spans, they both resembled one another in their drive for education, exploration, treatment with the natives, and desire for notability. Like both explorers, many others wrote journals, diaries, and stories to account for their journey to and while there in the new world. Both John Smith and Christopher Columbus' accomplishments and drawbacks are explored in this essay because their narratives make it easy to see their motivations, actions, and aspirations during their voyages and conquests.

Christopher Columbus and John Smith were both colonist who were well educated and knowledgeable. In fact, Christopher Columbus was taught several different languages. Columbus was an Italian colonist who wrote letters to his brothers in Spanish, while also writing journals in Greek and Latin. Historian August Kling believed that Christopher Columbus’s writing showed “characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling', while also having hints of Catalan phonetics. During his younger years he studied the works of Roman scholars like Marinus and Ptolemy in school. While in Lisbon, he studied astronomy, navigation, mathematics, and cartography. Like Columbus, John Smith received an education at a young age while studying in Alford He learned the basics such as writing, reading, mathematics, and even Latin. After he returned to England, he began to study the art of warfare, which would later help him in the New World. John Smith and Christopher Columbus were well rounded and cultivated in their schooling, which helped to pave the way for their many accomplishments.

The Way John Smith and Christopher Columbus Mirrored Each Other

Firstly, Smith’s and Columbus’s drive for exploration and adventure began early in life and continued throughout their lives. Ironically, John Smith tried to run away from home at the age of thirteen to travel but was stopped by his father. After the death of his father, Smith left to sail with the French and helped fight the Spanish in both England and the Netherlands. On his way to Austria, he joined a pirate ship allowing him to earn gold and travel through Slovenia, Croatia, and even Italy. After escaping enslavement in Russia, he continued his journey “across the remainder of Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco before finally returning to England in 1604”. In December 1606, John Smith accompanied Captain Bartholomew Gosnold to Virginia to establish a Colony granted by King James I. Unlike Smith, Columbus was able to travel at the age of fourteen aboard countless trading ships traveling the Aegean Sea. In 1470, French Privateers destroyed and attacked a ship Columbus was aboard, causing him to float on a scarp piece of wood. After the attack he traveled to Lisbon where he spent the next few years of his life planning his first voyage. His most famous voyage occurred in 1492 when he and his crew set sail on three ships to Asia. Columbus and his crew landed on an island in the Bahamas and continued up the Caribbean. Later Columbus and others would call his “discovery” the New World. He also had three other voyages in which he traveled to Dominica, Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, Margarita, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and Central America. Both explores wished to voyage back to the Americas before their deaths but were unable to because of health and money issues.

John Smith and Christopher Columbus mirrored each other in their horrendous treatment towards people and the enslavement and destruction of the natives. Christopher Columbus and his crew bought “disease and environmental changes that resulted in the destruction of the majority of the native population over time”. He also enslaved the natives and sent 500 slaves to Queen Isabella as a gift. The Queen was extremely upset with Columbus’s treatment of the natives and “believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved”. However, Columbus wrote in his journal, “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I pleased”. John Smith’s treatment of the natives was more civil then that of Columbus’s. He was more effective “in trade and political negotiations” with the Indians. Nevertheless, he did steal food from the natives and enslaved some as well. However, his treatment of the Jamestown settlers was harsh and tyrannical. Smith created a law in which settlers had to work in exchange for food. Settlers grew to dislike Smith so much that that they planned to shoot him in his sleep. In the end they decided on banning him from the settlement and sending him back to England to answer for his wrongdoings. John Smith and Christopher Columbus both wrongful treated the natives and settlers during their expeditions.

Lastly, Christopher Columbus and John Smith favored each other in their desire for fame and popularity. In both Smith’s and Columbus’s letters and journals they write of the new world with such descriptive words and imagery, as if they have discovered a mystical land filled with gold, money, and resources. Columbus describe the trees with “such a diversity was among them that it was the greatest wonder in the world to behold”. He also states that “a single tree bears five or six different kinds” and that “the island is verdant, level and fertile to a high degree; and I doubt not that grain is sowed and reaped the whole year round. John Smith also paints a picture of the new world by writing “we tooke from the bushes with our hands, neare two hogsheads full of Birds in three or foure hours. Both explores describe the land as plentiful and unusually beautiful compared to that of England. This can be contributed to their desire to be acknowledged as explorers who have set foot and created settlements on such beautiful land. In his journals, Columbus writes that the natives “continue to entertain the idea that I have descended from heaven; and on our arrival at any new place they published this, crying out immediately with a loud voice to the other Indians, “Come, come and look upon beings of a celestial race”. These quotes show Columbus views himself on a higher pedestal, especially compare to the Native Americans. Also, it is unlikely Columbus learned the native language within a few short days of arriving in the Bahamas. There would be little to no chance that the Native Americans said what Columbus wrote in this journal. The two explorers greatly reflected each other in their hopes to be famous or remembered for exploring and establish territory in the New World.

Conclusion

Throughout the fifteenth century the Age of Exploration and Like many explorers John Smith and Christopher Columbus shared many aspirations and desires throughout their life. Columbus and Smith’s educational backgrounds would later aid them on their travels to the New World. Both explorers started their careers off at a young age, allowing them to become experienced and knowledgeable in most aspects of voyaging and exploration. Once these explorers made it to the new world, they would eventually treat the settlers and the natives cruelly and harshly. Both men would eventually end up being kicked out of the settlements they helped to build because of their cruelty.

Works Cited

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• Montgomery, Dennis. “Captain John Smith.” Terms of Estrangement: Who Were the Sons of Liberty, The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site, Web.
• Warder, Bill. “Captain John Smith.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, June 2009, Web.
• Waterman, Lynn. “The Founding of Jamestown.” Great Epochs in American History, Web.