Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
Columbus was acting not just on behalf of Spain, but the Catholic faith.
Many historians believe that Columbus saw the spread of Christianity as one of his major goals.
His underlying motivations may have been even more radical.
According to the author Carol Delaney, Columbus hoped to make money through trade in order to fund a new crusade.
That way, Jerusalem could be reclaimed from Muslim control before the end of the world.
Historians disagree about Columbus's exact aims.
But there's little doubt that he was deeply religious and that he held strong apocalyptic beliefs.
In August 1492, approaching his 40th birthday, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain.
There were three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña.
After five weeks at sea, land was spotted.
While Columbus and his crew believed that they had arrived in Asia, they were actually in the Caribbean.
The land they had spotted was an island in the Bahamas.
Columbus promptly named it San Salvador and referred to the inhabitants as Los Indios, or the Indians.
And indeed, to this day, this part of the Caribbean is known as the West Indies.
The name originates from Columbus's belief that he had reached the area known as the Indies near Asia.
Over the next few weeks, Columbus and his men explored various islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba.
Their initial encounters with the indigenous people were mostly peaceful, though that would soon change with dire consequences.
Columbus imprisoned a number of indigenous people.
Some would be transported to Spain, including a young boy who later became associated with Columbus's household.
In some sources, he's referred to as Columbus's adopted son.
Showing 1841–1860 of 2,981 · page 93 of 150
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