The Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus (Links to

an external site.)

I chose the document: Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher
Columbus
This is an official legal and binding document between Spain and Christopher Columbus. In the
document the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, Commission Columbus to "conquer and
subdue" new islands and land for Spain. No area is specifically mentioned but it is assumed these new
lands will be in Asia. He will be supplied with the resources, in this case the ships and crew. He is granted
several new hereditary titles "specifically Admiral of Spain, Vice-Roy, and Governor. The document gives
him broad powers in appointing laws and setting up governments in these new lands. He is further able to
appoint people to whom he sees fit. The document then explains that these titles and responsibilities will
be passed on through his family lineage forever. The document then explains that this document must be
honored by the entirety of Spain listing multiple government positions and groupings and stating that they
must respect the legality of the document. The document closes announcing the legal penalties including
fines , court appearances, and facing the anger of the royal court, to any person or group that does not
respect its legality. The document is then signed by the King and Queen and notorized.

This document doesnt personally shock me. It is common knowledge that the voyage of Christopher
Columbus was primarily a business venture. This does not subtract from the scientific discoveries it
achieved. Even though the basis of the voyage was made in error, it still was an important moment in
science, geography, and navigation.
The concept of the other is very strong in this document. The King and Queen of Spain are giving
Columbus authority over land that they do not own. Even worse, its to them a hypothetical land they know
nothing about. They refer to it as some islands and continent in the ocean. They freely give it away
because it does not belong to them. This completely ignores the lands original occupants. This document
seems to be the template for all conquistadores, and general colonization of the Americas.
The broad powers that they bestow on Columbus call in to question how much they really expected him
to accomplish on his voyage. The document says he can govern and rule, forever, any land that he can
subdue or conquer. They then only provide him with three ships and enough manpower to crew them. It
doesnt seem reasonable to conquer any substantial land with such limited resources. Maybe thats why
the terms were so generous.

REFLECTION
For my reflection I am choosing the first Document Interpretation assignment. As a class we were given
several choices of historic documents to evaluate and summarize in our own words. Out of several
options my choice was The Priveleges and Perogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to
Christopher Columbus (Links to an external site.). This would be my first official written assignment for
this class, and the first of a very long time. I feel this assignment re-introduced me to the academic world,
educated me, and challenged me. Comparing it to later assignments it is a good benchmark for the very
modest improvements Ive made since, and most importantly how much more room I have yet to
improve.
This assignment helped me enormously with switching back into an academic mindset. I had been out of
school for many years and was severely out of practice. The assignment asked me to interpret a historical
document and put it in my own words. Going forward I can see that summarizing and interpreting
assignments similar to this will be a basic academic skill asked in most classes, so Im glad I was able to
practice here with this assignment.
Another thing that helped me was to teach me that when given a choice, if possible choose something of
personal interest. There were several choices available and I chose this particular document because it
held the most interest for me. It was written as a legal document and was not very easy to understand,
but it was fascinating because I was able to glean from it so much information about the mindset of the
King, Queen, and Columbus. I learned that even legal documents, especially ones of such significance
are a rich source of historic knowledge not just for their verbiage, but for their context. It also was very
educational just in its language and expressed not only the contract between Spain and Columbus but
also shed much information about Spanish Government and institutions.
Comparing this assignment to my second and third shows that Im slowly refining my skill set. I would
benefit greatly from English or Writing class. I feel like many of my word choices in this first assignment
were redundant, and that I have a long ways to go in learning to express my thoughts on paper. I do feel
Im slowly making modest improvements however and can look back to my first assignment as a first
step.