Titans of History (24 page)

That was not the last key decision of 1492—the Catholic Monarchs next agreed to fund the expedition of Christopher Columbus that discovered the New World and began the Spanish conquest of a new continent. Thus in many ways, the couple played a key role in the creation of the modern world.

Ferdinand was also king of Sicily and Naples and spent many of his later years campaigning in Italy, but he never gave up his crusading credentials. His ultimate aim was to liberate Jerusalem and indeed he claimed the title of king of Jerusalem, one still used by the king of Spain. He launched a series of attacks along the coast of Muslim North Africa, even conquering Tripoli in today's Libya.

The couple married their daughter Catherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur, son of King Henry VII of England and after the prince's death, she married his son and heir, Henry VIII, becoming the mother of Queen Mary I. When Isabella died in 1508, she was succeeded on the Castilian throne by their daughter Juana. Juana was married to Philip the Handsome, Habsburg duke of Burgundy and son of the Emperor Maximilian and they had a son, Charles of Ghent. But Juana the Mad was unbalanced; Philip the Handsome died young and so Ferdinand ruled Castile as regent until his death when the Spanish kingdoms along with vast Habsburg lands in Germany and the Low Countries as well as the new territories of America, were inherited by Ferdinand and Isabella's grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, who in his day was the most powerful monarch in the world.

1451–1506

For the execution of the voyage to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps
.

Christopher Columbus

Cristobal Colon—better known as Christopher Columbus—was the maverick son of a Genoese weaver who for years had dreamed of sailing across the Atlantic to open up a new path to India, but instead discovered America. An extraordinary sailor, adventurer, dreamer, and obsessional eccentric of remarkable drive and will, he had petitioned the Portuguese court in vain for many years to fund this voyage. He then turned his attentions to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella who, on finally conquering the last Islamic principality of Iberia agreed to fund the voyage. Bizarrely, part of his dream was to find the spices and gold that would pay for a crusade to liberate Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple for Catholicism and even to attack the Holy City from the other side. In return for royal backing, he demanded and received the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of any new lands plus a generous share of the income from them.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set off on his first expedition with three ships and on October 12 he spotted land, one of the islands of the Bahamas—the first sight of the Americas. He went on to explore the coast of Cuba and Hispaniola before returning to Spain, convinced that he had simply discovered a new route
to the Indies. Indeed he called the indigenous people Indians. A year later he set off again with a much larger expedition of settlers, soldiers, priests.

In all there were four voyages around the Caribbean, via Jamaica and Hispaniola, during which Columbus landed on mainland Central and South America, establishing the Spanish presence on the new continent. But Columbus, now Grand Admiral and Governor of the Indies, accompanied by his brothers and children, found it hard adapting to his new role, particularly when he came into confrontation with the newly appointed governors sent by the court in Spain.

Ultimately he was arrested and sent back to Spain, though on his return he was freed by the Catholic Monarchs and reconfirmed in his titles. He was allowed to take one more voyage, his fourth, but his career as an actual governor was over.

He spent his last years frustrated by his great achievements and limitations and his bad health, writing books of plans for his new Jerusalem Temple and other dreams. His eldest son Diego, who married the niece of the duke of Alba, was confirmed in 1509 in his father's titles as Grand Admiral and Viceroy and spent many years governing parts of the Indies from his residence in San Domingue in today's Dominican Republic. On his death, his son Luis Colon was awarded the title of Admiral of the Indies and a dukedom. But there ended the three generations of the dynasty of Columbus. Others would conquer and govern the new empire of Spain. To Christopher Columbus himself, the new lands were always the Indies. It was others who called them the New World and it was the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci after whom the Americas were to be named.

1470–1520

A carpet is large enough to accommodate two sufis, but the world is not large enough for two Kings
.

Selim the Grim

Sultan Selim I defeated Persia (Iran) and the Mamluks, and conquered the entire Middle East, including Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for his Ottoman empire, in a reign that was short, bloody and extremely successful. Having eliminated all internal challengers, he established the Ottomans as the preeminent power in the Islamic world. One of the cruelest sultans, he was also one of the greatest.

Selim was born in 1470, the son and heir apparent of Sultan Bayezid II, whose reign had been undermined by royal infighting as the sultan found himself challenged by his brother Cem. The latter had sought assistance from various European allies—notably the military order of the Knights of St. John and the papacy—but ultimately wound up dead in a Neapolitan jail. This family feud, however, was nothing compared with what was to follow.

Tall and strong, the young Selim stood out for his bravery and his keen intelligence. Many looked to him as a model ruler in waiting. One who was not so convinced, however, was his brother Ahmed, who desired the throne for himself. The rivalry between the two became increasingly bitter. In 1511, after Ahmed had pacified a rebellious Ottoman province in Asia Minor, he made as if to march on the capital, Istanbul. Selim fled.

In semi-exile as governor of Trabizon (a region of northern Anatolia, next to the Black Sea), Selim honed his military skills, leading a succession of military campaigns against Georgia and succeeding in bringing the towns of Kars, Erzurum and Artvin under Ottoman control. Selim returned from his provincial assignment in 1512, and, with the support of the Janissary militias, defeated and killed Ahmed in battle. He then forced his father to abdicate.

Bayezid died soon afterward, and there ensued an extraordinary bout of intra-familial bloodletting. Selim understood the problems that could flow from sibling rivalry, having witnessed the clash between his father and uncle, not to mention his own experiences with his brother Ahmed. He came up with a simple but ferocious solution: the elimination of all possible rivals to the throne. He not only had his two surviving brothers and his nephews murdered, but even his own sons—with the sole exception of Suleiman, the son he had designated as his one true heir.

Selim then set about adding to his dominions. Hitherto, the focus for Ottoman expansion had been westward into Europe—particularly the Balkans. Selim adopted a different policy. Signing a peace treaty with the European powers, he turned his attention east, to the Safavids of Persia, whose Shi'ite empire posed a direct ideological challenge to the Ottoman sultans, upholders of the Sunni tradition. In addition, the Safavids had been stirring up unrest among the Kizilbash (Turkmen tribes in eastern Anatolia). In 1514 Selim moved decisively against his Safavid neighbors, and defeated them at the Battle of Chaldiran on the River Euphrates.

With his immediate rivals thus neutralized, Selim then prepared to take on the empire of the Mamluks to the south, whose rule extended from Egypt through Palestine to Syria, and who had provoked Selim's anger by their apparent interference in Ottoman affairs. Marching his army south, Selim destroyed successive
Mamluk armies at Marj Dabiq (north of Aleppo) in 1516 and at al-Raydaniyyah (near Cairo) in 1517. In so doing, he brought Syria, Palestine and Egypt under Ottoman sway. Selim now proclaimed himself caliph, and was declared guardian of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. His triumph was to be short-lived. In September 1520 he died after a short illness, probably a form of cancer, leaving his empire to his son, Suleiman.

c.
1475–1541

Friends and comrades! On that side [south] are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south
.

Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro personifies the brilliant adventurism and the callous inhumanity of the Spanish conquistadors. Some went on to help rule this gold-rich empire, but many others lived the itinerant lifestyle of the military adventurer—ruthlessly exploiting native populations and extorting the wealth of the land to build vast private fortunes. Pizarro's place in history is that of the man who destroyed the empire of the Incas and delivered much of the New World into Spanish hands.

One of the greatest Europeans of his age, Pizarro was lean, tall, fit and a superb, kindly, quiet-spoken leader, beloved by his men.
He was illiterate, old-fashioned and usually wore a black cassock, white hat and sword and dagger. But he was enormously experienced in the warfare of the conquest of the Indies and prepared to be utterly ruthless and brutal to his enemies. He displayed the same qualities against the Indians to achieve the psychological dominance needed to compensate for his massive numerical inferiority. His achievements—the conquest of an empire with a preposterously small band of men—remain astonishing and Pizarro is still regarded as a hero in his home town of Trujillo in Spain.

Like many other young Europeans of the time, he was lured by the promise of the New World. He was accompanied and assisted by his brothers and by 1502 Pizarro had arrived in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and it was there that his career as a conquistador began. By 1513 he was fighting alongside Vasco Núñez de Balboa. However the following year Balboa was removed from his position as governor of Veragua—the territory he had helped establish for the Spanish crown. His replacement was a man named Pedrarias Dávila and, rather than stand by his comrade, Pizarro immediately professed his loyalty to Dávila. Five years later, on the orders of Dávila, Pizarro arrested Balboa, who was subsequently executed. As a reward for his allegiance to Dávila, Pizarro was made mayor of the recently founded Panama City.

Although Pizarro used his new role to accumulate significant riches, these did not satisfy his ambitions. Rumors of a fabulously wealthy country to the south—Piru—had reached Panama by this time. Inspired by such stories, Pizarro formed a partnership with a soldier-adventurer, Diego de Almagro: they agreed to lead an expedition in search of “Piru,” with all the lands they conquered to be divided equally between them.

An unsuccessful attempt in 1524 was followed by a far more promising expedition in 1526, in which the existence of a wealthy
empire to the south was confirmed. With their appetites whetted, the conquistadors resolved on a third trip. However, the governor of Panama had grown impatient with Pizarro's failure to deliver immediate results and ordered the venture to be abandoned.

When news reached Pizarro of the governor's decision, he drew a line in the sand with his sword and declared, “There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian.” Of those present, just thirteen men committed to stay with him. Accompanied by Almagro and Luque, Pizarro now continued on his journey, and in 1528 he first entered the territories of the Inca empire. Originating in the Peruvian highlands in the twelfth century, the Incas by the mid-1500s had grown into a mighty empire encompassing much of the west coast of South America. Under three particularly successful rulers (Pachacuti, r.
c.
1438–
c.
1471; Topa Inca, r.
c.
1471–
c.
1493; and Huayna Capac, r.
c.
1493–1525) they came to dominate much of what is modern-day Ecuador, Peru, parts of Argentina, and Chile. Shortly before the Spaniards arrived in 1532, however, the empire was fractured by civil war that broke out during the rule of Huayna Capac's son, Atahualpa, leaving the empire a sitting target, especially given the technical superiority of the Incas' European assailants.

Pizarro encountered human sacrifice among the Inca people. They practiced it less than their Aztec counterparts in Mexico, but would respond to momentous events (such as a natural disaster, or the death of an emperor—who was worshipped as a god) by engaging in the tradition of
capacocha
—the sacrifice of children—in an attempt to ensure the gods' continued blessing.

Anxious to build on this promising initial encounter with a vulnerable and wealthy empire, but short on resources, Pizarro returned briefly to Europe to appeal in person to Charles V, king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, who now agreed to assist him.

Returning to the New World, Pizarro sent emissaries to meet the representatives of the Inca emperor, Atahualpa. It was agreed that Pizarro would meet the emperor at the town of Cajamarca in November 1532. Advancing with his army of 80,000 men, Atahualpa believed he had little to fear from Pizarro's force of 106 infantry soldiers and 62 cavalry. On arrival at Cajamarca, Atahualpa decided to leave most of his troops outside the city and entered with a far smaller retinue—not realizing he was walking into a carefully laid trap. In a brief exchange, the emperor contemptuously rejected the suggestion that he should become a Spanish supplicant. Pizarro immediately ordered his men to open fire on the astonished Incas. Almost all of Atahualpa's escort party—perhaps 3000 or 4000 men—were slaughtered, and the massacre continued outside the city. In total some 7000 Incas perished in a hail of gunfire; the Spanish took fewer than ten casualties in reply. The emperor himself was taken hostage. Pizarro took as his mistress Atahualpa's teenage sister with whom he would go on to have children.