Columbus: The Untold Story (Colón. La Historia Nunca Contada)

Try to visualize everything you were told about that epic 1492 voyage of Columbus and his discovery of America? His novel idea of opposing a flat earth theory with the belief that the earth was truly round: The trials and tribulations of convincing a court and a scientific committee to sponsor him on a fearless sailing voyage into the dark unknown: The weeks of meandering while lost at sea not knowing if he’d ever return home: The triumphant discovery of what he truly believed to be the land of India: The glorious return to Spain and hailed as a hero for discovering lands unknown to Europeans: The envy of the Spanish upper class nobles as they saw this lowly wool weaving peasant, a foreigner nobody, being rewarded with the titles of Admiral, Governor and even Viceroy.

It is truly an amazing and unbelievable “rags to riches” story used for centuries to inspire young and old all over the globe. How unbelievable is it to visualize?

Now what if you were shown that all that you just imagined is not true? What if you learned that Columbus was never lost, that he was not an ignorant wool weaver but a scholar and genius pilot in his day? That his own notes show he never believed to have reached the real India. That he was instead involved in a treacherous spy-game against Spain and that his name was not Columbus at all! Would you want to find out exactly how the unbelievably incorrect history you were taught came to be?

I know hearing that the story surrounding the discovery of America taught for more than 500 years being wrong sounds bizarre and hard to swallow. That would mean the assertions taught every child from the time he or she enters school would have to be changed. But based on 20 years of systematic research in countries from Poland to the Dominican Republic - utilizing ancient manuscripts to modern DNA and forensic to genealogy - I claim just that.

When I immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve I never dreamed I would stumble across such proof tied to my native land, but in 1991 while translating a work from Portuguese to English, I began to see how Columbus didn’t just stumble across America by accident as he sought India but the voyage was part of an ingenious espionage plot to defraud his Spanish sponsors.

In fact, I now have enough proof to assert that the man who discovered America wasn’t a peasant, Cristoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus), the wool-weaver from Genoa at all, but Prince Segismundo Henriques of Portugal, son of the self-exiled Polish king Vladislav III.

My two previously published books on this subject in Portugal were sellouts. My new book Colón. La Historia Nunca Contada (Columbus: The Untold Story) published in Spain is receiving lots of media attention from Spain to Argentina, soon a  worldwide publisher is bound to take the newly completed and updated English version, titled "COLUMBUS. The Untold Story," to the world.

This book will forever change how we view our history and so does Prof. Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão, PhD, Dean of the University of Lisbon, who wrote the Preface, as well as other experts in the field like Prof. Trevor Hall, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Marcel Balla, PhD, Boston University, Prof. Manuela Mendonça, PhD, President of the Portuguese Academy of History…

“Another nutty conspiracy theory!” That’s what I first supposed as I started to read the manuscript… I now believe that if Columbus were alive and on trial by any fair civil court, he would be found guilty of huge fraud carried out over two decades against his patrons, wrote professor James T. McDonough, Jr., Ph.D. from Columbia University who taught at St. Joseph's University for 31 years.

Conferência na Azambuja : Vale do Paraiso

No próximo dia 13 de Março, pelas 15,30h realiza-se na 'Casa Colombo' em Vale do Paraíso um Colóquio que assinala o 517º aniversário do encontro entre Colombo (Colon) e D. João II, que ocorreu na segunda semana de Março de 1493, quando o navegador regressou da sua viagem de descoberta.


COLÓQUIO: «O encontro de Colombo (Colon) com D. João II - revisitado à luz de modernos contributos»

Colón. La historia nunca contada. (EEHA) Sevilla

Escuela de Estudios Hispano - Americanos (EEHA)
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

Colón. La historia nunca contada
Autor: Manuel Rosa
Presenta: Antonio Vicente, Doctor en Historia por la Facultad de Letras de la Universidad de Lisboa
Lugar: Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, CSIC
24 de noviembre de 2009, 19,00 h.

EM TORNO DA MISTIFICAÇÃO COLOMBO

No próximo dia 2 de Fevereiro, pelas 17,30h realiza-se 

na Academia de Marinha uma Conferência integrada no seu programa de sessões culturais, com o título

«EM TORNO DA MISTIFICAÇÃO COLOMBO» 

e apresentada pela ASSOCIAÇÃO CRISTÓVÃO COLON 

http://www.marinha.pt/pt/amarinha/actividade/areacultural/academiademarinha/pages/sessõesculturais.aspx

Colombo Português já nas Bibliotecas

Biblioteca Municipal Rocha Peixoto,
Póvoa de Varzim


Rede Municipal de Bibliotecas de Lisboa

Christopher Columbus would have been a spy of King John II of Portugal

Christopher Columbus was actually a “secret agent” of King John II of Portugal who deceived the Catholic Kings “with the promise of a route to India by the West” according to Portuguese writer and historian Manuel Rosa.

New findings incriminate Columbus as a  spy for the crown of Portugal, according to the author of COLUMBUS: The Untold Story, to be released November 24, in Seville.

Columbus academics know, that in 1488, Columbus was allowed by the King of Portugal to witness a vital Portuguese secret: a detailed map of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. Therefore the question arises as to why Columbus did not take that shorter route around Africa in 1492.

This is only one of the many questions that Rosa, has focused on answering during his 18-year-long investigation and one of the many points he presents in support of the Portuguese spy theory.

The widely accepted theory that Columbus believed he had reached India by miscalculations and mistaking the world for much smaller is challenged by private notes that Columbus left behind.

In 1494 Columbus made a personal note that Haiti was located only 5 Time Zones West of Portugal while India, since the year 150 AD, was known to be located 8 Time Zones to the East of Portugal—a location directly opposite on the sphere from where Columbus places himself in 1494. This is only one of the many facts used by the author to contest the official history.

Having already published two books in Portuguese, Rosa is seen as a leading expert on the subject of Columbus’s relations with the Portuguese crown. He is the only investigator to present new Portuguese documentation related to Columbus in 500 years.

The new Spanish book will be presented in Seville, Spain, with the assistance of Spain’s leading expert on Columbus, Professor Consuelo Varela of the High Council of Scientific Research, at the School of Hispano-American Studies where Mrs. Varela is the Assistant Director.

Cristóbal Colón fue un espía del rey de Portugal, según un historiador portugués

Cristóbal Colón fue en realidad un ‘agente secreto’ de el rey Juan II de Portugal que engañó a los Reyes Católicos ‘con la promesa de una ruta a la India por Occidente’, según la tesis del historiador y escritor portugués Manuel Rosa.

En el libro ‘Colón. La historia nunca contada’, Manuel Rosa sostiene que el almirante encandiló a Fernando de Aragón e Isabel de Castilla con la idea de abrir una nueva ruta hacia la ‘falsa India’ para dejar vía libre a los portugueses en la India verdadera y en Africa.

En una entrevista telefónica con Efe desde Durham (Carolina del Norte) donde vive y trabaja, Rosa, que presenta su obra el próximo 24 de noviembre en la Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (CSIC) de Sevilla (España), explicó que Portugal quería explotar yacimientos de oro en Ghana (Africa) y comerciar con la India sin la intromisión de España.

De hecho, precisó, ‘los portugueses no enviaron ningún navío a la India hasta que Colón’ no descubrió el Nuevo Mundo y Castilla se avino a firmar en 1494 el Tratado de Tordesillas con el rey Juan II de Portugal, un pacto que estableció las rutas de expansión de ambas potencias al este y al oeste.

Manuel Rosa abundó en las rivalidades que existían entonces entre Castilla y Portugal por lograr la hegemonía sobre la ruta comercial por el Atlántico.

En ese contexto, respaldó la teoría de que en 1483 Isabel de Castilla tramó el asesinato de Don Juan II (1481-1495) por medio de dos sobrinos de Colón, lo que impulsó al rey portugués a fraguar un plan conspirador con la ayuda del almirante, muy allegado a la Corona lusitana.

Para este licenciado en Ciencias Humanas que reside en Estados Unidos, no cabe la menor duda de que Colón estaba al tanto de que el Caribe era conocido y siguió en su viaje de 33 días hacia el Nuevo Mundo una ruta ya trazada.

Colón, antes, en 1477, ‘había navegado hasta Canadá en una misión secreta’ urdida por de los reyes de Portugal y Dinamarca, aseguró.

‘Todo lo que yo presento está respaldado con documentación histórica’, afirmó Rosa, que lleva 18 años tratando de resolver los misterios y enigmas que esconden la figura de Colón.

A su juicio, el plan pergeñado por Colón fue una artimaña tan bien tramada que ‘no sólo convenció y engañó a los Reyes Católicos, sino al mundo entero durante quinientos años’.

Otra de las tesis más sorprendentes de este ensayo es la relativa al origen del almirante.

Mientras que la mayoría de historiadores coinciden en que Colón fue ‘un plebeyo genovés’, un ‘tejedor de lana’ que ascendió a capitán, Rosa cree que era un noble portugués, hijo del rey de Polonia y Hungría Ladislao III, que nació en la isla portuguesa de Madeira.

Rosa mantiene la teoría de que Ladislao III, quien desapareció tras librar una batalla contra los turcos, buscó anonimato y refugio en Portugal y recibió de la Corona portuguesa tierras en la isla de Madeira, donde nació Colón.

Sobre la teoría del origen plebeyo del descubridor, sostiene que resulta poco creíble que un hombre de origen humilde, como era supuestamente Colón, hubiese podido casarse con Filipa Moniz, una noble portuguesa que residía en un monasterio y era comendadora de la orden de Santiago de la Espada en ese país.

Manuel Rosa también procede a desmontar las tesis de que Colón era judío o judío converso y lo ocultó a propósito. ‘No era judío. Según los análisis de ADN era un europeo blanco caucasiano’, aseveró.

Además, y lo que es más importante, prosiguió, se han analizado muestras de ‘477 Colombos de Italia, Francia y España’ y practicado una comparación ‘con el ADN de los huesos desenterrados en la catedral de Sevilla’, pertenecientes al hijo de Colón, Fernando, y a su hermano pequeño, Don Diego Colón, que murió en 1515.

La identificación genética de los restos óseos arroja que ‘ninguno de estos Colombos mostraba un ADN compatible con los huesos de Colón’, por lo que ‘es imposible que el almirante fuese el italiano Cristoforo Colombo, genovés de sangre’, sentenció.

Defiende también que la llamada pérdida de la nao Santa María, la más grande que usó Cristóbal Colón en su primer viaje a América, nunca se trató de un naufragio.

‘La Santa María nunca naufragó, sino que fue varada a propósito en tierra (en las playas de Haití) para servir de fortaleza a los hombres de la corte de Castilla’, dejados allí por Colón ‘para que no contradijesen la versión’ que presentó ante los Reyes Católicos a su regreso.

Con gran astucia, explicó el historiador, Colón perforó la nave de costado a costado con un cañonazo de lombarda y se trajo consigo en la carabela La Niña a los cuatro pilotos que navegaban en esa primera expedición.

A su regreso a la corte de Castilla, ‘anuncia que viene de la India y que ha dejado allí una ciudad conquistada’, un extremo que nadie pudo rebatir. La realidad es, destacó, que Colón no encontró canela y oro como trató de hacer creer en la corte castellana, sino ‘personas desnudas sin armas, cabañas de paja, canoas hechas de corteza de árboles’, y poco más.

Además, agregó, la India ya era bien conocida y famosa entonces por sus diamantes y rubíes y el comercio de especias controlado por los musulmanes, por lo que aquella tierra no podía corresponder con la India.

Esto lo sabía con certeza Colón, por eso llamó a esas tierras ‘Las Indias’ y ‘dio medidas engañosas sobre el Nuevo Mundo para confundir y engañar, no por ignorancia’, puso de relieve.

http://www.laregion.es/noticia.php?id=109457?visita=1

Speaker Explores the Secret History of Christopher Columbus

By Eddy Ball

November 2009

During its latest Hispanic Heritage Celebration on October 6, the NIEHS Diversity Council offered employees and contractors a novel perspective on explorer Christopher Columbus with a lecture by historian Manuel Rosa. Hosted by council member and NIEHS biologist Eli Ney, Rosa's talk, "Unmasking Columbus," explored the topic of "Columbus, the who, what and where — his identity, his knowledge and his mission.

A native of the Portuguese Azores who once worked on an information technology contract at NIEHS, Rosa has spent the past 18 years investigating historic events related to Columbus' 1492 voyage to America. His research findings are the basis of his two controversial books in Portuguese — the carefully documented account, O Mistério Colombo Revelado (The Columbus Mystery Revealed), published in 2006, and a popular version of the study released this year, Colombo Português-Novas Revelações (Portuguese Columbus-New Revelations).

As the titles of his books suggest, Rosa rejects the depiction of Columbus as "an inexperienced, lost and confused" explorer — a self-made man and shipwrecked sailor from Genoa, Italy, who stumbled across the Americas in 1492 during his misguided search for a western route to India.

Basing his argument on DNA and documentary evidence, Rosa presented a revisionist account of the explorer, whose real name, he argued, was Cristóbol Colón. According to Rosa, Colón was in fact "a highly trained [and very well-educated] nobleman, a Portuguese spy who infiltrated the Spanish royal court on a mission to take Spanish ships as far from India as possible in order to protect India's trade routes for the Portuguese king [John II].

As Rosa explained, during this time of cataclysmic shifts in the global balance of power, Portugal used its most powerful weapons — artifice, secrecy and intrigue — to divert Spain to the Americas and preserve its own standing as a colonial power in Africa and the East Indies. Columbus, Rosa contends, was an expert navigator, a master prevaricator and accomplished cryptographer who plotted against Spain throughout the voyage, even stopping at Portuguese island ports on his way to America and on his return voyage before returning to Spain — presumably to give progress reports to his Portuguese handlers and co-conspirators.

Rosa contends that the new information he has discovered about Columbus offers a fresh context for understanding apparent contradictions in the established historical record. The new evidence also helps explain Spain's readiness to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas  in 1494, dividing newly discovered lands outside Europe between the two naval superpowers — and reserving Africa and India for Portugal.
  http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2009/november/inside-columbus.cfm

Reprint of Ptolemy's Geography ca. 1460

Take a look at Ptolemy's Geography published in Europe 1478. Columbus owned a copy of this very book.
At left are Ptolemy's half-world map from the Canary's to China and Ptolemy's Map of India

"... Cristóbal Colón was a highly knowledgeable man for his time. He possessed various books on various themes, and some are of extreme importance to anyone who wants to investigate his life, such as the book of Marco Polo and Ptolemy’s book of geography.
In his book, Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined, Miles Davidson writes “Ptolemy’s Geographia became available in manuscript in Europe in 1409 and was first published in 1475, with five more editions up to 1492.” Cristóbal Colón owned the 1478 edition of the Geographia published in Rome. In this way one can establish that Cristóbal Colón, in 1478, knew at least as much about our world as Ptolemy knew 1300 years earlier and the discoverer, himself, informs us of this knowledge several times.
Dear Reader, were you not told that Cristóbal Colón was the first person to understand that the World was round? Reading through Colón’s writings, one can quickly dispel the false statement made by historians that “Cristóbal Colón was the first to realize that the earth was round and that if you sailed west you would reach the east.” Cristóbal Colon tells us clearly during his account of the third voyage that:
I always read that the world, land and water was spherical ... that Ptolemy and all the others wrote ... by lunar eclipses and other evidence ... Ptolemy and the other wise men that wrote of this world believed it was spherical ... Plinio writes that the sea and land make all one sphere.(3)
As is evident, scholars in Ptolemy’s time understood that the world was a sphere and Pytheas of Massillia had already shown that the earth was a sphere five hundred years prior to Ptolemy.
From ancient times, mariners used the North Star or Polaris as a reference to determine their locations at sea and they sailed by degrees. These degrees are a reference to the 360 degrees of a circle and thus to the globe or sphere.
Since 360 degrees is a constant in any circle of the sphere, the only element that changes is the number of miles in each degree as we move away from the Equator to the poles. The largest circle is found at the Equator while the shortest circles are at the poles, (see Figure 1.2.).
Imagine that in the late 15th century the Portuguese experts had calculated the sizeof the earth to within four percent of its true size and yet at the same time a schooled navigator, as clearly Cristóbal Colón was, was incapable of making the same calculation. Cristóbal Colón lived in Portugal and navigated with the Portuguese for King John II, who called him ingenious and industrious.(5) Should we continue pretending that Colón, who utilized the same knowledge and sciences as the Portuguese navigators, would not know how to take these same measurements? Clearly he knew.
This must be the accepted and logical view for anyone who wants to be a realist. To think otherwise would be to keep promoting a fantasy of an ignorant and lost sailor."
(Translation extracted from Colón. La Historia Nunca Contada "Columbus. The Untold Story")

3 - Cristóbal Colón, Textos y documentos completos, Edición de Consuelo Varela, Nuevas Cartas: Edición de Juan Gil, Alianza Universidad, Madrid, 1997

Welcome. Bienvenidos. Bem-Vindos

This Blog is meant to be utilized to further the discussion of the history behind the man we have come to know as Christopher Columbus. You may write in English, Portuguese or Spanish. Comments and posts off-topic will be deleted.

Este Blogue é suposto de ser usado para promover a discussão sobre a história do homem que veio a ser conhecido como Cristóvão Colombo. Podem escrever em Português, Inglês ou Espanhol. Comentários que não tenham a ver com o tópico serão eliminados.

Este blog está destinado a ser utilizado para promover la discusión de la historia del hombre conocido como Cristóbal Colón. Usted puede escribir en Inglés, Portugués o español. Comentarios y puestos fuera de tema serán eliminados.