# Why was Columbus funded for his Atlantic journey?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-columbus-funded-for-his-atlantic-journey/547059>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 17, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-columbus-funded-for-his-atlantic-journey/547059 "2010-07-17T20:50:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-columbus-funded-for-his-atlantic-journey/547059/21 "2010-07-20T18:59:38Z")

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> [@Shakester](#):
>
> There’s a fair bit of speculation that people in the exploration business at that time _knew_ that there was land to the west of Europe.
> 
> The Vikings had been there, Basque fishermen certainly fished pretty close to North America, various others might have been there, John Cabot probably did go there, and it’s certainly possible that Columbus had heard about Cabot’s explorations.
> 
> It seems likely to me that well informed people with an interest in navigation believed (or knew for a fact) that there was reachable land in that direction. They probably didn’t have any idea of where it was exactly, or _what_ it was, but they had a pretty good idea that there was _something_ solid in that direction.

I had THOUGHT John Cabot’s first trip to the Americas was in 1497, several years AFTER Columbus’ first voyage.

Is there evidence that Cabot had made an earlier trip to the Americas?

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**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-columbus-funded-for-his-atlantic-journey/547059/22 "2010-07-20T19:33:05Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> I have never heard of anything like that about Columbus, or about other explorers from the era, in pretty extensive readings on the subject. That sounds like pure invention by the tour guide. And if it were true, why would an unsuccessful returning explorer ever go back to Spain, when they could easily just defect to Portugal or England?
> 
> Columbus screwed up his governorship of Hispaniola so badly that he was sent back to Spain in chains, and his discoveries turned out to be disappointing in terms of gold and other riches compared to what the real Orient would have brought in (at least until the Aztec and Inca Empires were found long after Columbus’s death). Despite this, he wasn’t executed, but given more ships for his fourth voyage, which although it made some discoveries, was a huge disaster (he lost all his ships and spent over a year shipwrecked on Jamaica). And even when he returned after that debacle, he wasn’t punished, although the crown did try to keep him at arm’s length.

Thanks. It sounded dubious to me too.

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