h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is really good stuff I'm researching a Uni project at the moment, and this will save me a heck of a lot of writing...

I just wanted to mention a few minor, pedantic points, though:

Columbus swam ashore near the town of Sagres, A9193089, which is a very long way from Lisbon. About six hours by train and taxi, as I discovered a couple of years ago

'His brother Bartholomew, who lived Lisbon, probably collaborated with Christopher to produce an idea to sail west to reach the other side of the world.' This seems to imply that the idea of sailing west was unique to the brothers. In fact, plenty of mariners, most notably John Cabot, were running round the monarchies of Europe looking for backing for very similar ideas. Spain's interest in the Canaries and Portugal's in the Cape Verde Islands and Madiera were both exacerbated by the idea of using them as a base for voyages west.

'...educated people of the time, such as his brother, knew that the earth was at the very least not truly flat.' True, but it wasn't just the educated who thought the world was round. It had been accepted that the earth was round since the ancient Greeks.

The chronology around 1491 appears a little skewed. Fernando and Isabel didn't set foot in Granada until 1492, so they can't have had a court there the previous year. The incident with the mule didn't happen until just before the deal was signed. Columbus met the Queen and King twice more after the fall of Granada on Jan 2 1492, and both times put them off with extravagant financial demands. After the second of these, Columbus rode off. This section needs another look.

'Now that the court was not so distracted, as it had been for centuries...' The Kingdom of Granada had sat relatively peacefully since about 1250, and no-one was particularly bothered by it. The final crusade against it only began in 1482, meaning that the court had been distracted for less than a decade rather than 'centuries'. Interestingly, the queen did pawn her crown to finance this campaign, so it's easy to see where the Columbus myth came from. Part of the monarchs' reticence in backing Columbus' project came from their plan to carry the fight against the Moors into north Africa.

Rather than gold, it was spice that motivated the monarchs financially - preservatives had enormous value, and pepper was worth 40 times its buying price. Isabel was also more interested in attacking Islam from the rear than 'spreading' Christianity.

Finally, I think it's right to say that Diego spent most of the late 1480s and early 1490s in a monastery run by the queen's former confessor, Fray Juan Perez. It was this contact that gave Columbus a way to bend the monarchs' ears.

Hi Rich.
I just know what I read when researching the entry. I'm not big on Spanish history, as I know you are. I was more interested in Columbus as he relates to American history. It's been a while since I did this research, but as I understood it, the story of Columbus coming ashore like that in Portugal was apocryphal.

"This seems to imply that the idea of sailing west was unique to the brothers."

You think so? I don't really. I mean, if I had an idea to charter a boat east today to reach Spain, it wouldn't be unique, but it would certainly be an idea. Maybe worth some clarification.

The rest I bow to your superior knowledge on. Like I said, I have no real grasp of Spanish history. I only tried to use what was relevant to the story, and what was included in my sources. Feel free to ask the Curators to take a look, or update it.

I suppose it could be apocryphal, but if you go to Sagres you can go to the spot where he supposedly came ashore. The reason it's supposed to be an important chapter is because Henry the Navigator had a naval school just down the road, and Columbus used the opportunity to do a little research there.

I might take a proper look at that section at some point and suggest a couple of tweaks. I was just feeling insufferably nerdy this afternoon, to be honest

I know the feeling

You have my blessing to have it tweaked however you should like.

I'll get to it the next time I'm feeling nerdy!

I'm sick right now, actually, and I'm more productive than I've been in a while (only because it's just a bad cough and a runny nose, if I had a headache I wouldn't be writing). I've got three entries planned out - one, not coincidentally, on phlegm

Yeah, I've been working solidly for the last week and I'm knackered - I have a day off, and I spend it getting two Entries completed...

Neither of them are about running a hotel, though