What's really interesting however, is how the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, 1492, was when the Ottoman Empire accepted 60,000 Jewish refugees from Spain.
Columbus must not have been very religious. It would've probably been a much smarter decision, in terms of self preservation, to move to the Ottoman Empire.
He was incredibly religious. In his Catholicism.
If anything this is just proof that reading too deeply, and especially solely, into anyone’s DNA history is a mistake. Plenty of people have a background unrelated to their lives or the way they perceive themselves.
Had his ancestors made a different choice Columbus himself may have been expelled from Spain shortly before he sailed on August 3.
Someone who was punished by the Spanish and forced to convert a generation or two ago turns into its champion and spreads it elsewhere?
Surely that’s something the Spanish Crown would have used in the courtroom, considering that his descendants were engaged in a ~20 year lawsuit against the crown (which they won)?
Possibly as a way to conceal his background? Of course that’s pure speculation and it wasn’t as bad yet until later in the the 1500s but Spain became an extremely racist society, people who couldn’t prove that they weren’t descendants of Jewish or Muslim converts were often barred from holding political office or even testify in court etc.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limpieza_de_sangre#:~:text=O....
How could that be related in any way? Presumably his investors did hope he would return and be allowed to enter the country?
> Columbus must not have been very religious
He was. As far as we can tell he was a very devout Catholic. Even if he had some Jewish origin (e.g. his grand/great grandparents were converts) that must have been a closely concealed secret and certainly not something that was publicly known.