Spain

Spain is on good or decent terms with almost every nation, but has its strongest strategic alliance with NATO members, especially the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

Spain has good relations with Russia, India, and China, but nothing close to an alliance.

The trip was to see if he could go to eastern Asia by traveling west across the Atlantic Ocean.

The short answer is that he wasn't.

In fact the truth is that Columbus had to petition for many years to get permission to go and explore the ocean. The reason why he needed permission was that he could not raise the necessary funds all by himself, because at that time of his life he was not very wealthy and did not even live in his own house but in a humble apartment above the cartographer's shop where he worked.

So Columbus hoped that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella would lend him enough money to fit out an expedition. In return he promised to give them seven-eighths of everything he found, keeping one eighth for himself (and the King and Queen considered this rather greedy of him, which is one of the factors that contributed to his lengthy wait).

The most significant cause for the delay in obtaining permission was that the King and Queen waged a series of what they regarded as "holy wars", first against the Moors and then the Jews, and this led to that terrible period which came to be known as the Spanish Inquisition where many thousands of people were persecuted, tortured and even killed in the name of religion.

All of this activity placed a considerable strain on the royal coffers, and so the King and Queen were quite reluctant to lend any money to Columbus, especially since many of their most senior advisers and scholars considered Columbus to be a crackpot adventurer (and that was when they were being nice about him!).

After some fourteen long years of being constantly fobbed off by the Spanish royals, Columbus finally got fed up with waiting and decided to try his luck with the King of France.

Then by one of those strange quirks of fate that make history so fascinating, Columbus happened to stop one evening at a certain monastery to beg for food and lodging for himself and his son Diego (at the time about 11 or 12 years old).

They were tired and hungry, so the Prior took pity on them and invited them in to share a meal. During the meal Columbus related some of his tale to the Prior, and the Prior was fascinated by everything he heard.

Unlike so many of his contemporaries, he believed that Columbus was really onto something with his theory of land far across the ocean, and when he heard that this great opportunity for discovery was about to be lost to France he begged Columbus to be patient and wait for him to return. He would, he said, ride to see the Queen and ask her to reconsider Columbus's request.

The odd coincidence is that out of all the places where Columbus could have stopped to seek help, he happened to choose the one monastery in which the Prior just happened to have been the former religious confessor to the Queen.

Because the Prior was a man who the Queen respected and trusted, she was willing to listen to his opinion, and this persuaded her to summon Columbus for one more meeting and a chance to put forward his case once again.

This time he was heard more favorably and after a little haggling on either side over minor details it was finally agreed that Columbus would be provided with money, ships and men to help him carry out his expedition.

So that is the story of how, by the strange coincidence of happening to stop in the right place at the right time and then talk to exactly the right person, Columbus was finally able to achieve his dream.

money and supplies

83,334 (2014)

oooo i am studying spain for an explorer project so here goes. they attempted to set up colonies in california (missions) and in mexico (explorer hernan cortes who conquered mexico) i think those are the two main colonies that were attempted XD

The European powers were trading heavily with the West Indies (Pacific). At the time of Columbus' first voyage all trade was overland through the Middle East with intermediaries between the Europeans and the sources of the merchandise they sought. That made trade very slow, unpredictable, and expensive. If they could reach the source of the things they sought by sea, and not trade through intermediaries, they could buy exactly what they wanted, when they wanted it, and not pay the markup incurred by using traders as intermediaries. They were not looking for new lands, in fact they had no idea all that land existed. They were trying to improve an already existing business.

The country that could find a direct route to the far east would have an advantage over all the other countries trading with the East. That is what Spain was looking for, an advantage over all the others. They got lucky and found a lot more. In fact, a direct route to the West Indies wasn't found until 4 years after Columbus discovered the new world.

In 1581. The seventeen provinces of the Netherlands were a possession of Spain. This included modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France and Germany and today's Holland, or the Netherlands. The seven northern provinces were Protestant and joined in the 1581 Act. By that time the Eighty Years War for the Netherlands Independence from Spain had already been going on for thirteen years. The war did not end until 1648, after which the seven northern provinces were recognized as independent.

both Spain and Portugal established colonial empires during the fifteenth century

There were many leaders who helped defeat the Moors in Spain. The entire process took almost 700 years. However, the final defeat at the Battle of Grenada was accomplished by Queen Isabel of the Kingdom of Castilla and King Ferdinand of the Kingdom of Aragon. They were husband and wife and became the first rulers of a completely Moor free country that became Spain under their leadership.

They began to be defeated shortly after they invaded in 711. The final defeat was 700+ years later in 1492. It took the Christians that long to drive them out.

Yes those countries plus Andorra occupy all the Peninsula. Gibraltar belongs to the UK so you can count them in also.

All three countries are republics and members of the European Community and use the euro as currency .

The original inhabitants of Spain were the Iberians, Basques and the Celts. Spain did not become a part of the Roman Empire in 206 B.C. Before later being ruled by Visigothic rulers, Muslims. the Franks and the Christians.

Castile and Grenada, which was the provisional capital of Spain at the time.

Historians now think he was Spanish. The theory is he took a different persona because his family were political rivals of the crown and the crown would never support his ideas. To back up this theory they point out he only spoke and wrote in Spanish and was married to a Spanish Nobel woman. A rough Italian sailor would never have been permitted to marry into a wealthy Spanish family in the 1400's. Who someone married was very important and political.

Columbus promised to find a route to China and India from the West, but ended up discovering America instead.

1.They wanted to colonize and rule as many lands as possible.

2.They wanted to trade with other Asian countries.

3.They were determined to spread the Roman Catholic religion to as many countries as possible.

4.They wanted to destroy Paolo.

In 1785 King Charles III realized that most of European countries used flags which were predominantly white, including Spain. That led to many confusions particularly at sea. So he ordered to make a new one flag which can be seen clearly from great distances. The red and yellow colors can be seen very well at sea, so they chose that one, also to distinguished from others tribanded flags, the yellow central band was twice the width of the red bands. On the yellow band appeared the coat of arms of the king and above of it the Real Crown.

This flag lasted until 1931, when Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed, the new regime changed the monarchist flag for a new one in which the second red band was turned into murray and the coat of arms was changed as well.

After Spanish Civil War, the flag returned to be bicolor, but the arms was changed again by the dictatorial regime, claimed to be inspire in Catholic Monarchs coat of arms and adding the Pillars of Hercules and the motto 'una, grande y libre' (ONE, GREAT and FREE).

This one lasted until 1978, and in 1981 Democratic Constitution changed the arms for the coat of arms of Spanish Kingdom including the House of Bourbon crest in the middle of it.

Orange can represent a variety of things on a flag. On the flag of Sri Lanka orange represents Hinduism. The national color of Netherlands is orange, which used to be the predominant color on their flag.

Answer #2: Since the category is "Irish History", the orange on the Irish flag is to recognize the "Orangemen" (protestants) who live in Ireland. The green is the original inhabitants and the white symbolizes the desire for peace between them. (and three cheers to them for this!)

Gold

On November 28, 1520, having successfully escaped a storm in the passage now named the "Strait of Magellan", near the southern tip of South America. Magellan's expedition, which encountered severe weather and a mutiny, was in the area of southern Argentina from January, 1520, until October, 1520 (including the winter in the Southern Hemisphere). From November 1 to November 28, they navigated the stormy waterway which they named "All Saints Channel", arriving in the Pacific only after one of their four remaining ships turned back and returned to Spain.