In Episode 2, you learned that where you stand changes what you see. Now you’ll meet the evidence itself — and decide how much you trust it.
THREE SOURCES. THREE DISTANCES FROM THE TRUTH.
Almost everything we think we know about Columbus comes from just a handful of evidence. Your job is to be the detective — examine each one, and decide how much you trust it.
Scroll to begin the investigation.
Columbus lands in the Bahamas on October 12.
CONTEXT
Capitulations of Santa Fe
April 17, 1492
The contract signed between the Spanish Crown and Christopher Columbus before his voyage. It promised him titles, a share of any riches, and the right to govern any lands he found.
One year after the voyage, Columbus writes a letter describing what he found. It is printed and circulated across Europe. This is the closest thing we have to his own words about what happened.
CONTEXT
Papal Bull of Alexander VI
May 4, 1493
A decree from the Pope giving Spain the right to claim lands in the New World. It divided the world between Spain and Portugal, and was used to justify colonisation.
Columbus wrote this letter for the King and Queen of Spain — the people paying for his voyage. If your boss was reading your report... would you tell the whole truth?
Is this a primary or secondary source?
“The people here are simple in war... with fifty men they could all be kept in subjection and forced to do whatever one wished.”
— Columbus’s letter to the Spanish Crown, 1493
Based on what you have just seen — how reliable is this letter as evidence?
59 years pass.
In that time, Columbus died. Spain built an empire. And the original diary disappeared.
Sixty years after the voyage, a priest named Bartolomé de las Casas makes a copy of Columbus’s diary. He summarises some parts. He copies others word for word. The original diary has never been found.
It reads like his words.
But this is not his handwriting.
This is a copy.
Made by someone else.
Sixty years later.
The original?
Lost.
Las Casas was a priest who believed the Spanish had treated Indigenous people terribly. If someone with strong opinions copies a diary... can you fully trust the copy?
The journal describes Columbus — but because we know so little about who he really was, the same words can paint very different pictures. Watch.
Is this a primary or secondary source?
The same words can paint very different pictures of Columbus. Move the slider to see how.
“I found very many islands, filled with innumerable people, and I have taken possession of them all for their Highnesses.”
COMPLICATED
A man driven by ambition — capable of wonder and cruelty in equal measure.
311 years pass.
Empires rose and fell. The story of Columbus was told and retold — each time, a little differently.
371 years after Columbus sailed, an artist carved these bronze doors for the United States Capitol Building in Washington DC. They show Columbus’s story — or at least, the story America wanted to tell in 1863.
In 1863, America was tearing itself apart in a civil war — a fight over slavery and the very idea of what the country stood for.
It’s 1863. America is at war with itself. You’ve been hired to carve the bronze doors of the Capitol Building. What story about Columbus do you choose to tell?
Is this a primary or secondary source?
AFTER SEEING ALL THREE SOURCES — WHICH ONE DO YOU TRUST THE MOST?
THREE SOURCES. THREE DISTANCES FROM THE TRUTH.
Now you know why that matters.
None of them tells the whole story. The letter is biased. The journal is a copy. The doors are art. A detective doesn’t trust any single witness — they look at all the evidence, notice what’s missing, and decide for themselves.
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