As you know from lecture and discussions, relations between clients (like Columbus) and patrons (like Isabella and Ferdinand) were a complicated business. Often, problems could emerge when patrons and the men and women they employed to do their bidding had competing motivations about a shared project. Did Columbus and the Spanish Crown (Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon) share common motivations for the voyages to the Americas? Why is a better understanding of these motivations (and how they might be similar and different) important to our historical understanding of the colonization of the Americas?

A 2-3 page essay would be preferable if possible, but a 1-page write up is also fine as long as I have enough information to expand it into a 6 page essay.