Having read some posts in a thread somewhere in this section I thought I should respond. While there is no conclusive proof, there is a mound of evidence that Christobal Colon (NOT Colombo), aka Christopher Columbus, was a Spaniard, and a noble Spaniard at that; NOT an Italian peasant from Genoa as we learned in school. An Italian peasant would have had no chances of procuring the funds from Fernando & Isabella, let alone enter their graces in the court circle @ Madrid. Add to this the fact (and this is well documented, in the letters themselves) that ALL of Columbus' writings/letters/correspondences were all in medieval SPANISH, and not Italian. In fact, there is no record of Columbus writing in Italian at all. So the conclusion must be drawn that Columbus was actually a Spanish nobleman adventurer-sailor, not an Italian peasant. Amerigo Vespucci the mapmaker was Italian.