In honor of Columbus Day, I thought I'd share this interesting theory behind the true motives of his famous voyage.

The following was inspired by the book Financial Vipers of Venice by Joseph P. Farrell.

The gist of the theory is this:

Venice largely controlled the world's finances for centuries. The Council of Ten was one of main players that acted behind the scenes.

The Fourth Crusade was manipulated by Venice to sack Constantinople, which was never the original intention.

Certain records, perhaps from the library of Alexandria, were seized and confiscated by the Venetian elite, including explicit knowledge of the New World.

Also, Marco Polo may have been a Venetian agent who discovered the New World in the 13th century . Venice kept this knowledge to themselves, as their power would have been comprised because of their geographical position.

Once the cat was out of the bag, the Venetian power structure began to transfer to new locations over the course of centuries (a story for another time).

The enigmatic Christopher Columbus was an agent from Genoa , one of Venice's great rivals.

Genoa got their hands on some sort of cartographic documentation of a New World, and they realized the importance of proving it to the world to challenge Venice's dominance.

From Financial Vipers of Venice:

Significantly, it is the Turkish admiral Piri Reis who, once again, pries open the door to a significant mystery regarding Columbus and the possible real --though very definitely secret --purposes of his initial voyage for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. On his now famous map there are marginal notes by the admiral himself, and in one of these Piri Reis states:

"I also studied the chart that Christopher Columbus drew for the West."

Note that Piri Reis states that he is relying upon a chart drawn by Columbus "for the West." But the questions are, when did Columbus draw this chart, before, or after, his first voyage? And more importantly, what did it show?

The standard answer is of course that Columbus drew his chart "for the West" after his return to Europe from his first voyage. however, in yet another marginal note the Turkish admiral states something truly astounding. Ponder these words closely:

"But it is reported thus, that a Genoese infidel, his name was Colombo, he it was who discovered these places. For instance, a book fell into the hands of the said Colombo, and he found it said in this book that at the end of the Western Sea (Atlantic) that is, on its western side, there were coasts and islands and all kinds of metals and also precious stones. "

Note carefully what we have here, for according to Piri Reis:

1. Columbus possessed a book relating the knowledge of the New World, in other words, Columbus and access to knowledge not generally available, and therefore possibly had access to a secret cartographic tradition as well.

2. That knowledge stated that there was an abundance of bullion and gems, in other words, a source of bullion not in the hands of the Orient, nor the Venetians, and thus, a means of breaking the banking monopolies of Italy; and finally and most importantly:

3. The publicly-stated purpose for Columbus' voyage--the version taught to this day in standard academic histories--namely, that the Genoese navigator was seeking a direct trade route to the Far East, was not the real purpose of the voyage; the real purpose from the outset was to find "Atlantis," the lands of the Western Sea, to find the New World, and its riches.

We can see why King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella would back such a venture, for if Columbus' effort to find the New World failed, a direct trade route to the Far East might nonetheless be opened, bypassing the rival Portuguese monopoly routes around the horn of Africa and through the Indian Ocean.

If, on the other hand, Columbus did discover the New World and thus the potential for vast new sources of spices, bullion, and gems, then again, Ferdinand and Isabella would gain. It was, for them, a win-win proposition, but one whose true purpose-- the testing of a tradition of hidden knowledge --had to be maintained in deepest secrecy lest Spain lose its jump-started position in the race for those riches.

Indeed, it was the historian Las Casas who stated that prior to his first voyage, Columbus "had a world map, which he showed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and which, apparently, convinced them that they should back Columbus."

I leave you with the thoughts of Charles Hapgood :

We have seen that Piri Reis, in all probability, had ancient maps at his disposal in Constantinople. It is quite possible that copies of these had reached the West long before his day. Greek scholars fleeing from the Turks brought thousands of Greek manuscripts to Italy before the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Much earlier still, in the year 1204, a Venetian fleet, supposedly intended to carry a crusade to the Holy Land, attacked and captured Constantinople. For about sixty years afterward Italian merchants had access to map collections in Constantinople.

Happy Columbus Day everyone!