Did Columbus know he had discovered America?

[CHAIM123]

As is well known, Columbus never knew that he had reached the American continent, and believed until his last day that he had found the sea route to India.
As is well known, on February 29, 1504, Columbus frightened the natives of Jamaica when he foresaw a lunar eclipse that occurred on that date.
The most basic thing in the Sarus cycle is that the position of the next eclipse in the series, will apply about 120 degrees from the place of the previous eclipse.
And here the question arises: how did Columbus not know that in India could not see the lunar eclipse in question?

 

[Rive]

The most basic thing in the Sarus cycle is that the position of the next eclipse in the series, will apply about 120 degrees from the place of the previous eclipse.

Well, I'm no expert on the historical aspects of navigation and astronomy, but according to Wiki, Colombus had some (false) reason to believe he's in India:

Columbus was maybe the first to put into practice an idea proposed by Hipparchus, to use a lunar eclipse to determine one's geographical longitude. A lunar eclipse is visible across half the globe, and everyone sees it begin and end at the same moment. But the times when measured in the local solar time will differ, because everyone is in a different time zone. The local time is determined by observing the rise, culmination, or setting of the Sun. Now an almanac will predict an eclipse for some place at a certain geographical longitude at a specific local time there. The same event observed elsewhere will occur at a different clocktime. The difference in time is proportional to the difference in geographical longitude, by 15 degrees per hour.

Columbus had no accurate means to determine how far he had traveled West on the globe. He observed the lunar eclipses of 15 September 1494 near Hispaniola (Dominican Republic), and that of 29 February 1504 from Jamaica. In the latter case he reported in his journal that Jamaica was 7 hours and 15 minutes from Cadiz in Spain - well on his way to China. However his site at Jamaica is actually at a longitude 4 hours 44 minutes from Cadiz. How Columbus could make such a large error of 21⁄2 hours remains puzzling, but D.W. Olson proposed a reconstruction.[9]

Columbus presumably used the Calendarium from Regiomontanus. This almanac gives the time of mid-eclipse at Nuremberg, but if Columbus erroneously interpreted the listed time as that of the beginning of the partial eclipse, then his 21⁄2h error could be explained. One can imagine that such false evidence confirmed Columbus in his belief he had reached China, overlooking the fact that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans.

Interesting story, nonetheless. Maybe the strong desire to find India there was also a reason behind that error? Wishful thinking in action? Not noticing that not finding India would be just as a big thing?
Maybe.
But to interpret these things requires some really complex knowledge in many fields.

By the way,

 

[CHAIM123]

Thank you.
Since they have not used this technique before, and in general the time differences between regions have not been reflected in daily life, it may be possible to understand the mistake.

 

[Astronuc]

Another Wikipedia article on the explorations of Columbus, who had apparently never traveled to China or the far East.

Under Quest for Asia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Geographical_considerations

 

[MevsEinstein]

He probably did know in his heart since he didn't find any spices or valuables like in China. But if he said that he didn't go to China and went to somewhere else, then Spain won't fund his voyages. I have also heard that he made his crew swear that one of the landmasses he visited (which we now know is Cuba) was China and the size of the island justified it.

 

[tech99]

According to the following reputable web site, Christopher Columbus visited S and Central America but never got close to what is now called the United States. We don't know if he thought he had found a new continent. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/christopher-columbus
Another website suggests that he carried out large scale atrocities against the peoples he encountered. https://www.museumfacts.co.uk/christopher-columbus/. I also understand that climate cooling of the Americas occurred due to the widespread killing of local peoples carried out during the subsequent European settlement. https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ation-of-americas-helped-cause-climate-change

 

[Oldman too]

According to the following reputable web site, Christopher Columbus visited S and Central America but never got close to what is now called the United States. We don't know if he thought he had found a new continent. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/christopher-columbus
Another website suggests that he carried out large scale atrocities against the peoples he encountered. https://www.museumfacts.co.uk/christopher-columbus/. I also understand that climate cooling of the Americas occurred due to the widespread killing of local peoples carried out during the subsequent European settlement. https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ation-of-americas-helped-cause-climate-change

This led to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_doctrine The rest is history, right up to its current example of exploitation.

 

[Algr]

Some people think that Columbus secretly knew that the Amercas were there the whole time, but had to pretend it was the far east for some reason. Perhaps due to how he gained the info? Or somehow connected to claiming rewards?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Originality_of_discovery_of_America

In the 19th century, amid a revival of interest in Norse culture, Carl Christian Rafn and Benjamin Franklin DeCosta wrote works establishing that the Norse had preceded Columbus in colonizing the Americas.[261][262] Following this, in 1874 Rasmus Bjørn Anderson argued that Columbus must have known of the North American continent before he started his voyage of discovery.[31][259] Most modern scholars doubt Columbus had knowledge of the Norse settlements in America, with his arrival to the continent being most likely an independent discovery.[29][30][31][32][263]