CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. BIRTHPLACE AND ORIGIN. THE 2 MOST LIKELY THEORIES . Βy stephano Sotiriou historian.

INTRODUCTION * The Theory of Columbus's Chian origin and Its historiographical fate. Why did the theory that Columbus originated from the Greek island of Chios fail to attract the attention of later European historiography and come to be regarded as neglected by researchers? After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Greek world ceased to function as the political center shaping global developments. Many Greek scholars left Constantinople and moved to northern Italy, providing the initial and significant intellectual impetus for the Renaissance. At the same time, Byzantine soldiers enlisted in large numbers as mercenaries in Western states, mainly in the Italian city-states, while Greek sailors initially manned the fleets of the Venetians and the Genoese, and later those of the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the sources of the period, most of these individuals are recorded under Catholic–Latin names and are identified as being of Italian,Spain or Ottoman origin, a fact that complicates the identification of their ethnic background. Greece remained under Ottoman rule for approximately seven centuries, and within this context no organized research developed concerning the Greek diasporic presence in the West. As a result, the possible Greek dimension of Columbus's origin was overlooked. It was not until 1892, during the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, that the Italian Lowyeer & archivist Ugo Salvagnini presented research based primarily on French archives systematically (and later on other European sources), placing Chios for the first time in the "race" of Columbus's possible birthplaces. In 1944, Seraphim Kanoutas, an American lawyer-archivist, continued Salvagnini's work, seeking to strengthen the related argumentation. More recently, 1982, the academic Ruth G. Wolper continued the research, bringing Columbus—according to supporters of the theory—closer to Chios, though not conclusively.