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Imagine the effect produced by that miraculous transatlantic voyage carried out under Hadrian or
Severus; what an awakening for a sleeping world, what a whip lash to the sluggish activity of those
times, to the spirit of conquest and enterprise, to the spread of Christianity! And since the invention in
question is the greatest discovery of modern times, let us use this example to show the lasting,
continually magnified effects that may originate in the unforeseen consequences of events. Could one
have guessed that Ferdinand’s and Isabella’s capture of Grenada would have a direct and decisive
influence on the discovery of the New World? Yet nothing is more obvious. In fact, just before the
capture of the Moorish town Christopher Columbus had received a second humiliating refusal from
the two sovereigns and was deeply discouraged. Rebuffed by his fellow Genoans, then by the king of
Portugal, the king of England, and twice in succession by the Spanish monarchs, he could do nothing
but resign himself to his fate. But once Grenada had been taken, there was a change in the attitudes of
Ferdinand and especially Isabella. This conquest gave them an appetite for greater expansion, made
them more confident and enterprising. They received the new overtures of Columbus’ supporters, and
a few months later his ships landed in America.
Moreover, all things being equal, once an invention becomes a possibility, it is more likely to
materialize if the problem of which it is one possible solution preoccupies more people and,
particularly, more enlightened people. But at least to a certain degree need is stimulated by whatever
satisfies it; inventive genius is more likely to turn towards a particular area of research if, under
pressure from a more general or more intense need, successful inventions have already been made in
that area. If previous inventions were partially due to chance, in subsequent discoveries the part
attributed to chance can only increase. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we see the avidity for
geographical discoveries and colonial empires arise, grow, and spread, seconded by the strengthened
and popularized passion for religious proselytism, which either served the royal ambition or opposed
it. This avidity was born the moment the invention of the compass (1302) made it possible for it to be
satisfied. It was first revealed among princes desirous of distinguishing themselves, beginning with
the kings of Portugal. John I had the west coast of Africa explored, somewhat timidly, as far as the
Boyador Cape; then a shift in wind led a Portuguese vessel to discover the Island of Madeira.
However small the island, it was an encouragement of the spirit of adventure, whereupon the
exploration of the African coast was pushed farther and the islands of Cape Verde and the Azores
were discovered. With each discovery the thirst for travel redoubled and spread, and under John II it
became an obsession. Under his reign and on his orders, Bartholomew Diaz reached the Cape of
Good Hope. Following the example of the Portuguese princes, the Spanish, English, and French
sovereigns in turn encouraged long sea voyages. This series of successful explorations is so
methodical that chance seems to play almost no role in it. But if one remembers that without the
discovery of the compass, which was entirely fortuitous, the series would not have evolved, since the
goal of this evolution was never prescribed, one is forced to agree that chance has the right to claim a
large part in engendering this marvelous geographical progress.
And then, what one finds is so rarely what one was looking for! There is so little resemblance and
proportion between the clear objective result of a given period of labor and the inner motives of its
actors. So many human souls, linked end to end and exchanging their desires and hopes, their
characteristic but later incomprehensible passions, are needed to bring about a great human event.
From its results, who would have guessed the incomparable spirit of the great sixteenth-century
Spanish colonizers? In the first place, accustomed to discovering miraculous things, strange plants
and animals, unheard-of lands, these Spaniards had developed a credulity which can be measured by
the following story. 10 When they heard among the islanders of Puerto-Rico that on the island of