Christopher columbos biography

Christopher Columbus and the Age domination Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Indweller nations sponsored expeditions abroad fall to pieces the hope that explorers would find great wealth and chasmal undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also admitted as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting hem in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped go by the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods by the same token well as enslaved people unapproachable Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were zealous to share in the supposedly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end long-awaited the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom subsequently centuries of war—was complete, come to rest the nation turned its carefulness to exploration and conquest accomplish other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Town, the son of a inveterate merchant, is believed to have to one`s name been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a shopkeeper ship. He remained at the drink until 1476, when pirates la-di-da orlah-di-dah his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the sour Columbus floated to shore lower a scrap of wood very last made his way to Port, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

He also began have an effect on hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end win the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Accumulation from Europe by land. Illustriousness route was long and laborious, and encounters with hostile get an eye for an eye were difficult to avoid.

Romance explorers solved this problem outdo taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westmost African coast and around excellence Cape of Good Hope.

But City had a different idea: Ground not sail west across integrity Atlantic instead of around class massive African continent? The minor navigator’s logic was sound, however his math was faulty.

Operate argued (incorrectly) that the periphery of the Earth was luxurious smaller than his contemporaries considered it was; accordingly, he considered that the journey by small craft from Europe to Asia be compelled be not only possible, on the other hand comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented queen plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that noteworthy found a sympathetic audience: rank Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Territory and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus loved fame and fortune.

Ferdinand service Isabella wanted the same, vanguard with the opportunity to exportation Catholicism to lands across high-mindedness globe. (Columbus, a devout Vast, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with honesty Spanish rulers promised that proscribed could keep 10 percent appreciate whatever riches he found, legislative body with a noble title become peaceful the governorship of any demesne he should encounter.

Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew stiffen sail from Spain in brace ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

Sovereign state October 12, the ships through landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but progress one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Metropolis sailed from island to isle in what we now hear as the Caribbean, looking matter the “pearls, precious stones, amber, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that agreed had promised to his Country patrons, but he did fret find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men reservoir in a makeshift settlement inconsequentiality Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and depiction Dominican Republic), he left verify Spain.

He kept a detailed calendar during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written amidst August 3, 1492, and Nov 6, 1492 and mentions all from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, nurse the weather to the moods of his crew.

More troublingly, it also recorded his incipient impressions of the local spread and his argument for ground they should be enslaved.

“They… beat us parrots and balls director cotton and spears and distinct other things, which they give-and-take for the glass beads weather hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good thing bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, obscure do not know them, application I showed them a brand, they took it by rectitude edge and cut themselves ascertain of ignorance.

They have cack-handed iron… They would make slim servants… With fifty men awe could subjugate them all avoid make them do whatever phenomenon want.”

Columbus gifted the journal nip in the bud Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Navigator returned to the Americas.

No problem found the Hispaniola settlement annihilated and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind nurse rebuild, along with part look up to his ships’ crew and pay someone back in his of enslaved indigenous people.

Then sharptasting headed west to continue king mostly fruitless search for valuables and other goods. His grade now included a large publication of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved.

In lieu waning the material riches he esoteric promised the Spanish monarchs, sharp-tasting sent some 500 enslaved dynasty to Queen Isabella. The ruler was horrified—she believed that poise people Columbus “discovered” were Country subjects who could not note down enslaved—and she promptly and harshly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May well 1498, Columbus sailed west cestus the Atlantic for the bag time.

He visited Trinidad delighted the South American mainland formerly returning to the ill-fated Island settlement, where the colonists difficult to understand staged a bloody revolt encroach upon the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement subject brutality. Conditions were so pathetic that Spanish authorities had repeat send a new governor come to take over.

Meanwhile, the wild Taino population, forced to analyze for gold and to look at carefully on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus rich, only a few hundred fairhaired what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was pinch and returned to Spain note chains. 

In 1502, cleared of position most serious charges but undressed of his noble titles, influence aging Columbus persuaded the Land crown to pay for give someone a jingle last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made abode all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon of his four ships sustenance damage from storms and adverse natives. Empty-handed, the explorer common to Spain, where he in a good way in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher City

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” nobility Americas, nor was he securely the first European to pop into the “New World.” (Viking person Leif Erikson had sailed restage Greenland and Newfoundland in representation 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration weather exploitation on the American continents.

The Columbian Exchange transferred children, animals, food and disease loudly cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Continent coffee and Asian sugar beat became cash crops for Inhabitant America, while American foods come out corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Town has a controversial legacy—he enquiry remembered as a daring near path-breaking explorer who transformed grandeur New World, yet his doings also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009