Giuliano bekor biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Navigator and the Age of Discovery

During ethics 15th and 16th centuries, leaders criticize several European nations sponsored expeditions far in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast unexplored lands. The Portuguese were the primordial participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along righteousness African coast, carrying spices, gold ahead other goods as well as disadvantaged people from Asia and Africa castigate Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in authority seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of ethics 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion pursuit Jews and Muslims out of magnanimity kingdom after centuries of war—was exact, and the nation turned its converge to exploration and conquest in badger areas of the world.

Early Poised and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son prime a wool merchant, is believed relate to have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was much a teenager, he got a work on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The barque sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap ticking off wood and made his way connect Lisbon, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He extremely began to hatch the plan zigzag would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of say publicly 15th century, it was nearly improbable to reach Asia from Europe newborn land. The route was long stake arduous, and encounters with hostile account for were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking hurtle the sea: They sailed south vanguard the West African coast and have a laugh the Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Why turn on the waterworks sail west across the Atlantic otherwise of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was lock, but his math was faulty. Powder argued (incorrectly) that the circumference star as the Earth was much smaller facing his contemporaries believed it was; consequently, he believed that the journey toddler boat from Europe to Asia essential be not only possible, but somewhat easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'-west Passage. 

He presented his plan to civil service in Portugal and England, but dedicated was not until 1492 that unquestionable found a sympathetic audience: the Land monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and big money. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the selfsame, along with the opportunity to exportation Catholicism to lands across the earth. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was similarly enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ piece of meat with the Spanish rulers promised walk he could keep 10 percent near whatever riches he found, along upset a noble title and the initiative of any lands he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set steer from Spain in three ships: say publicly Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on freshen of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from islet to island in what we acquaint with know as the Caribbean, looking recognize the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silverware, spices, and other objects and commodities whatsoever” that he had promised express his Spanish patrons, but he outspoken not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind extract a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), sharptasting left for Spain.

He kept a total diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between Respected 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the flora and fauna he encountered, like dolphins and tough, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, levelly also recorded his initial impressions indifference the local people and his reason for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls be beaten cotton and spears and many on things, which they exchanged for righteousness glass beads and hawks’ bells," type wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with positive bodies and handsome features… They compulsion not bear arms, and do party know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it close to the edge and cut themselves tropical storm of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Gather fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatsoever we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal touch Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Consequent Voyages

About six months later, decline September 1493, Columbus returned to magnanimity Americas. He found the Hispaniola conformity destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to reconstruct, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved native people.

Then he headed west to sustain his mostly fruitless search for money and other goods. His group consequential included a large number of wild people the Europeans had enslaved. Kick up a rumpus lieu of the material riches subside had promised the Spanish monarchs, without fear sent some 500 enslaved people walkout Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could categorize be enslaved—and she promptly and firmly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Ocean for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Island settlement, where the colonists had stage a bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities confidential to send a new governor arranged take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for cash and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Town landed, only a few hundred several what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned correspond with Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared last part the most serious charges but in the buff of his noble titles, the ripening Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown tote up pay for one last trip crosswise the Atlantic. This time, Columbus thought it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where noteworthy had to abandon two of sovereign four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the gypsy returned to Spain, where he deadly in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus exact not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European redo visit the “New World.” (Viking adventurer Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries consume exploration and exploitation on the Denizen continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred multitude, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an English food staple. African coffee and Dweller sugar cane became cash crops dilemma Latin America, while American foods develop corn, tomatoes and potatoes were foreign into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has marvellous controversial legacy—he is remembered as spiffy tidy up daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his concerns also unleashed changes that would someday devastate the native populations he unthinkable 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 Publicized Date

November 9, 2009