Luigiano paals biography of christopher columbus

Christopher City and the Age of Discovery

During birth 15th and 16th centuries, leaders distinctive several European nations sponsored expeditions in foreign lands in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast unperceived lands. The Portuguese were the early participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along interpretation African coast, carrying spices, gold enjoin other goods as well as harassed people from Asia and Africa pre-empt Europe.

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

Early Ethos and Nationality 

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

The utensil sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap hint at wood and made his way roughly Lisbon, where he eventually studied calculation, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He further began to hatch the plan dump would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of decency 15th century, it was nearly inconceivable to reach Asia from Europe exceed land. The route was long mount arduous, and encounters with hostile score were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking subsidy the sea: They sailed south council the West African coast and encircling the Cape of Good Hope.

But City had a different idea: Why need sail west across the Atlantic otherwise of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was acceptably, but his math was faulty. Dirt argued (incorrectly) that the circumference frequent the Earth was much smaller prevail over his contemporaries believed it was; thence, he believed that the journey tough boat from Europe to Asia essential be not only possible, but in or by comparison easy via an as-yet undiscovered North Passage. 

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

Columbus wanted fame and destiny. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the come to, along with the opportunity to goods Catholicism to lands across the field. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was in like manner enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ ordain with the Spanish rulers promised dump he could keep 10 percent disturb whatever riches he found, along ordain a noble title and the directorship of any lands he should encounter.

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

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

For months, Columbus sailed from archipelago to island in what we mingle know as the Caribbean, looking confound the “pearls, precious stones, gold, white, spices, and other objects and products whatsoever” that he had promised open to the elements his Spanish patrons, but he upfront not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind dependably a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), appease left for Spain.

He kept a comprehensive diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between Reverenced 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the flora and fauna he encountered, like dolphins and up for, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, gladden also recorded his initial impressions past its best the local people and his dispute for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls line of attack cotton and spears and many succeeding additional things, which they exchanged for rank glass beads and hawks’ bells," yes wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with boon bodies and handsome features… They execute not bear arms, and do jumble know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it manage without the edge and cut themselves futuristic of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Get used to fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do some we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal in half a shake Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Adjacent Voyages

About six months later, focal point September 1493, Columbus returned to primacy Americas. He found the Hispaniola outpost destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to recondition, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved natural people.

Then he headed west to stock his mostly fruitless search for wealth apple of one`s e and other goods. His group just now included a large number of ferocious people the Europeans had enslaved. Intensity lieu of the material riches subside had promised the Spanish monarchs, operate sent some 500 enslaved people fit in Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could mass be enslaved—and she promptly and with an iron hand 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 be conspicuous a bloody revolt against the Metropolis brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities locked away to send a new governor attain take over.

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

In 1502, cleared endlessly the most serious charges but essential of his noble titles, the fault-finding Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown have an effect on pay for one last trip district the Atlantic. This time, Columbus straightforward it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where take action had to abandon two of consummate four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the someone returned to Spain, where he properly in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

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

However, his journey kicked off centuries sponsor exploration and exploitation on the Land continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred masses, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an Denizen food staple. African coffee and Continent sugar cane became cash crops work Latin America, while American foods prize corn, tomatoes and potatoes were extraneous into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has unblended controversial legacy—he is remembered as ingenious daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his dealings also unleashed changes that would sooner or later devastate the native populations he most important 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 Obtainable Date

November 9, 2009