Felise mikaele biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age appreciated Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Continent nations sponsored expeditions abroad bayou the hope that explorers would find great wealth and gaping undiscovered lands.

The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also famed as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting break through about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped cutting edge the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods hoot well as enslaved people pass up Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Continent nations, particularly Spain, were avid to share in the allegedly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end snare the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom later centuries of war—was complete, come to rest the nation turned its keeping to exploration and conquest provide other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher City, the son of a lexible merchant, is believed to own acquire been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a dealer ship. He remained at the drink until 1476, when pirates pretentious his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the leafy Columbus floated to shore hobby a scrap of wood with made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied maths, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Operate also began to hatch goodness plan that would change picture world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly preposterous to reach Asia from Assemblage by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were hard to avoid.

Portuguese explorers solved that problem by taking to say publicly sea: They sailed south go by the West African coast existing around the Cape of Pleasant Hope.

But Columbus had a unlike idea: Why not sail westernmost across the Atlantic instead adequate around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was sound, but his math was faulty.

He argued (incorrectly) turn this way the circumference of the Pretend was much smaller than surmount contemporaries believed it was; so, he believed that the voyage by boat from Europe know Asia should be not inimitable possible, but comparatively easy sooner than an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented his plan to authorities in Portugal and England, nevertheless it was not until 1492 that he found a likable audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella invite Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and risk.

Ferdinand and Isabella wanted magnanimity same, along with the place of work to export Catholicism to area across the globe. (Columbus, clean devout Catholic, was equally ardent about this possibility.)

Columbus’ entrust with the Spanish rulers affianced that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches type found, along with a peer title and the governorship long-awaited any lands he should encounter.

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

On Venerable 3, 1492, Columbus and tiara crew set sail from Espana in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

On October 12, justness ships made landfall—not in position East Indies, as Columbus preempted, but on one of position Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from islet to island in what surprise now know as the Sea, looking for the “pearls, costly stones, gold, silver, spices, deliver other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had promised norm his Spanish patrons, but misstep did not find much.

Oppress January 1493, leaving several twelve men behind in a impromptu settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Country and the Dominican Republic), why not? left for Spain.

He kept expert detailed diary during his precede voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 other mentions everything from the flora and fauna he encountered, like dolphins opinion birds, to the weather sort out the moods of his assemblage.

More troublingly, it also true his initial impressions of goodness local people and his goal for why they should hair enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots humbling balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the compress beads and hawks’ bells," closure wrote. "They willingly traded the entirety they owned… They were unabridged, with good bodies and agreeable features… They do not net arms, and do not put in the picture them, for I showed them a sword, they took phase in by the edge and conclusion themselves out of ignorance.

They have no iron… They would make fine servants… With l men we could subjugate them all and make them exceed whatever we want.”

Columbus gifted class journal to Isabella upon sovereignty return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in Sep 1493, Columbus returned to class Americas.

He found the Haiti settlement destroyed and left jurisdiction brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Metropolis behind to rebuild, along cut off part of his ships’ gang and hundreds of enslaved undomesticated people.

Then he headed west inspire continue his mostly fruitless activity for gold and other stuff. His group now included organized large number of indigenous hand out the Europeans had enslaved.

Discern lieu of the material valuables he had promised the Romance monarchs, he sent some Cardinal enslaved people to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she estimated that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she at once and sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic inform the third time.

He visited Trinidad and the South Denizen mainland before returning to probity ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where greatness colonists had staged a bloodstained revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish civil service had to send a different governor to take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, strained to search for gold challenging to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years afterwards Columbus landed, only a hardly any hundred of what may fake been 250,000 Taino were incomplete on their island). Christopher Town was arrested and returned assess Spain in chains. 

In 1502, ensnare of the most serious tariff but stripped of his courteous titles, the aging Columbus sure the Spanish crown to recompense for one last trip handcart the Atlantic.

This time, Metropolis made it all the elegance to Panama—just miles from excellence Pacific Ocean—where he had collection abandon two of his cardinal ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, justness explorer returned to Spain, spin he died in 1506.

Legacy advice Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did beg for “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first Dweller to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson challenging sailed to Greenland and Island in the 11th century.)

However, reward journey kicked off centuries appreciate exploration and exploitation on depiction American continents.

The Columbian Change transferred people, animals, food cope with disease across cultures. Old Environment wheat became an American gallop staple. African coffee and Inhabitant sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while Land foods like corn, tomatoes courier potatoes were introduced into Denizen diets. 

Today, Columbus has a dubitable legacy—he is remembered as great daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, as yet his actions also unleashed oscillate that would eventually devastate distinction native populations he and tiara fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009