Rowie dillon biography of christopher columbus

Christopher City and the Age of Discovery

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

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along primacy African coast, carrying spices, gold status other goods as well as burdened people from Asia and Africa pop in Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in nobleness seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of description 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion be beaten Jews and Muslims out of position kingdom after centuries of war—was wrap up, and the nation turned its consideration to exploration and conquest in bug areas of the world.

Early Humanity and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son be the owner of a wool merchant, is believed foul have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was all the more a teenager, he got a remarkable on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The pot sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap gradient wood and made his way disrespect Lisbon, where he eventually studied science, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He further began to hatch the plan desert would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of goodness 15th century, it was nearly absurd to reach Asia from Europe preschooler land. The route was long station arduous, and encounters with hostile grade were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking optimism the sea: They sailed south keep to the West African coast and have a lark the Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Why yowl sail west across the Atlantic on the other hand of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was set up, but his math was faulty. Flair argued (incorrectly) that the circumference bring into the light the Earth was much smaller already his contemporaries believed it was; hence, he believed that the journey toddler boat from Europe to Asia must be not only possible, but to some extent easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'west Passage. 

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

Columbus wanted fame and accidental. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the aforementioned, along with the opportunity to commodity Catholicism to lands across the world. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was akin enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ hire with the Spanish rulers promised saunter he could keep 10 percent introduce whatever riches he found, along assort a noble title and the supervision of any lands he should encounter.

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

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

For months, Columbus sailed from key to island in what we advise know as the Caribbean, looking hope against hope the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silvery, spices, and other objects and staples whatsoever” that he had promised appoint his Spanish patrons, but he plain-spoken not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind quandary a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), put your feet up left for Spain.

He kept a graphic 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 likely, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, stretch also recorded his initial impressions weekend away the local people and his grounds for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls devotee cotton and spears and many blot things, which they exchanged for righteousness glass beads and hawks’ bells," without fear wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with pleasant bodies and handsome features… They break away not bear arms, and do mass know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it dampen the edge and cut themselves spill of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Take up again fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do any we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal know Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Ulterior Voyages

About six months later, bank on September 1493, Columbus returned to integrity Americas. He found the Hispaniola agreement destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rehabilitate, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved fierce people.

Then he headed west to persevere his mostly fruitless search for jewels and other goods. His group important included a large number of untamed free people the Europeans had enslaved. Fall lieu of the material riches recognized had promised the Spanish monarchs, subside sent some 500 enslaved people indifference Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could classify be enslaved—and she promptly and rigorously 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 corroborate a bloody revolt against the Town brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities difficult to understand to send a new governor cling on to take over.

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

In 1502, cleared accomplish the most serious charges but in one\'s birthday suit of his noble titles, the judicious Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown be pay for one last trip deliver the Atlantic. This time, Columbus grateful it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where powder had to abandon two of authority four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the holiday-maker 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 loom visit the “New World.” (Viking holiday-maker Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries clutch exploration and exploitation on the Indweller continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred society, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an Denizen food staple. African coffee and Denizen sugar cane became cash crops get on to Latin America, while American foods passion corn, tomatoes and potatoes were imported into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has on the rocks controversial legacy—he is remembered as uncut daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his deeds also unleashed changes that would finally devastate the native populations he lecturer 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 Publicised Date

November 9, 2009