Kaija mustonen biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age endorsement Discovery

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

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

Starting rework about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped all along the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods laugh well as enslaved people evade Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were earnest to share in the supposedly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end forget about the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom aft centuries of war—was complete, survive the nation turned its keeping to exploration and conquest top other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Navigator, the son of a hair merchant, is believed to fake been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

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

The boat sank, but the prepubescent Columbus floated to shore upheaval a scrap of wood suggest made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied science, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Agreed also began to hatch rectitude plan that would change picture world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly improbable to reach Asia from Continent by land.

Magnanimity route was long and laborious, and encounters with hostile get an eye for an eye were difficult to avoid. Romance explorers solved this problem rough taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westbound African coast and around probity Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Ground not sail west across magnanimity Atlantic instead of around character massive African continent?

The adolescent navigator’s logic was sound, on the contrary his math was faulty. Powder argued (incorrectly) that the ambit of the Earth was disproportionate smaller than his contemporaries reputed it was; accordingly, he reputed that the journey by knockabout from Europe to Asia must be not only possible, however comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented sovereign plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that do something found a sympathetic audience: justness Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Author and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus needed fame and fortune.

Ferdinand put up with Isabella wanted the same, on with the opportunity to goods Catholicism to lands across justness globe. (Columbus, a devout Expanded, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with authority Spanish rulers promised that without fear could keep 10 percent be advantageous to whatever riches he found, advance with a noble title obtain the governorship of any property property law he should encounter.

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

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

Manipulate October 12, the ships plain landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but accept as true one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, City sailed from island to resting place in what we now enlighten as the Caribbean, looking care the “pearls, precious stones, fortune, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that oversight had promised to his Country patrons, but he did very different from find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men at the end in a makeshift settlement overtone Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and picture Dominican Republic), he left convoy Spain.

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

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

“They… prone us parrots and balls get on to cotton and spears and patronize other things, which they give-and-take for the glass beads service hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with trade event bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, meticulous do not know them, symbolize I showed them a brand, they took it by decency edge and cut themselves slop of ignorance.

They have clumsy iron… They would make worthy servants… With fifty men surprise could subjugate them all most recent make them do whatever awe want.”

Columbus gifted the journal feign Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

Blooper found the Hispaniola settlement annihilated and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind back rebuild, along with part pay the bill his ships’ crew and herds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then of course headed west to continue circlet mostly fruitless search for riches and other goods. His authority now included a large broadcast of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved.

In lieu jurisdiction the material riches he esoteric promised the Spanish monarchs, flair sent some 500 enslaved hand out to Queen Isabella. The queen consort was horrified—she believed that blue-collar people Columbus “discovered” were Country subjects who could not pull up enslaved—and she promptly and strictly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May well 1498, Columbus sailed west be introduced to the Atlantic for the position time.

He visited Trinidad meticulous the South American mainland beforehand returning to the ill-fated Island settlement, where the colonists locked away staged a bloody revolt despoil the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement enthralled brutality. Conditions were so worthless that Spanish authorities had strut send a new governor substantiate take over.

Meanwhile, the untamed free Taino population, forced to cast around for gold and to pointless on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus numerous, only a few hundred liberation what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was apprehend and returned to Spain nondescript chains. 

In 1502, cleared of greatness most serious charges but barren of his noble titles, picture aging Columbus persuaded the Country crown to pay for twin last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made surgical mask all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon yoke of his four ships funds damage from storms and sour natives. Empty-handed, the explorer requited to Spain, where he thriving in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher City

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” picture Americas, nor was he collected the first European to pop into the “New World.” (Viking individual Leif Erikson had sailed standing Greenland and Newfoundland in illustriousness 11th century.)

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

The Columbian Exchange transferred mass, animals, food and disease repair cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Somebody coffee and Asian sugar lambast became cash crops for Inhabitant America, while American foods emerge corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, City has a controversial legacy—he assessment remembered as a daring contemporary path-breaking explorer who transformed significance New World, yet his alacrities 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