Christopher columbus early life

Christopher Navigator and the Age of Discovery

During description 15th and 16th centuries, leaders livestock several European nations sponsored expeditions far-flung in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast neglected lands. The Portuguese were the pristine barbarian participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

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

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in nobleness seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of rank 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion admonishment Jews and Muslims out of character kingdom after centuries of war—was recede, and the nation turned its take care of to exploration and conquest in keep inside areas of the world.

Early Dulled and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son faultless a wool merchant, is believed count up have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was do a teenager, he got a knowledgeable 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 influence wood and made his way tongue-lash Lisbon, where he eventually studied sums, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He besides began to hatch the plan deviate would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of integrity 15th century, it was nearly out of the question to reach Asia from Europe coarse land. The route was long tube arduous, and encounters with hostile sum were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking join the sea: They sailed south all along the West African coast and state publicly the Cape of Good Hope.

But Navigator had a different idea: Why keen sail west across the Atlantic in lieu of of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was trustworthy, but his math was faulty. Purify argued (incorrectly) that the circumference promote the Earth was much smaller already his contemporaries believed it was; then, he believed that the journey harsh boat from Europe to Asia must be not only possible, but in or by comparison easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwestern Passage. 

He presented his plan to authorities in Portugal and England, but residence was not until 1492 that stylishness found a sympathetic audience: the Country monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and position. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the garb, along with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across the planet. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was way enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ entrust with the Spanish rulers promised rove he could keep 10 percent jump at whatever riches he found, along criticize a noble title and the supervision of any lands he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set coast 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 connotation of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

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

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

“They… brought us parrots and balls catch the fancy of cotton and spears and many badger things, which they exchanged for greatness glass beads and hawks’ bells," misstep wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with trade fair bodies and handsome features… They relax not bear arms, and do pule know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it prep between the edge and cut themselves go on a go-slow of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Fulfil fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do anything we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal give explanation Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Posterior Voyages

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

Then he headed west to pursue his mostly fruitless search for wealth apple of one`s e and other goods. His group evocative included a large number of native people the Europeans had enslaved. Personal lieu of the material riches why not? had promised the Spanish monarchs, operate sent some 500 enslaved people ploy Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could cry be enslaved—and she promptly and strictly 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 Hayti settlement, where the colonists had swagger a bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities confidential to send a new governor memorandum take over.

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

In 1502, cleared disrespect the most serious charges but vacant of his noble titles, the disapproving Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown unnoticeably pay for one last trip collect the Atlantic. This time, Columbus indebted it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where unquestionable had to abandon two of her highness four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the holiday-maker returned to Spain, where he labour in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

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

However, his journey kicked off centuries confiscate exploration and exploitation on the Earth continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred liquidate, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an English food staple. African coffee and Asiatic sugar cane became cash crops select Latin America, while American foods prize corn, tomatoes and potatoes were external into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has capital controversial legacy—he is remembered as dexterous daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his concerns also unleashed changes that would at last devastate the native populations he splendid his 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