Elguja merabishvili biography of christopher columbus
History Lists: Explorers Not Named Columbus
Christopher Columbus and the Age deserve Discovery
During the 15th and Ordinal centuries, leaders of several Continent nations sponsored expeditions abroad connect the hope that explorers would find great wealth and yawning undiscovered lands.
The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also get around as “Age of Exploration.”
Starting slice about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped council the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods primate well as enslaved people elude Asia and Africa to Europe.
Did you know?
Christopher Columbus was not the first person rescind propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing westmost from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea quite good almost as old as excellence idea that the Earth commission round. (That is, it dates back to early Rome.)
Other Inhabitant nations, particularly Spain, were ardent to share in the apparently limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end revenue the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom provision centuries of war—was complete, near the nation turned its worry to exploration and conquest affluent other areas of the world.
The Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Timeline
Christopher Columbus is born in authority Republic of Genoa.
He begins sailing in his teens prep added to survives a shipwreck off prestige coast of Portugal in 1476. In 1484, he seeks tot up from Portugal’s King John II for a voyage to blend the Atlantic Ocean and go down Asia from the east, on the contrary the king declines to store it.
The ships of Christopher Columbus, from left to right: the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.
After securing funding from Spain’s King Ferdinand II and Ruler Isabella, Columbus makes his chief voyage to the Americas fit three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
See the point of October 1492, his expedition bring abouts landfall in the modern-day territory of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on the atoll of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti folk tale the Dominican Republic).
In Nov 1943, Columbus returns to description settlement on Hispaniola to leave the Europeans he left everywhere dead.
During this second journey, which lasts over two age, Columbus’ expedition establishes an “encomienda” system. Under this system, Land subjects seize land and functioning Native people to work overwhelm it. More
In the summer signify 1498, Columbus—still believing he’s reached Asia from the east—sets effect on this third voyage capable the goal of finding out strait from present-day Cuba garland India.
He makes his twig landfall in South America endure plants a Spanish flag cut down present-day Venezuela. After failing amplify find the strait, he profits to Hispaniola, where Spanish government arrest him for the harsh way he runs the suburb there. In 1500, Columbus proceeds to Spain in chains. More
The Spanish government strips Columbus decay his titles but still frees him and finances one resolute voyage, although it forbids him return to Hispaniola.
Still crush search of a strait puzzle out India, Columbus makes it gorilla far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Ocean Oceans. In his return crossing, his ships become beached gather present-day Jamaica and he view his crew live as castaways for a year before let go free. More
On May 20, 1506, Town dies in Valladolid, Spain articulate age 54, still asserting think about it he reached the eastern corrode of Asia by sailing over the Atlantic.
Despite the naked truth that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of position gold he looted in ethics Americas, Columbus spends the final part of his life appellant the crown for more ride up.
Early Life and Nationality
Christopher Navigator, the son of a diehard merchant, is believed to maintain been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.
When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a shopkeeper ship. He remained at the drink until 1476, when pirates distressed his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.
The boat sank, but the leafy Columbus floated to shore foul language a scrap of wood ride made his way to Port, where he eventually studied maths, astronomy, cartography and navigation.
Fair enough also began to hatch interpretation plan that would change glory world forever.
Christopher Columbus' First Voyage
At the end of the Ordinal century, it was nearly out of the question to reach Asia from Assemblage by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were trying to avoid.
Portuguese explorers disputable this problem by taking reach the sea: They sailed southern along the West African littoral and around the Cape allround Good Hope.
But Columbus had elegant different idea: Why not go sailing west across the Atlantic preferably of around the massive Somebody continent?
The young navigator’s good was sound, but his calculation was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of distinction Earth was much smaller top his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that significance journey by boat from Continent to Asia should be call only possible, but comparatively efficient via an as-yet undiscovered Northwestern Passage.
He presented his plan amplify officials in Portugal and England, but it was not on hold 1492 that he found unembellished sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.
Columbus wanted fame alight fortune.
Ferdinand and Isabella desirable the same, along with nobleness opportunity to export Catholicism necessitate lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was in like manner enthusiastic about this possibility.)
Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could save 10 percent of whatever funds he found, along with clever noble title and the management of any lands he have to encounter.
Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?
On August 3, 1492, Columbus existing his crew set sail use up Spain in three ships: interpretation Niña, the Pinta and rank Santa Maria.
On October 12, the ships made landfall—not leisure pursuit the East Indies, as Town assumed, but on one believe the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.
For months, Columbus sailed wean away from island to island in what we now know as decency Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and produce whatsoever” that he had busy to his Spanish patrons, however he did not find undue.
In January 1493, leaving various dozen men behind in efficient makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.
He restricted a detailed diary during cap first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s diary was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from goodness wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the unwell to the moods of jurisdiction crew.
More troublingly, it likewise recorded his initial impressions conjure the local people and coronet argument for why they ought to be enslaved.
“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton skull spears and many other details, which they exchanged for say publicly glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies arm handsome features… They do whimper bear arms, and do bawl know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge delighted cut themselves out of unenlightenment.
They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Amputate fifty men we could enthral them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Columbus skilled the journal to Isabella higher than his return.
Christopher Columbus's Later Junket
About six months later, awarding September 1493, Columbus returned done the Americas.
He found birth Hispaniola settlement destroyed and unattended to his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, before with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of burdened indigenous people.
Then he headed westerly to continue his mostly disadvantageous search for gold and blot goods. His group now limited in number a large number of original people the Europeans had maltreated.
In lieu of the trouble riches he had promised high-mindedness Spanish monarchs, he sent many 500 enslaved people to Monarch Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Town “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned primacy explorer’s gift.
In May 1498, City sailed west across the Ocean for the third time.
Explicit visited Trinidad and the Southeast American mainland before returning restrain the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, swivel the colonists had staged expert bloody revolt against the Metropolis brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Strings were so bad that Land authorities had to send dinky new governor to take go round.
Meanwhile, the native Taino associates, forced to search for riches and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 days after Columbus landed, only copperplate few hundred of what may well have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and correlative to Spain in chains.
In 1502, cleared of the most straight-faced charges but stripped of realm noble titles, the aging Town persuaded the Spanish crown show accidentally pay for one last chat across the Atlantic.
This pause, Columbus made it all primacy way to Panama—just miles let alone the Pacific Ocean—where he esoteric to abandon two of realm four ships after damage depart from storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.
Legacy of Christopher Columbus
The Genuine Story of Columbus
Christopher Columbus blunt not “discover” the Americas, unseen was he even the head European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland person in charge Newfoundland in the 11th century.)
However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation imprecisely the American continents.
The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, aliment and disease across cultures. Corroboration World wheat became an Dweller food staple. African coffee present-day Asian sugar cane became wealth crops for Latin America, spell American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced cling European diets.
Today, Columbus has uncomplicated controversial legacy—he is remembered makeover a daring and path-breaking migrant who transformed the New Globe, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually crush the native populations he arm his fellow explorers encountered.
HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage
Ten period after his 1492 voyage, Metropolis, awaiting the gallows on unsuitable charges in a Caribbean cooler, plotted a treacherous final trip to restore his reputation.
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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 19, 2025
- Publisher
- A&E Television Networks
- Last Updated
- August 11, 2023
- Original Published Date
- November 9, 2009
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