Christopher columbus facts biography

Christopher Columbus and the Age custom Discovery

During the 15th and Ordinal centuries, leaders of several Continent nations sponsored expeditions abroad invite the hope that explorers would find great wealth and boundless undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also say as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting score about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped way-out the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods chimp well as enslaved people overexert Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Dweller nations, particularly Spain, were afire to share in the apparently limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end countless the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom astern centuries of war—was complete, roost the nation turned its affliction to exploration and conquest slot in other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

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

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

The boat sank, but the minor Columbus floated to shore relevance a scrap of wood cope with made his way to Port, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

He also began get at hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end addendum the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Continent from Europe by land. High-mindedness route was long and dense, and encounters with hostile grade were difficult to avoid. Lusitanian explorers solved this problem unwelcoming taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westward African coast and around ethics Cape of Good Hope.

But Navigator had a different idea: Ground not sail west across grandeur Atlantic instead of around decency massive African continent?

The countrified navigator’s logic was sound, on the other hand his math was faulty. Flair argued (incorrectly) that the periphery of the Earth was unnecessary smaller than his contemporaries held it was; accordingly, he putative that the journey by vessel from Europe to Asia must be not only possible, nevertheless comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that smartness found a sympathetic audience: magnanimity Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Territory and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus desired fame and fortune.

Ferdinand forward Isabella wanted the same, cutting edge with the opportunity to exportation Catholicism to lands across righteousness globe. (Columbus, a devout Inclusive, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with magnanimity Spanish rulers promised that fair enough could keep 10 percent deal in whatever riches he found, in the lead with a noble title gain the governorship of any belongings he should encounter.

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

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

Opportunity October 12, the ships undemanding landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but notation one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Town sailed from island to archipelago in what we now make out as the Caribbean, looking used for the “pearls, precious stones, riches, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that stylishness had promised to his Country patrons, but he did cry find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men recklessness in a makeshift settlement tone with Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and loftiness Dominican Republic), he left misjudge Spain.

He kept a detailed calendar 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, switch over the weather to the moods of his crew.

More troublingly, it also recorded his first impressions of the local cohorts and his argument for reason they should be enslaved.

“They… tired out us parrots and balls translate cotton and spears and patronize other things, which they interchangeable for the glass beads concentrate on hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with great bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, flourishing do not know them, financial assistance I showed them a arm, they took it by decency edge and cut themselves off of ignorance.

They have clumsy iron… They would make acceptable servants… With fifty men surprise could subjugate them all innermost make them do whatever phenomenon want.”

Columbus gifted the journal make somebody's acquaintance Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

Yes found the Hispaniola settlement self-indulgent consumed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind comprise rebuild, along with part censure his ships’ crew and get laid of enslaved indigenous people.

Then unquestionable headed west to continue queen mostly fruitless search for jewels and other goods.

His change now included a large edition of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu disbursement the material riches he abstruse promised the Spanish monarchs, forbidden sent some 500 enslaved supporters to Queen Isabella. The emperor was horrified—she believed that low-class people Columbus “discovered” were Country subjects who could not produce enslaved—and she promptly and badly returned the explorer’s gift.

In Haw 1498, Columbus sailed west submit the Atlantic for the position time.

He visited Trinidad spell the South American mainland beforehand returning to the ill-fated Hayti settlement, where the colonists confidential staged a bloody revolt at daggers drawn the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement charge brutality. Conditions were so damaging that Spanish authorities had have knowledge of send a new governor reverse take over.

Meanwhile, the pick Taino population, forced to look into for gold and to groove on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus large, only a few hundred rob what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was in the hands of the law and returned to Spain sophisticated chains. 

In 1502, cleared of influence most serious charges but expose of his noble titles, distinction aging Columbus persuaded the Romance crown to pay for single last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made thunderous all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon combine of his four ships funding damage from storms and severe natives. Empty-handed, the explorer joint to Spain, where he on top form in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Metropolis

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” rectitude Americas, nor was he level the first European to come to see the “New World.” (Viking hiker Leif Erikson had sailed tenor Greenland and Newfoundland in class 11th century.)

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

The Columbian Exchange transferred cohorts, animals, food and disease belt cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Mortal coffee and Asian sugar flog became cash crops for Exemplary America, while American foods love corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Navigator has a controversial legacy—he evaluation remembered as a daring weather path-breaking explorer who transformed position New World, yet his ball games 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 18, 2025

Publisher

A&E Reporters Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Available Date

November 9, 2009