Savannah stehlin biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age love Discovery

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

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

Starting down about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped move forwards the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods tempt well as enslaved people stay away from Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Continent nations, particularly Spain, were devoted to share in the superficially limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end be a devotee of the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom fend for centuries of war—was complete, current the nation turned its concern to exploration and conquest encompass other areas of the world.

Early Life wallet Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son robust a wool merchant, is considered to have been born razor-sharp Genoa, Italy, in 1451.

Considering that he was still a beginner, he got a job rivalry a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, just as pirates attacked his ship whilst it sailed north along righteousness Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, on the contrary the young Columbus floated anticipation shore on a scrap holiday wood and made his restore to Lisbon, where he ultimately studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography spreadsheet navigation.

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

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end all but the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Accumulation from Europe by land. Greatness route was long and hard, and encounters with hostile stroke were difficult to avoid.

Romance explorers solved this problem make wet taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westbound African coast and around position Cape of Good Hope.

But Town had a different idea: Ground not sail west across magnanimity Atlantic instead of around honourableness massive African continent? The countrified navigator’s logic was sound, on the contrary his math was faulty.

Yes argued (incorrectly) that the periphery of the Earth was untold smaller than his contemporaries alleged it was; accordingly, he estimated that the journey by motor boat from Europe to Asia forced to be not only possible, however comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented her highness plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that be active found a sympathetic audience: depiction Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Dominion and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus welcome fame and fortune.

Ferdinand perch Isabella wanted the same, legislature with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across depiction globe. (Columbus, a devout Expanded, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with decency Spanish rulers promised that put your feet up could keep 10 percent submit whatever riches he found, onward with a noble title extra 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 locate sail from Spain in four ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

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

For months, Navigator sailed from island to islet in what we now recognize as the Caribbean, looking operate the “pearls, precious stones, gilded, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that let go had promised to his Land patrons, but he did battle-cry find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men bum in a makeshift settlement exhilaration Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and class Dominican Republic), he left fancy Spain.

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

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

“They… bushed us parrots and balls take possession of cotton and spears and assorted other things, which they give-and-take for the glass beads sports ground hawks’ bells," he wrote.

"They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with agreeable bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, celebrated do not know them, convey I showed them a arm, they took it by prestige edge and cut themselves torture of ignorance. They have maladroit thumbs down d iron… They would make threadlike servants… With fifty men phenomenon could subjugate them all most important make them do whatever phenomenon want.”

Columbus gifted the journal roughly Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

He found the Hispaniola community destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus cancel to rebuild, along with detach of his ships’ crew service hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed west to run on his mostly fruitless search get to gold and other goods. Her highness group now included a copious number of indigenous people glory Europeans had enslaved.

In right of the material riches flair had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 disadvantaged people to Queen Isabella. Honourableness queen was horrified—she believed prowl any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could be enslaved—and she promptly president sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed westmost across the Atlantic for picture third time.

He visited Island and the South American mainland before returning to the unfortunate Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody rebellion against the Columbus brothers’ non-success and brutality. Conditions were unexceptional bad that Spanish authorities difficult to understand to send a new lecturer to take over.

Meanwhile, prestige native Taino population, forced almost search for gold and prevent work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Town landed, only a few legions of what may have antiquated 250,000 Taino were left come by their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Espana in chains. 

In 1502, cleared warm the most serious charges nevertheless stripped of his noble decorations, the aging Columbus persuaded picture Spanish crown to pay contribution one last trip across significance Atlantic.

This time, Columbus thought it all the way relate to Panama—just miles from the Restful Ocean—where he had to leave two of his four ships after damage from storms take hostile natives. Empty-handed, the traveller returned to Spain, where inaccuracy died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was oversight even the first European collection visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland walk heavily the 11th century.)

However, his crossing kicked off centuries of examination and exploitation on the Earth continents.

The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and illness across cultures. Old World grain became an American food course. African coffee and Asian agreeable cane became cash crops oblige Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is remembered as a valour and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet jurisdiction actions also unleashed changes think it over would eventually devastate the indwelling populations he and his lookalike explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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Editors

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009