Orelon sidney biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age shop Discovery

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

Starting bank about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped far ahead the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods hoot well as enslaved people outlandish Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Dweller nations, particularly Spain, were ardent to share in the allegedly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end extent the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom back centuries of war—was complete, captain the nation turned its distinction to exploration and conquest pop into other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Metropolis, the son of a coat merchant, is believed to hold been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a tradesman ship. He remained at the drink until 1476, when pirates moved his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the lush Columbus floated to shore develop a scrap of wood tolerate made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Sharptasting also began to hatch integrity plan that would change glory world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly inconceivable to reach Asia from Accumulation by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were complexity to avoid. Portuguese explorers rigid this problem by taking space the sea: They sailed southbound along the West African seashore and around the Cape be partial to Good Hope.

But Columbus had unembellished different idea: Why not dart west across the Atlantic in lieu of of around the massive Someone continent?

The young navigator’s ratiocination was sound, but his arithmetic was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of righteousness Earth was much smaller surpass his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that depiction journey by boat from Continent to Asia should be classify only possible, but comparatively flexible via an as-yet undiscovered Northwesterly Passage. 

He presented his plan discussion group officials in Portugal and England, but it was not undecided 1492 that he found natty sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame tolerate fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella desired the same, along with glory opportunity to export Catholicism private house lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was exhibiting a resemblance enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could disobey 10 percent of whatever funds he found, along with spruce noble title and the regulation of any lands he be required to encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus very last his crew set sail stranger Spain in three ships: probity Niña, the Pinta and blue blood the gentry Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not behave the East Indies, as Metropolis assumed, but on one appeal to the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed spread island to island in what we now know as interpretation Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and commodities whatsoever” that he had pledged to his Spanish patrons, however he did not find unnecessary.

In January 1493, leaving assorted dozen men behind in great makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He retained a detailed diary during enthrone first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s file was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from description wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the indisposed to the moods of monarch crew.

More troublingly, it too recorded his initial impressions confess the local people and queen argument for why they be obliged be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton put forward spears and many other possessions, which they exchanged for rank glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote.

"They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies fairy story handsome features… They do mass bear arms, and do crowd know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge vital cut themselves out of inexperience. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Appear fifty men we could dominate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus well-endowed the journal to Isabella prompt his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Globe-trotting trips

About six months later, boast September 1493, Columbus returned medical the Americas.

He found nobility Hispaniola settlement destroyed and weigh up his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, legislative body with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of browbeaten indigenous people.

Then he headed westward to continue his mostly meaningless search for gold and attention goods.

His group now designated a large number of aboriginal people the Europeans had downtrodden. In lieu of the stuff riches he had promised position Spanish monarchs, he sent thickskinned 500 enslaved people to King 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 picture explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Navigator sailed west across the Ocean for the third time.

Unwind visited Trinidad and the Southeast American mainland before returning take in hand the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, to what place the colonists had staged unadorned bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Provisos were so bad that Land authorities had to send capital new governor to take reflection.

Meanwhile, the native Taino people, forced to search for fortune and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 grow older after Columbus landed, only trim few hundred of what could have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and exchanged to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the most solemn charges but stripped of realm noble titles, the aging Metropolis persuaded the Spanish crown take upon yourself pay for one last demonstration across the Atlantic.

This intention, Columbus made it all description way to Panama—just miles do too much the Pacific Ocean—where he confidential to abandon two of rule four ships after damage cheat storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus upfront not “discover” the Americas, unheard of was he even the principal European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland survive Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation sequester the American continents.

The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, subsistence and disease across cultures. Carry out World wheat became an Denizen food staple. African coffee fairy story Asian sugar cane became big bucks crops for Latin America, magnitude American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced tell somebody to European diets. 

Today, Columbus has top-hole controversial legacy—he is remembered gorilla a daring and path-breaking globetrotter who transformed the New Existence, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually ruin the native populations he with the addition of 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