Christophe colon biography

He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever. How and when did humans first set foot in North America? Here are three theories. At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by christophe colon biography. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid.

Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope. But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continent? He argued incorrectly that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that the journey by boat from Europe to Asia should be not only possible, but comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage.

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until that he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Columbus wanted fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.

There they established a colony named Vineland meaning fertile region […]. Leif Eriksson Day commemorates the Norse explorer believed to have led the first European expedition to North America. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador. In Januaryleaving several dozen men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republiche left for Spain.

He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions of the local people and his argument for why they should be enslaved. On his fourth and final voyage, Columbus mainly explored the coast of Central Americawhere he encountered fierce local resistance. Turning back, he grounded his two remaining worn-out vessels on the Jamaican coast and spent a miserable year before being rescued.

Broken in health, he arrived in Spain on 7 November Columbus made every effort to have all his grants and titles restored. Even without them, he was a wealthy man, but he felt betrayed and slighted by his royal patrons. For their part, the Spanish sovereigns justified their withdrawal of support by citing Columbus's mismanagement. Surrounded by family and friends, Columbus died inrich but dissatisfied.

As a man of his time, Columbus was strongly influenced by contemporary norms and beliefs about commerce, religion, and science. Deeply religious, he hoped to supply funds to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, in fulfillment of Christian crusading ideas and millenarian prophecies. At the same time, he was a shrewd businessman and used geographical and scientific works in newly available printed editions, making scientific observations of sea and wind and flora and fauna.

He attempted to calculate longitude, noted the difference between true and magnetic north, and accurately predicted a lunar eclipse. Instead of finding a new route to Asia, Columbus made the lands and peoples of the Western Hemisphere known to Europeans and set in motion a chain of events that engendered today's close connections among all the world's societies.

Textos y documentos completos, nuevas cartas. Edited by Consuelo Varela and Juan Gil. Madrid, Henige, David. TucsonAriz. Phillips, William D. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge, U. Columbus, Christopher —Italian navigator and the discoverer of America. Though Columbus had set out to find a westward route to Asia, his explorations proved to be as important as any alternate way to the riches of Cathay and India.

Formation of an Idea. Brendan and his marvelous adventures in the Atlantic and of the equally legendary island of Antilia. First Voyage. As relations with the local Taino Arawaks seemed good and Columbus wished to return to Spain immediately, he built a settlement named Navidad for the Santa Maria 's crew and left, promising to return in a few months.

Rebellion and Arrest. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who sailed in the service of the king and queen of Spain. Between andhe made four voyages to the Caribbean and South Americalands unknown to Europeans at that time. Columbus was born some time in the fall of to a humble family in Genoa, Italy. He became a seaman at a young age.

By the time he was in his twenties, he was a skilled sailor with enough knowledge to pilot his own boat. Columbus educated himself in the store, studying navigation and the art of cartography, or mapmaking. A devout Catholic, Columbus also studied religion. During the s and early s, Columbus participated in several long voyages that took him as far as Iceland and Africa.

Trade with Asia then called the Indies was very profitable at the time, and he began to formulate the idea that it would be faster and easier to travel to Asia by. Contrary to legend, all educated fifteenth-century Europeans knew that the earth was round, but no one had any idea about its size; most theories underestimated the christophe colon biography of the earth by about one-third.

Most people also believed the earth was one huge landmass, consisting of Europe, Africa, and Asia, surrounded by water. It was not surprising that Columbus guessed incorrectly at the distances between continents. In MaySpanish queen Isabella I — agreed to hear his plan. Besides finding a new trade route and untold riches, part of Columbus's goal in his enterprise was to bring Christianity to the world's peoples.

This appealed to Queen Isabella, who wished to create a vast, worldwide, Spanish empire that would spread the Christian religion to every corner of the earth. The Santa Mariaat feet in length, was the largest of the three ships. The fleet sailed on August 3, By chance, Columbus found the best possible Atlantic route to the New World and the weather was good.

Still, the voyage took weeks. Finally, on October 11, signs of land became apparent—branches with green leaves and flowers floating in the water. Very early on the morning of October 12, the lookout on the Pinta saw land. The grateful crew landed on a small island in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus named the island San Salvador Holy Savior.

Columbus stayed on the island for two days, meeting with its inhabitants, members of the peaceful Arawak-speaking Taino tribe. Not knowing where he was, and always assuming that he had reached the Indies, he called these people Indians. Columbus spent several days exploring the Bahamasbut the Taino told him about another much larger island named Colba Cubaand he set off for it, thinking it must be part of China or Japan.

He landed on Cuba on October 28,and for the next month sailed along its north coast. After leaving Cuba on December 5,Columbus sailed. In Hispaniola, Columbus met a young Arawak chief who was wearing gold ornaments, which he was willing to trade for European goods. Farther east, Columbus met a more important chief who had even larger pieces of gold.

Columbus entertained him and his people on board the Santa Maria on Christmas Eve. After the festivities, while everyone was asleep, the ship hit a coral reef and began to sink. Helped by the chief and his followers, the Spanish were able to unload most of the ship's goods and carry them to shore. Making the best of a bad situation, Columbus founded the first European settlement in the Americas.

He returned with spices, slaves, and a small amount of gold. He had written a pamphlet praising the lands he had found. They were, he exclaimed, filled with amiable natives and vast riches. Columbus stayed in Barcelona for three months. For having discovered a new route to the Indies, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand gave him titles and honors and agreed to sponsor a christophe colon biography voyage.

Columbus's second expedition to the Americas in was much larger than the first, with seventeen ships and about twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men aboard. After a smooth crossing, the ships sailed through the Caribbean islands. There they encountered the native Caribs, a warlike people who were skilled navigators and made raids upon others from their large dugout canoes.

After a brief fight, some of the Caribs were captured and sent to Spain as slaves. When the Spanish fleet reached the settlement at La Navidad, they found it in ruins with the unburied bodies of Spaniards everywhere. Many historians assume that the once-peaceful Arawak Indians rebelled against Spanish abuses and killed the Spaniards.

Abandoning the site, Columbus took his new colonists seventy-five miles to the east where he built a trading fort called Isabela in what is now the Dominican Republic. Within four days, the settlers found gold near Isabela. Columbus then sent twelve ships laden with gold and spices back to Spain. InColumbus's brother Bartholomew arrived from Spain.

The Arawak, who were traditionally a peaceful people, had by that time realized that the arrival of the Spanish meant their destruction. Columbus and his men took the Arawaks as slaves; his men also sexually assaulted the Arawak women. In addition, the Europeans brought with them epidemic diseases that were deadly to the natives. So the Arawak put together a large force to try to drive the intruders off the island.

At the end of MarchColumbus and his brother led a force that defeated the Native Americans and enslaved many of the survivors. Despite Columbus's personal promise to Queen Isabella not to use unnecessary violence with the natives, many of Columbus's men were abusive to the Native Americans. Columbus, unsuccessful in imposing order, decided to return to Spain in He left his brother in charge of the colony, but Bartholomew quickly abandoned Isabela and moved the Spanish headquarters to the south side of the island at Santo Domingo.

News had already reached Spain of the trouble in Isabela. It took Columbus two years to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to send him out on a third voyage. The royals finally agreed. The small fleet did not actually leave until May 30,because Columbus had trouble finding ships and supplies. Columbus landed on the island of Trinidad on August 1, The next day, he sailed to the mouth of the great Orinoco River in Venezuela, realizing almost at once he had reached a continental landmass.

This was his first view of the mainland of the Americas. When he returned to Hispaniola, Columbus found trouble. Isabella and Ferdinand had sent a new governor to replace Columbus in Hispaniola. When the new governor arrived, finding the Spanish inhabitants in a state of rebellion, he immediately arrested both Columbus brothers. He put them in chains and sent them back to Spain, where they arrived in October Columbus stayed in chains for five weeks after his return until he was released by Ferdinand and Isabella on December Columbus was granted one more expedition in He arrived in Santo Domingo in the middle of a hurricane, but its new governor would not let him enter the harbor.

Columbus sailed across the Caribbean to the coast of Honduras and journeyed southward along the coast of Central America looking for a passageway west. When he reached Panama, he was close to the Pacific Ocean. It is possible that Columbus may then have realized the continent he had found was not Asia, but there are no records to prove this.

Columbus tried to found a new colony in western Panama. As one of the rainiest places in the world and inhabited by Native Americans hostile to the Europeans, it proved unsuitable for settlement. After great delays due to leaky ships, Columbus chartered a boat and left for Spain in September Columbus's biggest supporter, Queen Isabella, died in Ill himself, the disgraced navigator continued to try to convince King Ferdinand to sponsor another voyage, but he failed.

Columbus moved into a house in the Spanish city of Valladolid in and died there on May Italian navigator who led the first European expeditions to the coasts and islands of the Caribbean Sea and South America. He received some education and learned Latin and Greek, and may have apprenticed with his father as a weaver. But finding a stronger taste for adventure and the sailor's life, Columbus joined the fleet of Rene of Anjoua contestant for the throne of Naplesand then enlisted as a sailor for his native city of Genoa, at that time one of Europe 's wealthiest merchant cities.

He was wounded off the coast of Portugal in ; taking shelter in Lisbonhe joined his brother, who was a mapmaker, and began conceiving the idea of a western expedition to the East Indies. The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks inas well as the control of ports along the coast of North Africa and the Red Sea by Arab princes, made the land route to Asia hazardous to the health and wealth of European merchants.

In the late fifteenth century, Portuguese navigators were exploring new routes to East Asia around the southern limit of Africa. Some time during his training and experience as a sailor, Columbus hit on the idea of a westerly route through unknown seas that would, he hoped, provide a much quicker route to the spices, silks, and other valuables of ChinaIndiaand the Spice Islands of what is now Indonesia.

Using the calculations of ancient navigators and geographers. Historians generally credit Norwegian Vikings as the first European navigators to reach North America. However, the Viking expedition of around a. He asked for a fleet of three ships and a reward of 10 percent of all income from new land he discovered. The offer was rejected, after which Columbus turned to Ferdinand and Isabella, the monarchs of a newly united kingdom of Spain.

He would sail from the port of Seville south to the Canary Islandsthen head due west and remain on that course until reaching Japan. Columbus believed he would enjoy clear sailing all the way to Asia. At the time the kingdom of Spain was struggling with debts and in dire need of trade and gold; the relatively weak Spanish fleets, however, had no hope of overcoming the Portuguese, who were building and strengthening trading ports throughout Asia.

Although the king and queen of Spain were advised to reject Columbus's voyage by navigators who claimed he was misjudging the distance to Asia, they rewarded him with a pension to prevent him from sailing for any rival nation and finally agreed to support his expedition in The first expedition of three small ships set out in Augusttaking five weeks to sail from the Canary Islands to a small island in the Bahamas Columbus called San Salvadoron October The expedition continued to Cuba and Hispaniola, where the flagship Santa Maria ran aground.

On Hispaniola Columbus founded a small settlement, La Navidad, where he left behind thirty-nine sailors. The christophe colon biography of his first expedition earned Columbus acclaim in Spain and an agreement by Ferdinand and Isabella to support a second, much larger expedition of seventeen ships, which left in September This time the admiral landed on Dominica and Guadeloupe, then turned north and sailed through the long chain of small islands now known as the Lesser Antilles.

The fleet passed the Virgin Islands and landed at Puerto Ricobut on encountering a hostile Carib village Columbus ordered his ships to Hispaniola, where he founded the settlement of Isabela. The expedition touched at Cuba and Jamaica before returning to Spain in the early fall of A third expedition left Spain in May Columbus reached Trinidad and the coasts of what is now Venezuela.

His harsh management of his own sailors and mistreatment of natives, however, led to his arrest by the governor of Hispaniola. Columbus was put in chains and returned to Spain a prisoner along with two of his brothers. He was summarily relieved of all duties as governor of the lands he had discovered, and denied any profit from the income attained from the new Spanish colonies.

Still determined to find a passage to the Spice Islands, Columbus managed to win his freedom and convince Ferdinand and Isabella to support a fourth voyage. This fleet set out in May On arriving at Hispaniola, he was defied by the Spanish governor of Santo Domingo. His fleet then sailed to the coast of Honduras in Central America and then southward to Panamawhere it encountered a fierce storm.

Returning to Jamaica, his fleet was wrecked in another storm, and Columbus was forced to remain on Jamaica for more than a year awaiting rescue. The governor of Hispaniola, now the admiral's sworn enemy, finally sent help and Columbus succeeded in returning to Spain in November Columbus has been hailed for more than five centuries as an intrepid navigator — and criticized for the harsh treatment he meted out to his sailors as well as Native Americanswhom he considered subhuman barbarians in desperate need of conversion to the Christian religion.

His voyages began the era of exploration and colonization of North and South America by Europeans, an undertaking that greatly enriched and transformed Europe. He grew bitter at the imprisonment he suffered at the hands of his patrons in Spain, however, and died still unaware of the western hemisphere, and convinced he had found a faster route to Asia.

Crossing the Atlantic. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese merchant mariner sailing for the Spanish government, departed from Palos in Southern Spain on 3 August He sailed south along the coast of Africa to the Canary Islands and then turned west until he reached an uncharted island present-day San Salvador. Columbus believed that he was somewhere to the east of Cathay China and the west of Japan.

He mistakenly believed that he was close to his originally projected destination of India, and thus he called these islands the Indies. Enterprise of the Indies. He had planned his Enterprise of the Indies for several years and had made pleas to the kings of Portugal and Spain. Both turned him down, but Isabella, the queen of Spain, had sufficient confidence in Columbus to underwrite a three-ship fleet: two caravels of seventy feet each, the Nina and Pinta, and a larger flagship named the Santa Maria.

At one point the crew of the Santa Maria purportedly demanded that Columbus turn the boats around, but he negotiated two more days of sailing. Land was sighted on the second day. Columbus had reached the uncharted Caribbean Islands that lie between eastern North and South Americabut until his death he believed that he had sailed to Asia.

Return Voyage. Columbus traveled as far west as Cuba before tacking north along the western edge of the Sargasso Seaa vast track of the Atlantic Ocean filled with seaweed due to the circular pattern of currents. Columbus sailed north of the Sargasso Sea and then turned east toward the Iberian Peninsula. He was uncertain of his exact location until he reached the Azores that are west of Portugal.

Columbus had little status and importance when he moved from Genoa to the Iberian Peninsulabut this one voyage transformed him into a powerful celebrity. Family and Personality. At the conclusion of his first journey across the Atlantic OceanColumbus returned to Spain. Later that yearhe set out with his brother Diego on a second voyage to America.

Columbus was accompanied by Diego and his other brother, Bartholomew, on his third voyage Ferdinand, Columbus's fourteen-year-old son, accompanied the three brothers on a fourth and final voyage Columbus's family was eager to sail with him, but other sailors were frequently disgruntled with his leadership. On the third voyage the three Columbus brothers were arrested and returned to Spain as prisoners, and on the fourth voyage Columbus lost all of his ships due to careless seamanship.

Columbus's loyalty to his Genoese family has prompted some historians to label him a self-serving family man whose loyalty to the Spanish Crown was questionable. He was well known for his persistence, a trait that did not endear him to his crew or even his patrons reportedly Ferdinand and Isabella were eager to be rid of him before the fourth voyage in Round versus Flat Earth.

Contrary to popular belief, Columbus and his sailors did not think they might sail off the edge of the world. In the Renaissance, navigators and sailors were relatively certain that the world was round. Columbus, however, did err in his calculation of the circumference of the globe. Like his contemporary, the Nuremberg globemaker Martin BehaimColumbus appears to have calculated the circumference based on Marco Polo 's land distances and Ptolemy's erroneous estimate of the earth's size.

Behaim and Columbus agreed on the earth's circumference, but their views were not shared by the various committees that reviewed and ultimately rejected Columbus's proposal in January Shortly thereafter, Queen Isabella rapidly accepted the plan because powerful friends intervened on his behalf. Columbus made up for his weak sailing and interpersonal skills by proving to be an outstanding navigator.

Having spent his young adulthood in Portugal and Spain, he had an opportunity to learn the best navigation techniques of the Iberian Peninsula. He also knew the Atlantic islands off of Africa, as he had lived on Madeira after his marriage. On his first voyage, Columbus was able to turn his familiarity with Mediterranean and Atlantic shipping to good use.

He chose what was perhaps the best route to the West and, more remarkably, the best route back. Columbus headed south to the Canaries and then took the trade winds across the Atlantic on his outbound voyage. He was obviously aware of the winds off the western coast of Africa. On the return voyage, he turned northward and caught the westerlies winds that blow from west to east to the Azores.

Columbus's successful voyages reveal a keen awareness of navigation techniques along with a familiarity of winds to the south and west of the Iberian Peninsula. He may have held wildly inaccurate views of the earth's size, but he understood the oceanic wind patterns. Naming the New Land. Several years after Columbus, another Italian sailor named Amerigo Vespucci sailed to South America and correctly identified that he was on a new continent.

Columbus transformed himself from a self-interested Genoese merchant mariner into a Spanish national hero. He may not have been the first to sail to the Americas, but he was the first to construct a written record of his journey across the Atlantic. The record shows his mis-taken ideas about a narrow Atlantic and the location of the islands that he chartered.

History also reveals a man of questionable personality traits, whose lack of political skills produced a good deal of animosity. Columbus's perseverance helped turn his erroneous quest for Asia into a voyage that changed the way Europeans viewed the globe. Historians may never agree on Columbus's intentions and merits, but they continue to recognize the fact that Columbus forced cartographers to reconsider how they mapped the world.

Columbus's legacy lies in the convergence of the European quest for contact with Asia and the gradual mapping of the Atlantic Ocean. Alfred W. William D. Phillips Jr. Columbus, Christopher gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Italy, 26 August, 31 October ; d. Valladolid, Spain, 20 May exploration. The Editors.

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Columbus, Christopher Genoa, Italy May 20, Valladolid, Spain Italian explorer "Thirty-three days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of which I took possession without resistance in the name of our most illustrious Monarch.

Christophe colon biography

Seeks sponsor for expedition Christopher Columbus was born in the city of Genoa, Italy, in Founds Hispaniola After leaving the BahamasColumbus spent a month sailing along the coast of Cuba in search of gold. A new settlement at Isabela When Columbus returned to Spain, he had no trouble winning support for a second voyage. Recalled to Spain The Spanish monarchs were displeased because little gold was being sent to Spain, the colonists on Hispaniola had voiced complaints about Columbus's rule, and almost no Native Americans had been converted to Catholicism.

Colonists rebel The Spanish colonists had many reasons to rebel. Columbus arrested The Spanish king and queen continued to receive complaints about the Columbus brothers. Final voyage a disaster In Columbus set out on one more voyage of exploration to the Caribbean. For further research Christopher Columbus and his Voyages. Christopher Columbus gale.

Formation of an Idea After his wife's death, Columbus turned wholly to discovery plans and theories, among them the hope to discover a westward route to Asia. The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon, the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

On October 12,after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain. There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. The Europeans also noticed christophe colones biography of gold the natives wore for adornment.

Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba which he thought was mainland China and Hispaniola now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan and meeting with the leaders of the native population. During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the christophe colon biography. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain inColumbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court. InColumbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean.

Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred. Spurning the wishes of the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy upon the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population.

Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China. The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court.

The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages. After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on his fourth and final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in This time he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience.

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