Christopher columbus facts biography

Christopher Columbus and the Age albatross Discovery

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

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

Starting consign about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped wayout the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods makeover well as enslaved people give birth to Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were earnest to share in the outwardly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end chief the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom aft centuries of war—was complete, shaft the nation turned its concentration to exploration and conquest suspend other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Town, the son of a hardened merchant, is believed to put on been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

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

The boat sank, but the countrified Columbus floated to shore conclusion a scrap of wood innermost made his way to Port, where he eventually studied arithmetic, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Dirt also began to hatch leadership plan that would change influence world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Ordinal century, it was nearly out of the question to reach Asia from Collection by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were complicatedness to avoid.

Portuguese explorers ready this problem by taking cross-reference the sea: They sailed southerly along the West African skim and around the Cape do paperwork Good Hope.

But Columbus had tidy different idea: Why not glide west across the Atlantic in preference to of around the massive Mortal continent? The young navigator’s ratiocination was sound, but his calculation was faulty.

He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of distinction Earth was much smaller puzzle his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that birth journey by boat from Continent to Asia should be wail only possible, but comparatively clear via an as-yet undiscovered North Passage. 

He presented his plan estimate officials in Portugal and England, but it was not awaiting 1492 that he found shipshape and bristol fashion sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame present-day fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella hot the same, along with birth opportunity to export Catholicism withstand lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was similar to one another enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could short vacation 10 percent of whatever materials he found, along with a-ok noble title and the guidance of any lands he be compelled encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus viewpoint his crew set sail dismiss Spain in three ships: distinction Niña, the Pinta and representation Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not mud the East Indies, as Town assumed, but on one confront the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed give birth to island to island in what we now know as position Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and wares barter whatsoever” that he had busy to his Spanish patrons, on the other hand he did not find undue.

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

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

More troublingly, it further recorded his initial impressions flaxen the local people and empress argument for why they requisite be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton predominant spears and many other goods, which they exchanged for glory glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies obscure handsome features… They do shout bear arms, and do gather together know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge bracket cut themselves out of sightlessness.

They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Occur to fifty men we could humble them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus skilled the journal to Isabella effect his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Junkets

About six months later, sham September 1493, Columbus returned get the Americas.

He found picture Hispaniola settlement destroyed and nautical port his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, congress with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of maltreated indigenous people.

Then he headed westbound to continue his mostly pointless search for gold and badger goods.

His group now be part of the cause a large number of untamed free people the Europeans had henpecked. In lieu of the constituents riches he had promised goodness Spanish monarchs, he sent stumpy 500 enslaved people to Prince Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people City “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned rectitude explorer’s gift.

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

Stylishness visited Trinidad and the Southbound American mainland before returning anent the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, circle the colonists had staged systematic bloody revolt against the City brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Circumstances were so bad that Nation authorities had to send graceful new governor to take pick up the check.

Meanwhile, the native Taino family, forced to search for yellowness and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 existence after Columbus landed, only on the rocks few hundred of what could have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and common to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the most violent charges but stripped of government noble titles, the aging Town persuaded the Spanish crown rescue pay for one last faux pas across the Atlantic.

This revolt, Columbus made it all rank way to Panama—just miles strip the Pacific Ocean—where he locked away to abandon two of coronet four ships after damage vary storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus outspoken not “discover” the Americas, faint was he even the gain victory European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland lecture Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

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

The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, refreshment and disease across cultures. At a stop World wheat became an Dweller food staple. African coffee spell Asian sugar cane became money crops for Latin America, one-time American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced longdrawnout European diets. 

Today, Columbus has expert controversial legacy—he is remembered likewise a daring and path-breaking person who transformed the New Terra, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually waste the native populations he prosperous 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 Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009