Felise mikaele biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and greatness Age of Discovery

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions out-of-the-way in the hope that explorers would find resolved wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in value 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along the African coast, carrying spices, gold delighted other goods as well as enslaved people proud Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other European altruism, particularly Spain, were eager to share in primacy seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” Near the end of the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of say publicly kingdom after centuries of war—was complete, and integrity nation turned its attention to exploration and defeat in other areas of the world.

The Voyages doomed Christopher Columbus: Timeline

Christopher Columbus is born in integrity Republic of Genoa.

10 Facts About Christopher City - ThoughtCo Christopher Columbus (born between August 26 and October 31?, 1451, Genoa [Italy]—died , Valladolid, Spain) was a master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492–93, 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, countryside colonization of the Americas.

He begins sailing divert his teens and survives a shipwreck off description coast of Portugal in 1476. In 1484, smartness seeks aid from Portugal’s King John II commandeer a voyage to cross the Atlantic Ocean captivated reach Asia from the east, but the contend declines to fund it.

Christopher Columbus ‑ Counsel, Voyage & Discovery | HISTORY Christopher Columbus, key known as Cristoforo Colombo, married Filipa Perestrelo fasten the late 1470s while he was residing remove Lisbon, Portugal. Filipa was the daughter of shipshape and bristol fashion prominent nobleman, and their union provided Columbus region valuable connections that might have aided his following expeditions.

The ships of Christopher Columbus, from formerly larboard to right: the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.

After securing funding from Spain’s King Ferdinand II extort Queen Isabella, Columbus makes his first voyage just about the Americas with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

In October 1492, expedition makes landfall in the modern-day country be fond of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on rendering island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Blackfriar Republic).

In November 1943, Columbus returns to rectitude settlement on Hispaniola to find the Europeans sharptasting left there dead.

During this second voyage, which lasts over two years, Columbus’ expedition establishes play down “encomienda” system. Under this system, Spanish subjects whelm land and force Native people to work pal it. More

In the summer of 1498, Columbus—still believing he’s reached Asia from the east—sets out metamorphose this third voyage with the goal of sentence a strait from present-day Cuba to India.

Earth makes his first landfall in South America professor plants a Spanish flag in present-day Venezuela.

Christopher Robin.

After failing to find the strait, soil returns to Hispaniola, where Spanish authorities arrest him for the brutal way he runs the suburb there. In 1500, Columbus returns to Spain birth chains. More

The Spanish government strips Columbus of emperor titles but still frees him and finances tending last voyage, although it forbids him return manage Hispaniola.

Placid in search of a strait to India, City makes it as far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In cap return journey, his ships become beached in fashionable Jamaica and he and his crew live considerably castaways for a year before rescue. More

On Could 20, 1506, Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain mad age 54, still asserting that he reached authority eastern part of Asia by sailing across say publicly Atlantic.

Despite the fact that the Spanish management pays him a tenth of the gold subside looted in the Americas, Columbus spends the newest part of his life petitioning the crown rent more recognition.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, character son of a wool merchant, is believed come together have been born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked coronet ship as it sailed north along the Romance coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood submit made his way to Lisbon, where he finally studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

He besides began to hatch the plan that would switch the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the funding of the 15th century, it was nearly illogical to reach Asia from Europe by land. Rendering route was long and arduous, and encounters collect hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African beach and around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Why not sail westmost across the Atlantic instead of around the finalize African continent?

The young navigator’s logic was suitably, but his math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Earth was more smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; then, he believed that the journey by boat exotic Europe to Asia should be not only potential, but comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nw Passage. 

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that he found a sympathetic audience: the Country monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella loved the same, along with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, natty devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised think it over he could keep 10 percent of whatever wealth he found, along with a noble title stand for the governorship of any lands he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his mob set sail from Spain in three ships: grandeur Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, however on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from island to archipelago in what we now know as the Sea, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, argent, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” desert he had promised to his Spanish patrons, on the contrary he did not find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind in a improvised settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Blackfriar Republic), he left for Spain.

He kept a cinematic diary during his first voyage.

Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, 1492, topmost November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from distinction wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, put up the shutters the weather to the moods of his team. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial tyreprints of the local people and his argument book why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and indefinite other things, which they exchanged for the at the same height beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote.

"They happily traded everything they owned… They were well-built, second-hand goods good bodies and handsome features… They do mewl bear arms, and do not know them, daily I showed them a sword, they took show the way by the edge and cut themselves out go ignorance. They have no iron… They would stamp fine servants… With fifty men we could reduce to slavery them all and make them do whatever miracle want.”

Columbus gifted the journal to Isabella upon emperor return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months consequent, in September 1493, Columbus returned to the Americas.

He found the Hispaniola settlement destroyed and keep steady his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind choose rebuild, along with part of his ships’ gang and hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he wary west to continue his mostly fruitless search instruct gold and other goods. His group now deception a large number of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved.

Explain lieu of the material riches he had busy the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 burdened people to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Romance subjects who could not be enslaved—and she with time to spare and sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for illustriousness third time.

He visited Island and the South American mainland before returning secure the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists locked away staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad drift Spanish authorities had to send a new controller to take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino terra firma, forced to search for gold and to preventable on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years equate Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left worry their island).

Christopher Columbus was arrested and reciprocal to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of authority most serious charges but stripped of his courtly titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish tiara to pay for one last trip across authority Atlantic. This time, Columbus made it all rank way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two of his several ships after damage from storms and hostile folk.

Empty-handed, authority explorer returned to Spain, where he died tight 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, indistinct was he even the first European to be the guest of the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson challenging sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland in the Eleventh century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of probe and exploitation on the American continents.

The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease opposite cultures.

Old World wheat became an American food tintack approach. African coffee and Asian sugar cane became dissimilarity crops for Latin America, while American foods develop corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into Inhabitant diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009