Life of christopher columbus
That is, it dates back to early Rome. Christopher Columbus is born in the Republic of Genoa. He begins sailing in his teens and survives a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal in In October , his expedition makes landfall in the modern-day country of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on the island of Hispaniola present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In November , Columbus returns to the settlement on Hispaniola to find the Europeans he left there dead. Under this system, Spanish subjects seize land and force Native people to work on it. He makes his first landfall in South America and plants a Spanish flag in present-day Venezuela. After failing to find the strait, he returns to Hispaniola, where Spanish authorities arrest him for the brutal way he runs the colony there.
In , Columbus returns to Spain in chains.
The Spanish government strips Columbus of his titles but still frees him and finances one last voyage , although it forbids him return to Hispaniola. Still in search of a strait to India, Columbus makes it as far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In his return journey, his ships become beached in present-day Jamaica and he and his crew live as castaways for a year before rescue.
On May 20, , Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain at age 54, still asserting that he reached the eastern part of Asia by sailing across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of the gold he looted in the Americas, Columbus spends the last part of his life petitioning the crown for more recognition.
Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy, in When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until , when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.
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Although Columbus held back some of the worst excesses of his sailors, he took back human slaves and looted property from the indigenous people. As part of the deal, the Spanish monarchy appointed Columbus Viceroy and Governor of the Indies in the island of Hispaniola. He also delegated the governorship to his brothers. However, in , on the orders of the Spanish monarchy, Columbus was arrested and placed in chains.
There were allegations of incompetence, misrule and barbaric practices in the governorship of the new colonies. After several weeks in jail, Columbus and his brothers were released, but Columbus was not allowed to be governor of Hispaniola anymore.
Towards the end of his life, Columbus became increasingly religious. He was also frustrated with his lack of public recognition and seeming demotion in the eyes of the Spanish monarchs. In , he wrote a letter to the monarchs laying out his sense of unappreciated sacrifice. All that was left to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, even to the cloak that I wore, without hearing or trial, to my great dishonor.
They first reached the Canary Islands and then ventured across the ocean. The lookout on the Pinta spotted land around am on October 12, although Columbus later claimed that he had seen lights on land several hours earlier, thus granting himself the right to a lifetime pension promised by Spain. The island they discovered, one of the Bahamas, was named San Salvador by Columbus.
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There, the explorers encountered the native inhabitants and discovered their friendliness and love for gold ornaments. Later, the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be abandoned. After further exploration of the surrounding waters and a significant conflict with the locals, the explorers returned home, taking a dozen natives with them as living souvenirs.
The news of the discovery caused a sensation. On his second voyage, Columbus set out with 17 ships. They left Cadiz on September 24, , and the exact route is difficult to reconstruct. They also made a brief visit to Haiti and Cuba. Along the way, Columbus established the first European colonies in America, although there may have been earlier Viking visits.
The third expedition was sponsored with less enthusiasm.
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The family stayed in Lisbon until , when Columbus' wife Filipa died. From there, Columbus and Diego moved to Spain, where Columbus began trying to obtain a grant to explore western trade routes. He believed that because the earth was a sphere, a ship could reach the Far East and set up trading routes in Asia by sailing west.
For years, Columbus proposed his plans to the Portuguese and Spanish kings, but he was turned down each time. Finally, after the Moors were expelled from Spain in , King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella reconsidered his requests. Columbus promised to bring back gold, spices, and silk from Asia, to spread Christianity, and to explore China.
In return, he asked to be made admiral of the seas and governor of discovered lands. After receiving significant funding from the Spanish monarchs, Columbus set sail on August 3, , with three ships—the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria—and men.
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After a short stop at the Canary Islands to resupply and make minor repairs, the ships set out across the Atlantic. This voyage took five weeks—longer than Columbus had expected, as he believed the world was much smaller than it is. During this time, many of the crew members became ill and some died from diseases, hunger, and thirst.
Finally, at 2 a.
Biography of charles darwin: Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who made historical voyages across the Atlantic, mistakenly discovering the Americas in Who is Christopher Columbus? Christopher Columbus, known as Cristoforo Colombo in his native Italy, was a pivotal figure in the Age of Exploration.
When Columbus reached the land, he believed it was an Asian island and named it San Salvador. Because he did not find any riches here, Columbus decided to continue sailing in search of China. Instead, he ended up visiting Cuba and Hispaniola. On November 21, , the Pinta and its crew left to explore on its own. Because there was limited space on the lone Nina, Columbus had to leave about 40 men behind at a fort they named Navidad.
Soon after, Columbus set sail for Spain, where he arrived on March 15, , completing his first voyage west. After the success of finding this new land, Columbus set sail west again on September 23, , with 17 ships and 1, men.