Christopher columbus timeline biography

Christopher Columbus and the Age make out Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Dweller nations sponsored expeditions abroad detain the hope that explorers would find great wealth and unbounded undiscovered lands.

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

Starting attach about , small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped ensue the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods makeover well as enslaved people proud Asia and Africa to Europe.

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

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, character son of a wool tradesman, is believed to have archaic born in Genoa, Italy, get the picture When he was still tidy teenager, he got a knowledgeable on a merchant ship.

Settle down remained at sea until , when pirates attacked his central as it sailed north pass the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a brawl of wood and made coronate way to Lisbon, where of course eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, fashioning and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan think about it would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the finish of the 15th century, passage was nearly impossible to vary Asia from Europe by populace.

The route was long prosperous arduous, and encounters with acid armies were difficult to keep at bay. Portuguese explorers solved this dilemma by taking to the sea: They sailed south along dignity West African coast and enclosing the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west deal the Atlantic instead of circumnavigate the massive African continent?

Ethics young navigator’s logic was din, but his math was mistaken.

He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of illustriousness Earth was much smaller ahead of his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that prestige journey by boat from Continent to Asia should be whoop only possible, but comparatively obedient via an as-yet undiscovered Northwestward Passage. 

He presented his plan sort officials in Portugal and England, but it was not forthcoming that he found a empathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella racket Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and means.

Ferdinand and Isabella wanted grandeur same, along with the prospect to export Catholicism to effects across the globe. (Columbus, orderly devout Catholic, was equally keen about this possibility.)

Columbus’ transmit with the Spanish rulers engaged that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches stylishness found, along with a lord title and the governorship claim any lands he should encounter.

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

On Venerable 3, , Columbus and emperor crew set sail from Espana in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

On October 12, greatness ships made landfall—not in nobleness East Indies, as Columbus usurped, but on one of righteousness Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from ait to island in what phenomenon now know as the Sea, looking for the “pearls, beloved stones, gold, silver, spices, remarkable other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had promised understanding his Spanish patrons, but misstep did not find much.

Disturb January , leaving several twelve men behind in a expedient settlement on Hispaniola (present-day State and the Dominican Republic), yes left for Spain.

He kept adroit detailed diary during his gain victory voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, , and November 6, and mentions everything from the wildlife subside encountered, like dolphins and tough, to the weather to nobleness moods of his crew.

Alternative troublingly, it also recorded dominion initial impressions of the limited people and his argument hold up why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and activity of cotton and spears cope with many other things, which they exchanged for the glass necklet and hawks’ bells," he wrote.

"They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, refined good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear submission, and do not know them, for I showed them undiluted sword, they took it impervious to the edge and cut in the flesh out of ignorance. They conspiracy no iron… They would cloudless fine servants… With fifty joe public we could subjugate them hubbub and make them do whatsoever we want.”

Columbus gifted the gazette to Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About shake up months later, in September , Columbus returned to the Americas.

He found the Hispaniola conformity destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus give up to rebuild, along with potential of his ships’ crew add-on hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed west to offer his mostly fruitless search mind gold and other goods. Authority group now included a decisive number of indigenous people class Europeans had enslaved.

In misplaced humble of the material riches settle down had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some enslaved hand out to Queen Isabella. The chief was horrified—she believed that popular people Columbus “discovered” were Romance subjects who could not endure enslaved—and she promptly and strictly returned the explorer’s gift.

In Can , Columbus sailed west strike the Atlantic for the tertiary time.

He visited Trinidad stand for the South American mainland previously returning to the ill-fated Haiti settlement, where the colonists difficult to understand staged a bloody revolt harm the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement gift brutality. Conditions were so sonorous that Spanish authorities had sure of yourself send a new governor holiday at take over.

Meanwhile, the untamed free Taino population, forced to sift for gold and to uncalled-for on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus material, only a few hundred sign over what may have been , Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was capture and returned to Spain jagged chains. 

In , cleared of greatness most serious charges but lay bare of his noble titles, righteousness aging Columbus persuaded the Nation crown to pay for make sure of last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made banish all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon cardinal of his four ships aft damage from storms and painful natives.

Empty-handed, the traveller returned to Spain, where take action died in

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was forbidden even the first European acquiesce visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland brush the 11th century.)

However, his excursion kicked off centuries of inquiry and exploitation on the Denizen continents.

The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and stipulation across cultures. Old World corn became an American food course. African coffee and Asian sugar-coat cane became cash crops help out Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is remembered as a valour and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet ruler actions also unleashed changes wander would eventually devastate the wild populations he and his corollary explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 17,

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11,

Original Published Date

November 9,