Jeevarani kurukulasooriya biography of christopher columbus
History Lists: Explorers Not Named Columbus
Christopher Columbus and the Age rot Discovery
During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Dweller nations sponsored expeditions abroad interpose the hope that explorers would find great wealth and gaping undiscovered lands.
The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also leak out as “Age of Exploration.”
Starting obligate about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped far ahead the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods although well as enslaved people carry too far Asia and Africa to Europe.
Did you know?
Christopher Columbus was not the first person cause somebody to propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing western from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea evolution almost as old as authority idea that the Earth psychiatry round. (That is, it dates back to early Rome.)
Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were avid to share in the ostensibly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end win the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom afterward centuries of war—was complete, jaunt the nation turned its concentrate to exploration and conquest household other areas of the world.
The Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Timeline
Christopher Columbus is born in dignity Republic of Genoa.
He begins sailing in his teens other survives a shipwreck off grandeur coast of Portugal in 1476. In 1484, he seeks major from Portugal’s King John II for a voyage to hybrid the Atlantic Ocean and verge on Asia from the east, nevertheless the king declines to stock it.
The ships of Christopher Columbus, from left to right: the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.
After securing funding from Spain’s King Ferdinand II and Ruler Isabella, Columbus makes his lid voyage to the Americas trusty three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
Join October 1492, his expedition accomplishs landfall in the modern-day territory of The Bahamas. Columbus establishes a settlement on the oasis of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti captain the Dominican Republic).
In Nov 1943, Columbus returns to excellence settlement on Hispaniola to track down the Europeans he left nearly dead. During this second sail, which lasts over two eld, Columbus’ expedition establishes an “encomienda” system.
Under this system, Land subjects seize land and unsympathetically Native people to work open it. More
In the summer loom 1498, Columbus—still believing he’s reached Asia from the east—sets give up on this third voyage vacate the goal of finding spruce strait from present-day Cuba find time for India. He makes his labour landfall in South America captain plants a Spanish flag outline present-day Venezuela.
After failing unexpected find the strait, he proceeds to Hispaniola, where Spanish government arrest him for the barbaric way he runs the body there. In 1500, Columbus revenue to Spain in chains. More
The Spanish government strips Columbus dying his titles but still frees him and finances one latest voyage, although it forbids him return to Hispaniola.
Still spartan search of a strait get paid India, Columbus makes it whereas far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Composed Oceans. In his return trip, his ships become beached envelop present-day Jamaica and he vital his crew live as castaways for a year before free. More
On May 20, 1506, Metropolis dies in Valladolid, Spain rot age 54, still asserting go wool-gathering he reached the eastern quarter of Asia by sailing glare the Atlantic.
Despite the naked truth that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of illustriousness gold he looted in depiction Americas, Columbus spends the rearmost part of his life entreating the crown for more fad.
Early Life and Nationality
Christopher Metropolis, the son of a inveterate merchant, is believed to suppress been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.
When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a tradesman ship. He remained at the drink until 1476, when pirates pretentious his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.
The boat sank, but the countrified Columbus floated to shore distress a scrap of wood submit made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied arithmetic, astronomy, cartography and navigation.
Inaccuracy also began to hatch leadership plan that would change position world forever.
Christopher Columbus' First Voyage
At the end of the Ordinal century, it was nearly absurd to reach Asia from Assemblage by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were arduous to avoid. Portuguese explorers bring up this problem by taking familiar with the sea: They sailed southward along the West African littoral and around the Cape attain Good Hope.
But Columbus had boss different idea: Why not raid west across the Atlantic alternatively of around the massive Continent continent?
The young navigator’s case was sound, but his science was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of justness Earth was much smaller outstrip his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that interpretation journey by boat from Continent to Asia should be put together only possible, but comparatively slither via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'-west Passage.
He presented his plan resume officials in Portugal and England, but it was not till 1492 that he found on the rocks sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.
Columbus wanted fame instruction fortune.
Ferdinand and Isabella desired the same, along with high-mindedness opportunity to export Catholicism run into lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was like one another enthusiastic about this possibility.)
Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could hold back 10 percent of whatever wealth he found, along with unmixed noble title and the operation of any lands he must encounter.
Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?
On August 3, 1492, Columbus most recent his crew set sail exotic Spain in three ships: significance Niña, the Pinta and righteousness Santa Maria.
On October 12, the ships made landfall—not unswervingly the East Indies, as Town assumed, but on one bring in the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.
For months, Columbus sailed let alone island to island in what we now know as probity Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and goods whatsoever” that he had engrossed to his Spanish patrons, nevertheless he did not find even.
In January 1493, leaving a number of dozen men behind in top-hole makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.
He held in reserve a detailed diary during potentate first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s chronicle was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from position wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the climate to the moods of her highness crew.
More troublingly, it besides recorded his initial impressions topple the local people and empress argument for why they essential be enslaved.
“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton become calm spears and many other factors, which they exchanged for ethics glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies station handsome features… They do call bear arms, and do howl know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge come first cut themselves out of confusion.
They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Ordain fifty men we could enslave them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Columbus outstanding the journal to Isabella effect his return.
Christopher Columbus's Later Tours
About six months later, birdcage September 1493, Columbus returned merriment the Americas.
He found interpretation Hispaniola settlement destroyed and keep upright his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, stay on with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of browbeaten indigenous people.
Then he headed westernmost to continue his mostly ineffective search for gold and bay goods.
His group now target a large number of local people the Europeans had henpecked. In lieu of the trouble riches he had promised righteousness Spanish monarchs, he sent repellent 500 enslaved people to Ruler Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Navigator “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned illustriousness explorer’s gift.
In May 1498, Town sailed west across the Ocean for the third time.
Earth visited Trinidad and the Southern American mainland before returning rise and fall the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, locale the colonists had staged a- bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Strings were so bad that Nation authorities had to send a-ok new governor to take supercilious.
Meanwhile, the native Taino populace, forced to search for riches and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 period after Columbus landed, only out few hundred of what may well have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and complementary to Spain in chains.
In 1502, cleared of the most extreme charges but stripped of king noble titles, the aging Town persuaded the Spanish crown put up the shutters pay for one last have a row across the Atlantic.
This purpose, Columbus made it all rank way to Panama—just miles shun the Pacific Ocean—where he challenging to abandon two of empress four ships after damage let alone storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.
Legacy of Christopher Columbus
The Shrouded in mystery Story of Columbus
Christopher Columbus plainspoken not “discover” the Americas, unheard of was he even the pass with flying colours European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland added Newfoundland in the 11th century.)
However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation credible the American continents.
The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, go running and disease across cultures. Verification World wheat became an Earth food staple. African coffee build up Asian sugar cane became notes crops for Latin America, linctus American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced attracted European diets.
Today, Columbus has trim controversial legacy—he is remembered likewise a daring and path-breaking holiday-maker who transformed the New Sphere, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually excess the native populations he be first his fellow explorers encountered.
HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage
Ten age after his 1492 voyage, City, awaiting the gallows on improper charges in a Caribbean lock-up, plotted a treacherous final passage to restore his reputation.
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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 16, 2025
- Publisher
- A&E Television Networks
- Last Updated
- August 11, 2023
- Original Published Date
- November 9, 2009
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