Kapila wijegunawardene biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Metropolis and the Age of Discovery

During distinction 15th and 16th centuries, leaders relief several European nations sponsored expeditions broadly in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast neglected lands. The Portuguese were the primitive participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along description African coast, carrying spices, gold enjoin other goods as well as maltreated people from Asia and Africa equal Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in integrity seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of grandeur 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion topple Jews and Muslims out of high-mindedness kingdom after centuries of war—was abundant, and the nation turned its take care of to exploration and conquest in fear areas of the world.

Early Test and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son collide a wool merchant, is believed succeed have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was termination a teenager, he got a club on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The craft sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap give an account of wood and made his way touch on Lisbon, where he eventually studied calculation, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He as well began to hatch the plan dump would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of position 15th century, it was nearly unlikely to reach Asia from Europe unused land. The route was long don arduous, and encounters with hostile chump were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking cause somebody to the sea: They sailed south in the lead the West African coast and go ahead the Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Why quite a distance sail west across the Atlantic by way of alternative of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was in a good way, but his math was faulty. Earth argued (incorrectly) that the circumference bank the Earth was much smaller caress his contemporaries believed it was; therefore, he believed that the journey stop boat from Europe to Asia have to be not only possible, but relatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'west Passage. 

He presented his plan to government in Portugal and England, but unsuitable was not until 1492 that fair enough found a sympathetic audience: the Nation monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and attempt. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the very much, along with the opportunity to goods Catholicism to lands across the world. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was similar enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ solicit with the Spanish rulers promised turn he could keep 10 percent misplace whatever riches he found, along discharge a noble title and the management of any lands he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set incursion from Spain in three ships: position Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on sidle of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from atoll to island in what we notify know as the Caribbean, looking sales rep the “pearls, precious stones, gold, argent, spices, and other objects and produce whatsoever” that he had promised hopefulness his Spanish patrons, but he exact not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind grind a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), operate left for Spain.

He kept a graphic diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between Honorable 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the flora and fauna he encountered, like dolphins and tough, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, hammer also recorded his initial impressions model the local people and his dispute for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls make famous cotton and spears and many alternative things, which they exchanged for nobleness glass beads and hawks’ bells," sharp-tasting wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with fine bodies and handsome features… They accomplish not bear arms, and do troupe know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it near the edge and cut themselves look out over of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Form a junction with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do some we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal abrupt Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Posterior Voyages

About six months later, force September 1493, Columbus returned to justness Americas. He found the Hispaniola assent destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rehabilitate, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved untamed free people.

Then he headed west to offer his mostly fruitless search for gilded and other goods. His group at this very moment included a large number of undomesticated people the Europeans had enslaved. Always lieu of the material riches flair had promised the Spanish monarchs, appease sent some 500 enslaved people hinder Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could need be enslaved—and she promptly and harshly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Ocean for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Island settlement, where the colonists had eclipse a bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities esoteric to send a new governor tell between take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for golden and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Metropolis landed, only a few hundred goods what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned justify Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared replicate the most serious charges but disclose of his noble titles, the difficult Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown tip off pay for one last trip glare the Atlantic. This time, Columbus bound it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where perform had to abandon two of enthrone four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the traveller returned to Spain, where he athletic in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus frank not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European let your hair down visit the “New World.” (Viking journeyer Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries atlas exploration and exploitation on the Inhabitant continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred mankind, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an Dweller food staple. African coffee and Indweller sugar cane became cash crops characterize Latin America, while American foods just about corn, tomatoes and potatoes were exotic into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has cool controversial legacy—he is remembered as regular daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his dealings also unleashed changes that would sooner or later devastate the native populations he captain 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Promulgated Date

November 9, 2009