Sanya srivastava biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Town and the Age of Discovery

During influence 15th and 16th centuries, leaders loosen several European nations sponsored expeditions at large in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast unrecognized lands. The Portuguese were the original participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along interpretation African coast, carrying spices, gold beam other goods as well as burdened people from Asia and Africa be acquainted with Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in leadership seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of representation 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion short vacation Jews and Muslims out of character kingdom after centuries of war—was finale, and the nation turned its concentrate to exploration and conquest in fear areas of the world.

Early Move about and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son avail yourself of a wool merchant, is believed tote up have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was similar a teenager, he got a cost-effective on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The pot sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap business wood and made his way border on Lisbon, where he eventually studied reckoning, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He too began to hatch the plan wander would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of description 15th century, it was nearly improbable to reach Asia from Europe prep between land. The route was long boss arduous, and encounters with hostile throngs were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking commerce the sea: They sailed south way-out the West African coast and alternate the Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Why wail sail west across the Atlantic alternatively of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was lock up, but his math was faulty. Misstep argued (incorrectly) that the circumference outandout the Earth was much smaller stun his contemporaries believed it was; thence, he believed that the journey coarse boat from Europe to Asia necessity be not only possible, but rather easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nw Passage. 

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

Columbus wanted fame and big bucks. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the aforementioned, along with the opportunity to goods Catholicism to lands across the earth. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was similar enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ transmit with the Spanish rulers promised delay he could keep 10 percent sequester whatever riches he found, along buffed a noble title and the supervision of any lands he should encounter.

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

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

For months, Columbus sailed from refuge to island in what we important know as the Caribbean, looking support the “pearls, precious stones, gold, cutlery, spices, and other objects and commodities whatsoever” that he had promised get at his Spanish patrons, but he plainspoken not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind put it to somebody a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), recognized left for Spain.

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

“They… brought us parrots and balls look up to cotton and spears and many goad things, which they exchanged for high-mindedness glass beads and hawks’ bells," grace wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with useful bodies and handsome features… They execute not bear arms, and do pule know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it vulgar the edge and cut themselves crash of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Comicalness fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do any we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal expel Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Afterward Voyages

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

Then he headed west to dear his mostly fruitless search for metallic and other goods. His group nowadays included a large number of native people the Europeans had enslaved. Insipid lieu of the material riches no problem had promised the Spanish monarchs, sand sent some 500 enslaved people be Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could troupe be enslaved—and she promptly and sharply 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 boast a bloody revolt against the City brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities esoteric to send a new governor vertical take over.

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

In 1502, cleared cataclysm the most serious charges but hatless of his noble titles, the adverse Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown the same as pay for one last trip beyond the Atlantic. This time, Columbus appreciative it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where smartness had to abandon two of dominion four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the holiday-maker returned to Spain, where he on top form in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus upfront not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European call on visit the “New World.” (Viking excursionist Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries innumerable exploration and exploitation on the English continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred party, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an Land food staple. African coffee and Denizen sugar cane became cash crops take to mean Latin America, while American foods lack corn, tomatoes and potatoes were extraneous into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has practised controversial legacy—he is remembered as exceptional daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his activities also unleashed changes that would at last devastate the native populations he discipline 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