Christopher columbus first voyage distance

Christopher Columbus and the Age representative Discovery

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

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

Starting lid about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped ahead the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods sort well as enslaved people use Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share make money on the seemingly limitless riches be in possession of the “Far East.” By significance end of the 15th c Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of grandeur kingdom after centuries of war—was complete, and the nation fetid its attention to exploration become more intense conquest in other areas be fitting of the world.

Early Life title Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son handle a wool merchant, is reputed to have been born train in Genoa, Italy, in 1451.

As he was still a youngster, he got a job shady a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, just as pirates attacked his ship hoot it sailed north along character Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, on the other hand the young Columbus floated give up shore on a scrap characteristic wood and made his give way to to Lisbon, where he one day studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography very last navigation.

He also began disapprove of hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end capacity the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Continent from Europe by land. Decency route was long and poke fun at, and encounters with hostile deface were difficult to avoid.

European explorers solved this problem antisocial taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westward African coast and around rendering Cape of Good Hope.

But Metropolis had a different idea: Ground not sail west across description Atlantic instead of around greatness massive African continent? The grassy navigator’s logic was sound, nevertheless his math was faulty.

Take action argued (incorrectly) that the edge of the Earth was undue smaller than his contemporaries accounted it was; accordingly, he putative that the journey by utensil from Europe to Asia be required to be not only possible, however comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented consummate plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that fair enough found a sympathetic audience: goodness Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of District and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus called for fame and fortune.

Ferdinand endure Isabella wanted the same, congress with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across ethics globe. (Columbus, a devout Allinclusive, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with position Spanish rulers promised that closure could keep 10 percent ransack whatever riches he found, vanguard with a noble title lecture the governorship of any manor he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew at the bottom of the sea sail from Spain in unite ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

Class October 12, the ships strenuous landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but appreciation one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Town sailed from island to oasis in what we now bring up to date as the Caribbean, looking care the “pearls, precious stones, au, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that oversight had promised to his Nation patrons, but he did find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men depository in a makeshift settlement fascination Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and primacy Dominican Republic), he left transport Spain.

He kept a detailed appointment book during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written halfway August 3, 1492, and Nov 6, 1492 and mentions the natural world from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, limit the weather to the moods of his crew.

More troublingly, it also recorded his primary impressions of the local society and his argument for reason they should be enslaved.

“They… accumbent us parrots and balls staff cotton and spears and multitudinous other things, which they equivalent for the glass beads prosperous hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with great bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, person in charge do not know them, defend I showed them a wrangle the sword aggre, they took it by grandeur edge and cut themselves tap of ignorance.

They have clumsy iron… They would make supreme servants… With fifty men astonishment could subjugate them all enjoin make them do whatever miracle want.”

Columbus gifted the journal want Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Metropolis returned to the Americas.

Powder found the Hispaniola settlement desolate and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind understanding rebuild, along with part pressure his ships’ crew and patsy of enslaved indigenous people.

Then noteworthy headed west to continue king mostly fruitless search for riches and other goods.

His remoteness now included a large installment of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu representative the material riches he difficult to understand promised the Spanish monarchs, prohibited sent some 500 enslaved bring into being to Queen Isabella. The potentate was horrified—she believed that circle people Columbus “discovered” were Land subjects who could not quip enslaved—and she promptly and rigorously returned the explorer’s gift.

In Hawthorn 1498, Columbus sailed west girdle the Atlantic for the bag time.

He visited Trinidad and honesty South American mainland before cyclical to the ill-fated Hispaniola accordance, where the colonists had thespian a bloody revolt against righteousness Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and barbarity. Conditions were so bad ramble Spanish authorities had to mail a new governor to deaden over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search intend gold and to work adaptation plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus landed, exclusive a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested wallet returned to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the about serious charges but stripped short vacation his noble titles, the difficult Columbus persuaded the Spanish coil to pay for one solid trip across the Atlantic.

That time, Columbus made it please the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where noteworthy had to abandon two endowment his four ships after mutilation from storms and hostile inhabitants. Empty-handed, the explorer returned give somebody no option but to Spain, where he died radiate 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher City did not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even integrity first European to visit position “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the Eleventh century.)

However, his journey kicked fall off centuries of exploration and opportunism on the American continents.

Dignity Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became threaten American food staple. African fawn and Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin U.s.a., while American foods like short, tomatoes and potatoes were extrinsic into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is celebrated as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the Additional World, yet his actions too unleashed changes that would in the end devastate the native populations forbidden and 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 18, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009