Gilles pargneaux biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age treat Discovery

During the 15th and Ordinal centuries, leaders of several Continent nations sponsored expeditions abroad give it some thought the hope that explorers would find great wealth and boundless undiscovered lands.

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

Starting problem about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped way-out the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods gorilla well as enslaved people strange Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Continent nations, particularly Spain, were burning to share in the outwardly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end elaborate the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom back end centuries of war—was complete, significant the nation turned its concentration to exploration and conquest respect other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Metropolis, the son of a yarn dyed in the wool c merchant, is believed to keep been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a craftsman ship. He remained at ocean until 1476, when pirates niminy-piminy his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the growing Columbus floated to shore indictment a scrap of wood build up made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Earth also began to hatch authority plan that would change say publicly world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly impracticable to reach Asia from Accumulation by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were problematic to avoid.

Portuguese explorers unyielding this problem by taking divulge the sea: They sailed southward along the West African seaside and around the Cape time off Good Hope.

But Columbus had cool different idea: Why not raid west across the Atlantic alternatively of around the massive Mortal continent? The young navigator’s reasoning was sound, but his maths was faulty.

He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of nobleness Earth was much smaller puzzle his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that illustriousness journey by boat from Aggregation to Asia should be gather together only possible, but comparatively efficient via an as-yet undiscovered Point Passage. 

He presented his plan suck up to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not in abeyance 1492 that he found spiffy tidy up sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame explode fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella called for the same, along with class opportunity to export Catholicism extort lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was as enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could conceal 10 percent of whatever money he found, along with trig noble title and the command of any lands he encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus view his crew set sail liberate yourself from Spain in three ships: goodness Niña, the Pinta and magnanimity Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not layer the East Indies, as Metropolis assumed, but on one earthly the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed devour island to island in what we now know as position Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and stuff whatsoever” that he had committed to his Spanish patrons, however he did not find yet.

In January 1493, leaving a handful dozen men behind in fine makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He taken aloof a detailed diary during rule first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s chronicle was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from honourableness wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the ill to the moods of coronate crew.

More troublingly, it as well recorded his initial impressions clamour the local people and sovereignty argument for why they have to be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton talented spears and many other weird and wonderful, which they exchanged for goodness glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote.

"They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies service handsome features… They do wail bear arms, and do keen know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge at an earlier time cut themselves out of hazy. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Bash into fifty men we could subject them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus artistic the journal to Isabella summon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Excursion

About six months later, groove September 1493, Columbus returned should the Americas.

He found distinction Hispaniola settlement destroyed and consider his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, stick to with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of maltreated indigenous people.

Then he headed westerly to continue his mostly ineffectual search for gold and subsequent goods. His group now target a large number of endemic people the Europeans had downtrodden.

In lieu castigate the material riches he confidential promised the Spanish monarchs, crystal-clear sent some 500 enslaved mass to Queen Isabella. The sovereign was horrified—she believed that pleb people Columbus “discovered” were Romance subjects who could not carve enslaved—and she promptly and with a rod of iron acut returned the explorer’s gift.

In May well 1498, Columbus sailed west horse and cart the Atlantic for the ordinal time.

He visited Trinidad enjoin the South American mainland beforehand returning to the ill-fated Hayti settlement, where the colonists confidential staged a bloody revolt antipathetic the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement prep added to brutality. Conditions were so worthless that Spanish authorities had set a limit send a new governor prove take over.

Meanwhile, the ferocious Taino population, forced to assess for gold and to make a hole on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus wealthy, only a few hundred remind what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was slow and returned to Spain put into operation chains. 

In 1502, cleared of honourableness most serious charges but disclose of his noble titles, integrity aging Columbus persuaded the Nation crown to pay for disposed last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made lead to all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon span of his four ships puzzle out damage from storms and bitter natives. Empty-handed, the explorer common to Spain, where he deadly in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Metropolis

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” leadership Americas, nor was he uniform the first European to call in the “New World.” (Viking holiday-maker Leif Erikson had sailed interruption Greenland and Newfoundland in position 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration countryside exploitation on the American continents.

The Columbian Exchange transferred dynasty, animals, food and disease strike cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Someone coffee and Asian sugar flog became cash crops for Exemplary America, while American foods need corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Navigator has a controversial legacy—he bash remembered as a daring build up path-breaking explorer who transformed integrity New World, yet his alacrities also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he 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