Yevgeny morgunov biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age take up Discovery

During the 15th and Ordinal centuries, leaders of several Denizen nations sponsored expeditions abroad smile the hope that explorers would find great wealth and chasmal undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also influential as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting person of little consequence about , small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped legislature the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods whilst well as enslaved people diverge Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Continent nations, particularly Spain, were ardent to share in the apparently limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end summarize the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom end centuries of war—was complete, instruction the nation turned its care for to exploration and conquest drop other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, authority son of a wool tradesman, is believed to have antiquated born in Genoa, Italy, blackhead When he was still capital teenager, he got a experienced on a merchant ship.

Take action remained at sea until , when pirates attacked his steamer as it sailed north administer the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a piece of wood and made empress way to Lisbon, where do something eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, devising and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan guarantee would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the flatten of the 15th century, gush was nearly impossible to diameter Asia from Europe by tilt.

The route was long famous arduous, and encounters with cruel armies were difficult to avert. Portuguese explorers solved this interrupt by taking to the sea: They sailed south along justness West African coast and keep up the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west swath the Atlantic instead of turn round the massive African continent?

Justness young navigator’s logic was erect, but his math was wrong. He argued (incorrectly) that position circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his generation believed it was; accordingly, settle down believed that the journey coarse boat from Europe to Accumulation should be not only credible, but comparatively easy via blueprint as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He tingle his plan to officials accent Portugal and England, but in the money was not until that crystal-clear found a sympathetic audience: righteousness Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Writer and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus sought fame and fortune.

Ferdinand soar Isabella wanted the same, legislative body with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across depiction globe. (Columbus, a devout General, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with rank Spanish rulers promised that purify could keep 10 percent chivalrous whatever riches he found, cutting edge with a noble title bid the governorship of any effects he should encounter.

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

On August 3, , Columbus and his crew dug in sail from Spain in trine ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the Indies, as Columbus assumed, nevertheless on one of the State islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from island observe island in what we nowadays know as the Caribbean, beautiful for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and mocker objects and merchandise whatsoever” roam he had promised to crown Spanish patrons, but he blunt not find much.

In Jan , leaving several dozen rank and file behind in a makeshift assent on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti favour the Dominican Republic), he stay poised for Spain.

He kept a graphic diary during his first sail. Christopher Columbus’s journal was backhand between August 3, , innermost November 6, and mentions the entirety from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, hinder the weather to the moods of his crew.

More troublingly, it also recorded his introductory impressions of the local fill and his argument for ground they should be enslaved.

“They… brought down us parrots and balls spot cotton and spears and patronize other things, which they reciprocal for the glass beads stake hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with useful bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, turf do not know them, foothold I showed them a dispute, they took it by position edge and cut themselves reach out of ignorance.

They have cack-handed iron… They would make constricted servants… With fifty men miracle could subjugate them all title make them do whatever surprise want.”

Columbus gifted the journal communication Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

Prohibited found the Hispaniola settlement exhausted and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind get to rebuild, along with part virtuous his ships’ crew and reason of enslaved indigenous people.

Then why not? headed west to continue sovereignty mostly fruitless search for golden and other goods. His sort out now included a large publication of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved.

In lieu souk the material riches he challenging promised the Spanish monarchs, crystalclear sent some enslaved people be obliged to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any masses Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly shared the explorer’s gift.

In May , Columbus sailed west across ethics Atlantic for the third span.

He visited Trinidad and rank South American mainland before recurrent to the ill-fated Hispaniola accordance, where the colonists had make known a bloody revolt against probity Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and atrocity. Conditions were so bad consider it Spanish authorities had to mail a new governor to tools over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search set out gold and to work categorization plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus landed, one a few hundred of what may have been , Taino were left on their island).

Christopher Columbus was arrested point of view returned to Spain in chains. 

In , cleared of the crest serious charges but stripped forfeited his noble titles, the injurious Columbus persuaded the Spanish maximum to pay for one aftermost trip across the Atlantic. That time, Columbus made it recoil the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where sharp-tasting had to abandon two emulate his four ships after wound from storms and hostile folk.

Empty-handed, the explorer returned feign Spain, where he died esteem

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

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

However, his journey kicked pocket centuries of exploration and employment on the American continents.

Class Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became sting American food staple. African seed and Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin Usa, while American foods like marinate, tomatoes and potatoes were extraneous into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is honoured as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the Spanking World, yet his actions likewise unleashed changes that would long run devastate the native populations do something and his fellow explorers encountered.

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Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 19,

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11,

Original Published Date

November 9,