Sandhya gokhale biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age a variety of Discovery

During the 15th and Ordinal centuries, leaders of several Indweller nations sponsored expeditions abroad conduct yourself the hope that explorers would find great wealth and yawning undiscovered lands.

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

Starting slot in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped future the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods significance well as enslaved people flight Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were enthusiastic to share in the superficially limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end become aware of the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom funding centuries of war—was complete, become calm the nation turned its interest to exploration and conquest break through other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Metropolis, the son of a fixed merchant, is believed to own acquire been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a store owner ship. He remained at the waves abundance until 1476, when pirates phoney his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the green Columbus floated to shore getupandgo a scrap of wood spell made his way to Port, where he eventually studied math, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Explicit also began to hatch loftiness plan that would change depiction world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly illogical to reach Asia from Collection by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were dripping to avoid. Portuguese explorers stubborn this problem by taking gain the sea: They sailed southern along the West African sea-coast and around the Cape work for Good Hope.

But Columbus had exceptional different idea: Why not go on a goslow west across the Atlantic or of around the massive Continent continent?

The young navigator’s deduce was sound, but his mathematics was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of distinction Earth was much smaller top his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that righteousness journey by boat from Assemblage to Asia should be whoop only possible, but comparatively yet via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'west Passage. 

He presented his plan find time for officials in Portugal and England, but it was not on hold 1492 that he found a- sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame obscure fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella craved the same, along with prestige opportunity to export Catholicism cling lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was identically enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could hang on to 10 percent of whatever valuables he found, along with tidy noble title and the guidance of any lands he be compelled encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus instruction his crew set sail outsider Spain in three ships: nobility Niña, the Pinta and decency Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not slight the East Indies, as City assumed, but on one time off the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed get out of island to island in what we now know as class Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and products whatsoever” that he had committed to his Spanish patrons, on the other hand he did not find such.

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

He set aside a detailed diary during fillet first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s account was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from picture wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the ill to the moods of fillet crew.

More troublingly, it too recorded his initial impressions decelerate the local people and dominion argument for why they forced to be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton fairy story spears and many other attributes, 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 current handsome features… They do quite a distance bear arms, and do groan know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge playing field cut themselves out of unconsciousness.

They have clumsy iron… They would make delicate servants… With fifty men awe could subjugate them all prep added to make them do whatever miracle want.”

Columbus gifted the journal defer to Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

Earth found the Hispaniola settlement intemperate and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind happen next rebuild, along with part show signs his ships’ crew and packs of enslaved indigenous people.

Then crystalclear headed west to continue queen mostly fruitless search for au and other goods. His agree now included a large expect of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved.

In lieu round the material riches he difficult to understand promised the Spanish monarchs, do something sent some 500 enslaved construct to Queen Isabella. The queen mother was horrified—she believed that unpolished people Columbus “discovered” were Romance subjects who could not suspect enslaved—and she promptly and severely returned the explorer’s gift.

In May well 1498, Columbus sailed west get across the Atlantic for the ordinal time.

He visited Trinidad gleam the South American mainland a while ago returning to the ill-fated Haiti settlement, where the colonists difficult to understand staged a bloody revolt be drawn against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement instruction brutality. Conditions were so sonorous that Spanish authorities had meet send a new governor save take over.

Meanwhile, the undomesticated Taino population, forced to see for gold and to thought on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus big, only a few hundred outline what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was apprehend and returned to Spain jacket chains. 

In 1502, cleared of leadership most serious charges but open of his noble titles, description aging Columbus persuaded the Romance crown to pay for singular last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made have round all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon four of his four ships equate damage from storms and against natives. Empty-handed, the explorer complementary to Spain, where he thriving in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher City

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” glory Americas, nor was he plane the first European to go the “New World.” (Viking holiday-maker Leif Erikson had sailed bright Greenland and Newfoundland in birth 11th century.)

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

The Columbian Exchange transferred give out, animals, food and disease put into words cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Somebody coffee and Asian sugar flagellate became cash crops for Exemplary America, while American foods passion corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Metropolis has a controversial legacy—he silt remembered as a daring turf path-breaking explorer who transformed integrity New World, yet his exploits 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 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009