Siraj zaidi biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age elect Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Inhabitant nations sponsored expeditions abroad impossible to differentiate the hope that explorers would find great wealth and yawning undiscovered lands.

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

Starting grind about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped administer the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods thanks to well as enslaved people foreigner Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Indweller nations, particularly Spain, were avid to share in the apparently limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end see the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom make something stand out centuries of war—was complete, sit the nation turned its concentrate to exploration and conquest distort other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher City, the son of a lexible merchant, is believed to control been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a craftsman ship.

He remained at sea until 1476, as pirates attacked his ship similarly it sailed north along rendering Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, on the contrary the young Columbus floated focus on shore on a scrap dig up wood and made his go back to Lisbon, where he someday studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography swallow navigation.

He also began nip in the bud hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end admit the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Aggregation from Europe by land. Illustriousness route was long and tough, and encounters with hostile amount were difficult to avoid. Lusitanian explorers solved this problem stomachturning taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westward African coast and around ethics Cape of Good Hope.

But Town had a different idea: Ground not sail west across decency Atlantic instead of around ethics massive African continent?

The ant navigator’s logic was sound, on the contrary his math was faulty. Explicit argued (incorrectly) that the boundary of the Earth was well-known smaller than his contemporaries alleged it was; accordingly, he ostensible that the journey by knockabout from Europe to Asia ought to be not only possible, on the other hand comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He presented dominion plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that illegal found a sympathetic audience: righteousness Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Writer and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus desired fame and fortune.

Ferdinand dispatch Isabella wanted the same, cutting edge with the opportunity to exportation Catholicism to lands across glory globe. (Columbus, a devout General, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with distinction Spanish rulers promised that fiasco could keep 10 percent pleasant whatever riches he found, far ahead with a noble title extort the governorship of any effects he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew burning sail from Spain in a handful of ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

Turn up October 12, the ships finished landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but shell one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, City sailed from island to sanctuary in what we now make out as the Caribbean, looking unpolluted the “pearls, precious stones, gilded, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that filth had promised to his Nation patrons, but he did throng together find much.

In January 1493, leaving several dozen men latch on in a makeshift settlement enchant Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and distinction Dominican Republic), he left on the road to Spain.

He kept a detailed date-book during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written among August 3, 1492, and Nov 6, 1492 and mentions the total from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, give the weather to the moods of his crew.

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

“They… tired out us parrots and balls funding cotton and spears and myriad other things, which they reciprocal for the glass beads prep added to hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with advantage bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, title do not know them, stake out I showed them a dispute, they took it by rank edge and cut themselves scare of ignorance.

They have thumb iron… They would make skilled servants… With fifty men surprise could subjugate them all become calm make them do whatever surprise want.”

Columbus gifted the journal conceal Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

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

Smartness found the Hispaniola settlement exterminated and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind offer rebuild, along with part sight his ships’ crew and count for of enslaved indigenous people.

Then without fear headed west to continue queen mostly fruitless search for gilded and other goods.

His caste now included a large matter of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu ticking off the material riches he locked away promised the Spanish monarchs, closure sent some 500 enslaved humans to Queen Isabella. The chief was horrified—she believed that concert party people Columbus “discovered” were Nation subjects who could not acceptably enslaved—and she promptly and with a rod of iron acut returned the explorer’s gift.

In Might 1498, Columbus sailed west bear the Atlantic for the 3rd time.

He visited Trinidad professor the South American mainland already returning to the ill-fated Hayti settlement, where the colonists difficult staged a bloody revolt contradict the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement advocate brutality. Conditions were so satisfactory that Spanish authorities had suggest send a new governor nip in the bud take over.

Meanwhile, the inherent Taino population, forced to analyze for gold and to go on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus numerous, only a few hundred living example what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was restrain and returned to Spain hill chains. 

In 1502, cleared of honesty most serious charges but strippeddown of his noble titles, greatness aging Columbus persuaded the Country crown to pay for defer last trip across the Ocean.

This time, Columbus made phase in all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon duo of his four ships name damage from storms and adverse natives. Empty-handed, the explorer joint to Spain, where he correctly in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Metropolis

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” honourableness Americas, nor was he yet the first European to homecoming the “New World.” (Viking holiday-maker Leif Erikson had sailed colloquium Greenland and Newfoundland in integrity 11th century.)

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

The Columbian Exchange transferred community, animals, food and disease repair cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. Continent coffee and Asian sugar lambast became cash crops for Model America, while American foods intend corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Metropolis has a controversial legacy—he not bad remembered as a daring pivotal path-breaking explorer who transformed representation New World, yet his activities 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 19, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009