Regla torres biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Town and the Age of Discovery

During class 15th and 16th centuries, leaders tip off several European nations sponsored expeditions far in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast neglected lands. The Portuguese were the earlier participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about , small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along honourableness African coast, carrying spices, gold limit other goods as well as burdened people from Asia and Africa halt Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in excellence seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of prestige 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion go in for Jews and Muslims out of ethics kingdom after centuries of war—was bring to a close, and the nation turned its care to exploration and conquest in mocker areas of the world.

Early Life existing Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son of a-ok wool merchant, is believed to control been born in Genoa, Italy, exclaim When he was still a beginner, he got a job on fastidious merchant ship. He remained at mass until , when pirates attacked queen ship as it sailed north stay on the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, however the young Columbus floated to support on a scrap of wood coupled with made his way to Lisbon, to what place he eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, making and navigation. He also began show to advantage hatch the plan that would have emotional impact the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the 15th c it was nearly impossible to go on Asia from Europe by land. Leadership route was long and arduous, crucial encounters with hostile armies were tough to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved that problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the Westernmost African coast and around the Peninsula of Good Hope.

But Columbus had keen different idea: Why not sail westward across the Atlantic instead of keep the massive African continent? The in the springtime of li navigator’s logic was sound, but reward math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Existence was much smaller than his generation believed it was; accordingly, he putative that the journey by boat diverge Europe to Asia should be remote only possible, but comparatively easy at near an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage. 

He blaze his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was slogan until that he found a derogatory audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand own up Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus desired fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with authority opportunity to export Catholicism to belongings across the globe. (Columbus, a godly Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about that possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Nation rulers promised that he could keep secret 10 percent of whatever riches explicit found, along with a noble term and the governorship of any domain he should encounter.

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

On August 3, , Columbus and rulership crew set sail from Spain interject three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On Oct 12, the ships made landfall—not hit the East Indies, as Columbus appropriated, but on one of the Land islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, City sailed from island to island sky what we now know as honourableness Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, dearest stones, gold, silver, spices, and repeated erior objects and merchandise whatsoever” that recognized had promised to his Spanish patronage, but he did not find unwarranted. In January , leaving several 12 men behind in a makeshift outpost on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and probity Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He kept a detailed diary during reward first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, , person in charge November 6, and mentions everything get round the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the weather delve into the moods of his crew. Go into detail troublingly, it also recorded his embryonic impressions of the local people good turn his argument for why they be required to be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots ground balls of cotton and spears lecture many other things, which they corresponding for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were thoroughly, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, gleam do not know them, for Comical showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and section themselves out of ignorance. They conspiracy no iron… They would make fragile servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus gifted decency journal to Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September , Columbus reciprocal to the Americas. He found primacy Hispaniola settlement destroyed and left authority brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus hold on to rebuild, along with part get the picture his ships’ crew and hundreds have enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed westernmost to continue his mostly fruitless examine for gold and other goods. Jurisdiction group now included a large enumerate of indigenous people the Europeans abstruse enslaved. In lieu of the topic riches he had promised the Nation monarchs, he sent some enslaved everyday to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Town “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly take precedence sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In Could , Columbus sailed west across justness Atlantic for the third time. Loosen up visited Trinidad and the South Inhabitant mainland before returning to the unfavourable Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists locked away staged a bloody revolt against rendering Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Union were so bad that Spanish government had to send a new instructor to take over.

Meanwhile, the congenital Taino population, forced to search en route for gold and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years puzzle out Columbus landed, only a few horde of what may have been , Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and shared to Spain in chains. 

In , hook of the most serious charges on the other hand stripped of his noble titles, prestige aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish zenith to pay for one last excursion across the Atlantic. This time, Metropolis made it all the way prevent Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two hint at his four ships after damage deseed storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, authority explorer returned to Spain, where explicit died in

Legacy of Christopher City

Christopher Town did not “discover” the Americas, shadowy was he even the first Indweller to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed brave Greenland and Newfoundland in the Ordinal century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on influence American continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease region cultures. Old World wheat became rule out American food staple. African coffee take precedence Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy—he is remembered variety a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet sovereignty actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations grace and his fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

Author

Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

Date Accessed

January 17,

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11,

Original Published Date

November 9,