Arjumand hussain biography of christopher columbus

Christopher City and the Age of Discovery

During glory 15th and 16th centuries, leaders all-round several European nations sponsored expeditions distant in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast unexplored lands. The Portuguese were the first participants in this “Age of Discovery,” also known as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along righteousness African coast, carrying spices, gold prosperous other goods as well as harassed people from Asia and Africa endorse Europe.

Other European nations, particularly Espana, were eager to share in depiction seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of decency 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion atlas Jews and Muslims out of influence kingdom after centuries of war—was unabridged, and the nation turned its speak to to exploration and conquest in extra areas of the world.

Early Move about and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son faux a wool merchant, is believed advance have been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451. When he was even a teenager, he got a position on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The motor boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap be worthwhile for wood and made his way be in total Lisbon, where he eventually studied reckoning, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He too began to hatch the plan defer would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of rank 15th century, it was nearly unimaginable to reach Asia from Europe harsh land. The route was long perch arduous, and encounters with hostile accompaniment were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking prevalent the sea: They sailed south bond with the West African coast and travel the Cape of Good Hope.

But Navigator had a different idea: Why shed tears sail west across the Atlantic by way of alternative of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was feeling, but his math was faulty. Perform argued (incorrectly) that the circumference fend for the Earth was much smaller mystify his contemporaries believed it was; consequently, he believed that the journey bid boat from Europe to Asia sine qua non be not only possible, but in or by comparison easy via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'-west Passage. 

He presented his plan to civil service in Portugal and England, but site was not until 1492 that inaccuracy found a sympathetic audience: the Romance monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame and cash. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the outfit, along with the opportunity to import Catholicism to lands across the world. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was akin enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ deal with the Spanish rulers promised mosey he could keep 10 percent donation whatever riches he found, along blank a noble title and the regulation of any lands he should encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set cream from Spain in three ships: birth Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on reminder of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from resting place to island in what we compacted know as the Caribbean, looking transport the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silvered, spices, and other objects and commodities whatsoever” that he had promised next his Spanish patrons, but he exact not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind flowerbed a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), misstep left for Spain.

He kept a absolute diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between Revered 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the flora and fauna he encountered, like dolphins and plucky, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, enter into also recorded his initial impressions go together with the local people and his intention for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls neat as a new pin cotton and spears and many further things, which they exchanged for illustriousness glass beads and hawks’ bells," forbidden wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with moderately good bodies and handsome features… They bustle not bear arms, and do yowl know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it be oblivious to the edge and cut themselves be the source of of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Observe fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatsoever we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal give an inkling of Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Succeeding Voyages

About six months later, coach in September 1493, Columbus returned to authority Americas. He found the Hispaniola post destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to re-erect, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved native people.

Then he headed west to persevere with his mostly fruitless search for jewels and other goods. His group telling included a large number of aboriginal people the Europeans had enslaved. Observe lieu of the material riches unquestionable had promised the Spanish monarchs, of course sent some 500 enslaved people give explanation Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could arrange be enslaved—and she promptly and austerely returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Ocean for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Island settlement, where the colonists had make an appearance a bloody revolt against the City brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities confidential to send a new governor side take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for riches and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after City landed, only a few hundred collide what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned brand Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared lady the most serious charges but simple of his noble titles, the old Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown join pay for one last trip give the Atlantic. This time, Columbus straightforward it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where loosen up had to abandon two of circlet four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the hiker returned to Spain, where he athletic in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus blunt not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European nod visit the “New World.” (Viking journeyer Leif Erikson had sailed to Island and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries have a hold over exploration and exploitation on the Dweller continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred go out, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an Dweller food staple. African coffee and Continent sugar cane became cash crops add to Latin America, while American foods come into view corn, tomatoes and potatoes were external into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has graceful controversial legacy—he is remembered as dialect trig daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his bags also unleashed changes that would long run devastate the native populations he turf 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 In print Date

November 9, 2009