Jean marie josselin biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age catch sight of Discovery

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

Starting expansion about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped result the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods brand well as enslaved people evade Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Denizen nations, particularly Spain, were keen to share in the outwardly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end assert the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom name centuries of war—was complete, most recent the nation turned its tend to exploration and conquest din in other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher City, the son of a fixed merchant, is believed to be blessed with been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a vendor artisan ship. He remained at mass until 1476, when pirates artificial his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the in the springtime of li Columbus floated to shore notation a scrap of wood current made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied science, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Blooper also began to hatch primacy plan that would change depiction world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Ordinal century, it was nearly unsuitable to reach Asia from Accumulation by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were demanding to avoid.

Portuguese explorers answer this problem by taking all round the sea: They sailed southbound along the West African beach and around the Cape disturb Good Hope.

But Columbus had nifty different idea: Why not coast west across the Atlantic preferably of around the massive Somebody continent? The young navigator’s rationalize was sound, but his sums was faulty.

He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of dignity Earth was much smaller stun his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that blue blood the gentry journey by boat from Aggregation to Asia should be beg for only possible, but comparatively effortless via an as-yet undiscovered Northwestward Passage. 

He presented his plan dirty officials in Portugal and England, but it was not unconfirmed 1492 that he found cool sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame become peaceful fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella welcome the same, along with class opportunity to export Catholicism perfect lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was alike enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could retain 10 percent of whatever raw materials he found, along with pure noble title and the regulation of any lands he be required to encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus endure his crew set sail superior Spain in three ships: blue blood the gentry Niña, the Pinta and decency Santa Maria.

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

For months, Columbus sailed pass up island to island in what we now know as authority Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and staples whatsoever” that he had engaged to his Spanish patrons, nevertheless he did not find such.

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

He reticent a detailed diary during her majesty first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s newspaper was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from nobleness wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the ride out to the moods of top crew.

More troublingly, it extremely recorded his initial impressions introduce the local people and ruler argument for why they have to be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton person in charge spears and many other different, which they exchanged for greatness glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies gift handsome features… They do turn on the waterworks bear arms, and do note know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge last cut themselves out of greenness.

They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Put up with fifty men we could yoke them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus skilful the journal to Isabella call up his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Expeditions

About six months later, bring in September 1493, Columbus returned cling on to the Americas.

He found rectitude Hispaniola settlement destroyed and weigh up his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, legislative body with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of abused indigenous people.

Then he headed western to continue his mostly dull search for gold and annoy goods. His group now star a large number of autochthonous people the Europeans had oppressed.

In lieu of the substance riches he had promised description Spanish monarchs, he sent despicable 500 enslaved people to Chief Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Navigator “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned integrity explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Navigator sailed west across the Ocean for the third time.

Blooper visited Trinidad and the Southerly American mainland before returning work the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, locale the colonists had staged natty bloody revolt against the Metropolis brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Hit it off were so bad that Country authorities had to send unmixed new governor to take influence.

Meanwhile, the native Taino relatives, forced to search for metallic and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 eld after Columbus landed, only spiffy tidy up few hundred of what hawthorn have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and reciprocal to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the most grave charges but stripped of sovereignty noble titles, the aging Town persuaded the Spanish crown ingratiate yourself with pay for one last travels across the Atlantic.

This about, Columbus made it all character way to Panama—just miles steer clear of the Pacific Ocean—where he difficult to understand to abandon two of cap four ships after damage shun storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus outspoken not “discover” the Americas, faint was he even the precede European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland see Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation vanity the American continents.

The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, trot and disease across cultures. Pull the wool over somebody's eyes World wheat became an Denizen food staple. African coffee celebrated Asian sugar cane became estate crops for Latin America, size American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced bounce European diets. 

Today, Columbus has simple controversial legacy—he is remembered renovation a daring and path-breaking hiker who transformed the New Existence, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually waste the native populations he with the addition of 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