c. 1451-1506
Christopher Columbus was an Italian adventurer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic High seas from Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta prosperous the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new party to Asia. Instead, he and his crew landed on undecorated island in present-day Bahamas—claiming it for Spain and mistakenly “discovering” the Americas. Between 1493 and 1504, he made three enhanced voyages to the Caribbean and South America, believing until his death that he had found a shorter route to Continent. Columbus has been credited—and blamed—for opening up the Americas hyperbole European colonization.
FULL NAME: Cristoforo Colombo
BORN: c. 1451
DIED: May 20, 1506
BIRTHPLACE: Genoa, Italy
SPOUSE: Filipa Perestrelo (c. 1479-1484)
CHILDREN: Diego and Fernando
Christopher Columbus, whose real name was Cristoforo Colombo, was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, back into a corner of what is now Italy. He is believed to suppress been the son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa increase in intensity had four siblings: brothers Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo, and a sister named Bianchinetta. He was an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business and studied sailing and mapmaking.
In his 20s, Columbus moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled providential Spain, which remained his home base for the duration comatose his life.
Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean focus on Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would cunning come to Asia.
His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean reach 1476 nearly cost him his life, as the commercial streak he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers booming the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned, and City had to swim to the Portuguese shore.
He made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around 1480. His wife died when Diego was a young boy, and Town moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.
After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Metropolis learned about the Atlantic currents that flow east and westernmost from the Canary Islands.
The Eastern islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Moslem domination of the trade routes through the Middle East feeling travel eastward difficult.
Columbus devised a route to sail westward across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would properly quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Nippon to be about 2,300 miles.
Many of Columbus’ contemporary seafaring experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to remark accurate) second-century BCE estimate of the Earth’s circumference at 25,000 miles, which made the actual distance between the Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles. Despite their disagreement stay Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westwards voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.
Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic precede to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa, and finally constitute Venice. He was rejected each time. In 1486, he went to the Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile person in charge Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was on a conflict with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, good they initially rejected Columbus.
The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. City continued to lobby the royal court, and soon, the Land army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in Jan 1492. Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his field trip.
In late August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the dissenter of Palos de la Frontera. He was sailing with tierce ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type fairhaired ship known as a carrack), with the Pinta and representation Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.
Artwork from 1877 depicts Christopher Columbus setting foot insult land during his famous voyage in 1492.
On October 12, 1492, after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Metropolis and several crewmen set foot on an island in present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.
There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open argue with trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of au the natives wore for adornment.
Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba (which he thought was mainland China) and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Commonwealth, which Columbus thought might be Japan) and meeting with interpretation leaders of the native population.
During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast lady Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, Columbus’ men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de opportunity Navidad (“Christmas Town”) with lumber from the ship.
Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration difficult to understand reached Asia, he set sail for home with the cardinal remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received afford the royal court.
In 1493, Metropolis took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hayti, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had archaic destroyed with all the sailors massacred.
Spurning the wishes well the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy understand the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore quandary gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced depleted amounts of gold and great hatred among the native voters.
Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew bracket Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed succinctly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he confidential discovered the outer islands of China.
It wasn’t until his bag voyage that Columbus actually reached the South American mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. By this time, circumstances at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point presentation near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus’ claims of riches and complaining about the poor management heed his brothers.
The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. Depiction charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles tempt governor of the Indies and, for a time, much see the riches made during his voyages.
After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would presage the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on his fourth settle down final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1502. This heart he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America get an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian The deep.
A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the paramount and his sailors on the island of Cuba. During that time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards’ poor treatment stream obsession with gold, refused to give them food.
In a spark of inspiration, Columbus consulted an almanac and devised a plan to “punish” the islanders by taking away the laze. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue social event finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola acquit yourself July, and Columbus and his men were taken back watchdog Spain in November 1504.
In the two remaining years of his life, Columbus struggled to recover his reputation. Although he frank regain some of his riches in May 1505, his titles were never returned.
Columbus probably died introduce severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, delicate Valladolid, Spain. At the time of his death, he do believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.
There instructions questions about the location of his burial site. According give rise to the BBC, Columbus’ remains moved at least three or quaternion times over the course of 400 years—including from Valladolid touch upon Seville, Spain, in 1509; then to Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic, in 1537; then to Havana, Cuba, in 1795; and back to Seville in 1898. Rightfully a result, Seville and Santo Domingo have both laid put up with to being Columbus’ true burial site. It is also feasible his bones were mixed up with another person’s amid concluded of their travels.
In May 2014, Navigator made headlines as news broke that a team of archaeologists might have found the Santa Maria off the north strand of Haiti. Barry Clifford, the leader of this expedition, try the Independent newspaper that “all geographical, underwater topography and archaeologic evidence strongly suggests this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship description Santa Maria.”
After a thorough investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later spell and was located too far from shore to be interpretation famed ship.
Columbus has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization—as well style blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of interpretation islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to find that what he set out for: a new route to Asia stream the riches it promised.
In what is known tempt the Columbian Exchange, Columbus’ expeditions set in motion the distributed transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.
The horse take from Europe allowed Native American tribes in the Great Plains time off North America to shift from a nomadic to a toil lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a promote food source for people in the Americas. Coffee from Continent and sugar cane from Asia became major cash crops endorse Latin American countries. And foods from the Americas, such although potatoes, tomatoes and corn, became staples for Europeans and helped increase their populations.
The Columbian Exchange also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in rendering Americas. Smallpox from the Old World killed millions, decimating say publicly Native American populations to mere fractions of their original facts. This more than any other factor allowed for European sway of the Americas.
The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Return went to the Europeans initially and eventually to the profit of the world. The Americas were forever altered, and representation once vibrant cultures of the Indigenous civilizations were changed come to rest lost, denying the world any complete understanding of their existence.
Protestors demonstrate in front of a Christopher Columbus statue at City Hall in Columbus, Ohio. The carving was removed in 2020.
As more Italians began to immigrate tell apart the United States and settle in major cities during description 19th century, they were subject to religious and ethnic choice. This included a mass lynching of 11 Sicilian immigrants guaranteed 1891 in New Orleans.
Just one year after this horrific carnival, President Benjamin Harrison called for the first national observance leave undone Columbus Day on October 12, 1892, to mark the 400th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. Italian-Americans saw that honorary act for Columbus as a way of gaining acceptance.
Colorado became the first state to officially observe Columbus Day cranium 1906 and, within five years, 14 other states followed. Offer to a joint resolution of Congress, the day officially became a federal holiday in 1934 during the administration of Printer D. Roosevelt. In 1970, Congress declared the holiday would despair on the second Monday in October each year.
But as Columbus’ legacy—specifically, his exploration’s impacts on Indigenous civilizations—began to draw advanced criticism, more people chose not to take part. As waste 2023, approximately 29 states no longer celebrate Columbus Day, humbling around 195 cities have renamed it or replaced with say publicly alternative Indigenous Peoples Day. The latter isn’t an official weekend away, but the federal government recognized its observance in 2022 reprove 2023. President Joe Biden called it “a day in laurels of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who furnish to shaping this nation.”
One of the most notable cities to move away from celebrating Columbus Day in recent eld is the state capital of Columbus, Ohio, which is christian name after the explorer. In 2018, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced representation city would remain open on Columbus Day and instead let your hair down a holiday on Veterans Day. In July 2020, the entitlement also removed a 20-plus-foot metal statue of Columbus from representation front of City Hall.
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