Christopher Columbus or Cristobal Colon(Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristobal Colon; between August 25 and October 31, 1451 - May 10, 1506) - the famous navigator and cartographer of Italian origin, who wrote his name in history as the man who discovered America for Europeans.
Columbus was the first reliably known navigator to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone of the northern hemisphere, the first European to sail to, discover Central and South America, initiating the study of the continents and their nearby archipelagos:
- Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico);
- Lesser Antilles (from Dominica to the Virgin Islands and the island of Trinidad);
- Bahamas.
Although calling him the "Discoverer of America" is not entirely historically correct, since even in the Middle Ages the coast of continental America and the nearby islands were visited by the Icelandic Vikings. Since the data on those voyages did not go beyond Scandinavia, it was the expeditions of Columbus that first made information about the western lands known to the world. The fact that a new part of the world was discovered was finally proved by the expedition. Discoveries of Columbus marked the beginning of the colonization of the territories of America by Europeans, the foundation of Spanish settlements, the enslavement and mass extermination of the indigenous population, erroneously called "Indians".
Bio pages
The legendary Christopher Columbus - the greatest of medieval navigators - can quite reasonably be called one of the biggest losers of the Age of Discovery. To understand this, it is enough to familiarize yourself with his biography, which, unfortunately, is replete with "white" spots.
It is believed that Christopher Columbus was born in the maritime Italian Republic of Genoa (Italian: Genova), on the island of Corsica in August-October 1451, although the exact date of his birth is still in question. In general, not much is known about childhood and adolescence.
So, Christoforo was the firstborn in a poor Genoese family. The father of the future navigator, Domenico Colombo, worked in pastures, vineyards, worked as a wool weaver, traded in wine and cheese. Christopher's mother, Susanna Fontanarossa, was the daughter of a weaver. Christopher had 3 younger brothers - Bartolome (circa 1460), Giacomo (circa 1468), Giovanni Pellegrino, who died very early - and sister Bianchinetta.
Documentary evidence from that time shows that the financial situation of the family was deplorable. Especially large financial problems arose because of the house to which the family moved when Christopher was 4 years old. Much later, on the foundations of the house in Santo Domingo, where Christoforo spent his childhood, a building called "Casa di Colombo" (Spanish: Casa di Colombo - "House of Columbus") was erected, on the facade of which in 1887 an inscription appeared : " No parental home can be honored more than this.».
Since Colombo Sr. was a respected artisan in the city, in 1470 he was sent on an important mission to Savona (Italian: Savona) to discuss with the weavers the issue of introducing uniform prices for textile products. Apparently, therefore, Dominico moved with his family to Savona, where, after the death of his wife and youngest son, as well as after the departure of his eldest sons and the marriage of Bianchi, he increasingly began to seek solace in a glass of wine.
Since the future discoverer of America grew up near the sea, from childhood he was attracted by the sea. From his youth, Christopher was distinguished by faith in omens and divine providence, morbid pride and a passion for gold. He possessed a remarkable mind, versatile knowledge, a talent for eloquence and the gift of persuasion. It is known that after studying a little at the University of Pavia, around 1465 the young man entered the service of the Genoese fleet and at a fairly early age began to sail as a sailor in the Mediterranean Sea on merchant ships. After some time, he was seriously wounded and temporarily left the service.
He may have become a merchant and in the mid-1470s settled in Portugal, joined the community of Italian merchants in Lisbon and sailed north under the Portuguese flag to England, Ireland and Iceland. He visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, walked along the western coast of Africa to modern Ghana.
In Portugal, around 1478, Christopher Columbus married the daughter of a prominent navigator of the time, Doña Felipe Moniz de Palestrello, becoming a member of a wealthy Italo-Portuguese family in Lisbon. Soon the young couple had a son, Diego. Until 1485, Columbus "walked" on Portuguese ships, was engaged in trade and self-education, and became interested in mapping. In 1483, he already had a new project for a sea trade route to India and Japan, which the navigator presented to the king of Portugal. But, apparently, his time has not yet come, or he failed to reasonably convince the monarch of the need to equip the expedition, but after 2 years of reflection, the king rejected this enterprise, and the impudent sailor fell into disgrace. Then Columbus moved to the Spanish service, where a few years later he still managed to persuade the king to finance a sea expedition.
Already in 1486 H.K. managed to intrigue with his project the influential Duke of Medina Seli, who introduced the poor but obsessed navigator into the circle of the royal entourage, bankers and merchants.
In 1488, he received an invitation from the Portuguese king to return to Portugal, the Spaniards also wanted to organize an expedition, but the country was in a state of protracted war and was unable to allocate funds for sailing.
First Expedition of Columbus
In January 1492, the war ended, and soon Christopher Columbus obtained permission to organize an expedition, but once again his bad temper let him down! The requirements of the navigator were excessive: the appointment of all new lands as viceroy, the title of "chief admiral of the ocean" and a large amount of money. The king refused him, however, Queen Isabella promised her help and assistance. As a result, on April 30, 1492, the king officially made Columbus a nobleman, conferring on him the title of “don” and approving all the demands put forward.
Expeditions of Christopher Columbus
In total, Columbus made 4 voyages to the coast of America:
- August 2, 1492 – March 15, 1493
aim first Spanish expedition, led by Christopher Columbus, was the search for the shortest sea route to India. This small expedition, consisting of 90 people "Santa Maria" (Spanish Santa María), "Pinta" (Spanish Pinta) and "Nina" (Spanish La Niña). "Santa Maria" - August 3, 1492 set off from Palos (Spanish: Cabo de Palos) on 3 caravels. Having reached the Canary Islands and turning west, she crossed the Atlantic and discovered the Sargasso Sea (eng. Sargasso Sea). The first land seen among the waves was one of the islands of the Bahamas, called San Salvador Island, on which Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 - this day is considered the official date of the discovery of America. Further, a number of Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti were discovered.
In March 1493, the ships returned to Castile, carrying in their holds some gold, strange plants, bright bird feathers, and several natives. Christopher Columbus announced that he had discovered western India.
- September 25, 1493 – June 11, 1496
In 1493 she set off and second expedition who was already in the rank
admiral. 17 ships and more than 2 thousand people participated in this grandiose enterprise. In November 1493
islands were discovered: Dominica (English Dominica), Guadeloupe (English Guadeloupe) and the Antilles (Spanish Antilias). In 1494, the expedition explored the islands of Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and Huventud.
This expedition, which ended on June 11, 1496, opened the way for colonization. Priests, settlers and criminals began to be sent to open lands to populate new colonies.
- May 30, 1498 – November 25, 1500
Third exploratory expedition, consisting of only 6 ships, started in 1498. On July 31, the islands of Trinidad (Spanish: Trinidad), then the Gulf of Paria (Spanish: Golfo de Paria), the peninsula of Paria and the mouth (Spanish: Río Orinoco) were discovered. On August 15, the crew discovered (Spanish Isla Margarita). In 1500, Columbus, arrested on a denunciation, was sent to Castile. In prison, he did not stay long, but, having received freedom, he lost many privileges and most of his wealth - this was the biggest disappointment in the life of a navigator.
- 9 May 1502 – November 1504
Fourth expedition launched in 1502. Having obtained permission to continue searching for a western route to India, on 4 ships Columbus reached the island of Martinique (Fr. Martinique) on June 15, and on July 30 entered the Gulf of Honduras (Spanish: Golfo de Honduras), where he first had contact with representatives of the Maya civilization.
In 1502-1503. Columbus, who dreamed of getting to the fabulous treasures of India, thoroughly explored the coast of Central America and discovered more than 2 thousand km of Caribbean coasts. On June 25, 1503, off the coast of Jamaica, Columbus was wrecked and was rescued only a year later. On November 7, 1504, he returned to Castile seriously ill and broken by the failures that had befallen him.
The tragic end of life
This is where the epic of the famous navigator ended. Not finding the coveted passage to India, finding himself ill, without money and privileges, after painful negotiations with the king to restore his rights, Christopher Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid (Spanish: Valladolid) on May 21, 1506. His remains in 1513 were transported to a monastery near Seville. Then, at the behest of his son Diego, who was then the governor of Hispaniola (Spanish La Espaсola, Haiti), the remains of Columbus were reburied in Santo Domingo (Spanish Santo Domingo de Guzman) in 1542, in 1795 they were transported to Cuba, and in 1898 was again returned to Spanish Seville (to the Cathedral of Santa Maria). DNA studies of the remains have shown that with a high degree of probability they belong to Columbus.
If you think about it, Columbus was dying an unfortunate man: he failed to reach the shores of fabulously rich India, and this was precisely the navigator's secret dream. He did not even understand what he had discovered, and the continents that he saw for the first time received the name of another person - (Italian: Amerigo Vespucci), who simply extended the paths blazed by the great Genoese. In fact, Columbus achieved a lot, and at the same time achieved nothing - this is his life tragedy.
Curious facts
- Almost ³⁄4 of Christopher Columbus' life was spent on voyages;
- The last words spoken by the navigator before his death were the following: In your hands, Lord, I entrust my spirit ...;
- After all these discoveries, the world entered the Age of Discovery. Poor, hungry, constantly fighting for resources in Europe, the discoveries of the famous discoverer gave an influx of a huge amount of gold and silver - the center of civilization moved there from the East and Europe began to develop rapidly;
- How difficult it was for Columbus to organize the first expedition, so easily subsequently all countries rushed to send their ships on long voyages - this is the main historical merit of the great navigator, who gave a powerful impetus to studying and changing the world!
- The name of Christopher Columbus has forever remained inscribed in the history and geography of all continents and most countries of the world. In addition to cities, streets, squares, numerous monuments and even an asteroid, the highest mountain in, a federal district and a river in the USA, provinces in Canada and Panama, one of the departments in Honduras, countless mountains, rivers, waterfalls are named after the famous navigator , parks and many other geographical objects.
Christopher Columbus
(autumn 1451, Republic of Genoa - May 20, 1506, Valladolid, Spain) - Spanish navigator of Italian origin, who in 1492 discovered America for Europeans.
Columbus was the first reliably known traveler to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical and tropical zone of the northern hemisphere and the first European to walk in the Caribbean. He initiated the exploration of South and Central America. He discovered all the Greater Antilles - the central part of the Bahamas, the Lesser Antilles, as well as a number of small islands in the Caribbean and the island of Trinidad off the coast of South America. Columbus can be called the discoverer of America with reservations, because back in the Middle Ages, Europeans represented by the Icelandic Vikings visited North America. Since there was no information about these campaigns outside Scandinavia, it was the Columbus expeditions that first made information about the lands in the west public and laid the foundation for the colonization of America by Europeans.
Columbus made 4 voyages to America:
First voyage (August 2, 1492 - March 15, 1493).
Second voyage (September 25, 1493 - June 11, 1496).
Third voyage (May 30, 1498 - November 25, 1500).
Fourth voyage (May 9, 1502 - November 1504).
Biography
Christopher Columbus- Navigator, Viceroy of the "Indies" (1492), discoverer of the Sargasso Sea and the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas and the Antilles, part of the northern coast of South America and the Caribbean coastline of Central America.
In 1492-1493, Columbus led a Spanish expedition to find the shortest sea route to India; on 3 caravels ("Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina") crossed the Atlantic Ocean, discovered the Sargasso Sea and reached Samana Island on October 12, 1492, later - the ancient Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti. In subsequent expeditions (1493-1496, 1498-1500, 1502-1504) he discovered the Greater Antilles, part of the Lesser Antilles and the coasts of South and Central America and the Caribbean Sea.
Christopher Columbus was born in the autumn of 1451 in Genoa, Genoese by origin. He was above average height, strong and well built. Reddish in his youth, his hair turned gray early, which made him look older than his years. On an oblong, wrinkled and weather-beaten face with a beard, lively blue eyes and an aquiline nose stood out. He was distinguished by faith in divine providence and omens, and at the same time rare practicality, morbid pride and suspicion, and a passion for gold. He had a sharp mind, the gift of persuasion and versatile knowledge. Christopher Columbus was married twice and had two sons from these marriages. 
Christopher Columbus spent three quarters of his life on the voyage. Among the great figures of world civilization, few can compare with Columbus in the number of publications devoted to his life, and at the same time in the abundance of "blank spots" in his biography. More or less confidently, it can be argued that he was a Genoese by origin and around 1465 he entered the Genoese fleet, after some time he was seriously wounded. Until 1485, Christopher sailed on Portuguese ships, lived in Lisbon and on the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo, engaged in trade, mapping and self-education. It is not clear when and where he drafted the western, in his opinion, the shortest sea route from Europe to India; the project was based on the ancient doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth and on the incorrect calculations of scientists of the 15th century. In 1485, after the refusal of the Portuguese king to support this project, Columbus moved to Castile, where, with the help of Andalusian merchants and bankers, he organized a government sea expedition under his command. 
The first expedition of Christopher Columbus 1492-1493 consisting of 90 people on three ships - "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina" - left Palos on August 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea, and reached an island in the Bahamas the archipelago named San Salvador by the traveler, where Columbus landed on October 12, 1492. For a long time, Watling Island was considered San Salvador. However, our contemporary American geographer J. Judge in 1986 processed all the collected materials on a computer and came to the conclusion that the first American land seen by Columbus was the island of Samana. On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5, he discovered part of the northeast coast of Cuba. December 6 reached the island of Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on a reef, but the crew escaped. For the first time in the history of navigation, on the orders of Columbus, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor bunks. Columbus returned to Castile on the Nina on March 15, 1499. The political resonance of the voyage of H. Columbus was the "papal meridian": the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the discovery of new lands by competing Spain and Portugal.
Second expedition (1493-96), which was headed by Admiral Columbus, in the position of Viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On November 3-15, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and about 20 Lesser Antilles, on November 19, the island of Puerto Rico. In March 1494, in search of gold, he made a military campaign deep into the island of Haiti, in the summer he discovered the southeastern and southern coasts of Cuba, the islands of Youth and Jamaica.
For 40 days, Columbus explored the southern coast of Haiti, the conquest of which continued in 1495. But in the spring of 1496 he sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile. Columbus announced the discovery of a new route to Asia. The colonization of new lands by free settlers, which began soon, was very expensive for the Spanish crown, and Columbus proposed to populate the islands with criminals, halving their sentence. With fire and sword, plundering and destroying the country of ancient culture, the military detachments of Cortes passed through the land of the Aztecs - Mexico, and the detachments of Pizarro marched through the land of the Incas - Peru. 
Third expedition of Columbus (1498-1500) consisted of six ships, three of which he himself led across the Atlantic. On July 31, 1498, the island of Trinidad was discovered, entered the Gulf of Paria, discovered the mouth of the western arm of the Orinoco Delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Having entered the Caribbean Sea, he approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered the island of Margarita on August 15 and arrived in Haiti on August 31. In 1500, upon a denunciation of Christopher Columbus, he was arrested and shackled (which he then kept all his life) was sent to Castile, where he was expected to be released. Having obtained permission to continue searching for a western route to India, Columbus on four ships (fourth expedition, 1502-1504) reached the island of Martinique on June 15, 1502, on July 30 - the Gulf of Honduras, where he first met representatives of the ancient Mayan civilization, but did not attach any importance to this. From August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503, he discovered 2,000 km of the Caribbean coast of Central America (up to the Gulf of Uraba). Unable to find a passage to the west, he turned north and on June 25, 1503, was wrecked off the coast of Jamaica. Help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504, already seriously ill. 
last years of life
Illness, fruitless and painful negotiations with the king about the restoration of rights, lack of money undermined the last forces of Columbus, and on May 20, 1506 he died in Valladolid. His discoveries were accompanied by the colonization of lands, the foundation of Spanish settlements, the brutal enslavement and mass extermination of the indigenous population called "Indians" by the conquistadors. Christopher Columbus was not the discoverer of America: the islands and coast of North America were visited by the Normans hundreds of years before him. However, only the discoveries of Columbus were of world-historical significance. The fact that he found a new part of the world was finally proved by the voyage of Magellan. The name of Columbus is carried by: a state in South America, a province of Canada, a federal district and a river in the USA, the capital of Sri Lanka, as well as many rivers, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, capes, cities, parks, squares, streets and bridges in different countries.
Truth and fiction in the biography of Christopher Columbus
Columbus was born into a poor family. Indeed, his family was not rich, but this did not prevent Columbus from getting a good education - according to some sources, he graduated from the University of Pavia. The marriage to Dona Felipe Moniz de Palestrello most likely played a significant role, since her father was a famous navigator of the time of Prince Enrique.
The traveler who gave the world the New World died without knowing that he had found the wrong continent he was looking for. In those days, there was an assumption that in order to get to India, China or Japan it is necessary to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The entire expedition of Columbus was organized precisely to open a new direct route to the Far East. The geographer Paolo Toscanelli calculated that it would take 5,600 km to reach the shore, which coincided with Columbus' calculations. As a result, having discovered the New World during his first trip, Columbus believed to the last that he had landed on the border with China. 
Columbus did not equip his first expedition for long. This is wrong. Quite a lot of time had passed from the moment he conceived the expedition to its equipment. Until 1485, Columbus served on the Genoese and Portuguese ships, visited Ireland, England, and Madeira. At this time, in addition to trading, he was intensively engaged in self-education. He conducted extensive correspondence with famous scientists and cartographers of that time, compiled maps, studied shipping routes. Most likely, it was in those years that the idea came to him to get to India by the western route. Presumably in the period from 1475-1480. (no exact data) he sent the first proposal to the merchants and the government of Genoa. He had to write many more such letters, for about 10 years he received only refusals. Moreover, having been wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he tried for a long time to persuade the Portuguese king, and only after a few lost years he went to Spain. As a result, he was able to go on his first expedition only in 1492, thanks to the support of the Spanish Queen Isabella. 
The return of Columbus from the first expedition exacerbated the political situation. When Columbus returned in 1493, discovering new lands, this message stirred the minds and aggravated the situation between Spain and Portugal. Until that time, Portugal was the main discoverer of all new routes to Africa. She was granted all the lands south of the Canary Islands. But the Spanish king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were not going to give Spain the rights to the newly discovered lands, in connection with which they turned to Pope Alexander VI. The Pope decided that 600 km west of the Azores, a vertical line (the so-called papal meridian) should be drawn on the map, to the east of which all the lands would belong to Portugal, and to the west - to Spain. However, the Portuguese king did not agree with this decision, since in this case the Portuguese ships could not sail south and east without entering Spanish territory. As a result, the Spaniards made concessions and moved the vertical line 1600 km to the west. Spain could not even imagine how fatal this decision would be. Literally 7 years later, in 1500, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral, sailing to India, stumbled upon land that was not marked on the map. As it turned out, the line drawn on the map cut off this piece in favor of Portugal, which immediately laid claim to its rights. As a result, even before America was recognized as a new continent, the future Brazil became part of Portugal. 
Thanks to Columbus, the locals began to be called Indians. Columbus was looking for India and when he reached the Bahamas, he was completely sure that he had found it. Therefore, he began to call the locals Indians. This name has stuck with the indigenous people to this day.
Columbus managed to equip the second expedition thanks to boasting. Nobody can confirm this for sure. But it is known that upon his return to Barcelona, Columbus really boasted of his achievements. Moreover, he repeatedly demonstrated gold jewelry obtained from local tribes, while talking about the riches of Indian land. His vanity sometimes lifted him so high that he began to talk about future negotiations with the Great Khan. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the king and queen of Spain could succumb to the speeches of Columbus. In any case, they very quickly, with the support of the Pope, organized a second expedition (from 1493 to 1496).
Columbus was a pirate. This is a controversial proposition. However, there are some facts that characterize not his best features. In his reports from the second expedition, he asks to send ships from Spain with cattle, supplies, and tools. Further, he writes: "Payment ... can be made by slaves from among the cannibals, cruel people ... well-built and very smart." This means that he caught local residents for Spain as slaves. In fact, all his activities in the new lands were reduced to robbery and robbery, which is characteristic of pirates, although it cannot be denied that this may be a consequence of the upbringing of the era. Of course, you can blame Columbus for all the further troubles of the American continent, but this is unlikely to be fair. No one is required to answer for the sins of others. 
Columbus had a monopoly on all open land. Indeed, upon arrival from the first expedition, Columbus (Donn Christoval Colon) was given the title of admiral of the sea - ocean, vice - king and governor of the islands discovered in India. His monopoly was unquestionable, until, after the second expedition, it turned out that the new territories were too vast and one person was not able to rule them. In 1499, the kings abolished Columbus' monopoly on the discovery of new lands. This was primarily due to the fact that in 1498 the Portuguese Vasco da Gama sailed by sea to real India and began trade relations with it. Against the background of his achievements, Columbus, with his complicated situation, small profits to the treasury and conflicts in new territories, seemed like a liar. In an instant, he lost all the privileges he had won.
Christopher Columbus gloriously completed all three of his expeditions. The first expedition brought fame to Columbus. The second, for which 17 ships were allocated, brought doubts about the wealth of open lands. The third expedition was fatal for Columbus. During it, he lost all rights to the land. Francisco Bobadilla, sent to Hispaniola with unlimited powers, arrested the admiral and his brothers Bartalomeo and Diego. They were shackled. Columbus was shackled by his own chef. They were imprisoned in Sandoming Fortress. Columbus was accused of "cruelty and inability to govern the country." Two months later they were sent to Spain in shackles. Only two years later, the kings dropped the charges against Columbus. He was granted 2,000 gold pieces, but the promise given to him to return his property and money was not fulfilled.
Christopher Columbus was buried with honors. From the fourth expedition, Columbus returned seriously ill. He still hoped to defend his rights, but with the death of his patroness, Queen Isabella, this hope faded. At the end of his life he needed money. In 1505, an order was given to sell all movable and immovable property of Columbus in Hispaniola to pay off creditors. On May 20, 1506, the great navigator died. Nobody noticed his death. His discoveries were almost forgotten against the backdrop of the conquests of the Portuguese. His death was recorded only after 27 years. At the end of his life, all his dreams of wealth, gold and honors were completely destroyed ...
On August 3, 1492, the first expedition of the navigator Christopher Columbus began, discovering new lands for Europeans.
Born in Genoa, Columbus became a sailor at an early age, sailing the Mediterranean in merchant ships. Then he settled in Portugal. Under the Portuguese flag, he sailed north to England and Ireland, sailed along the west coast of Africa to the Portuguese trading post of São Jorge da Mina (modern Ghana). He was engaged in trade, mapping and self-education. During this period, Columbus had the idea to reach India by a westerly route across the Atlantic Ocean.
At that time, many Western European countries were looking for sea routes to the countries of South and East Asia, which were then united under the common name "India". From these countries, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, expensive silk fabrics came to Europe. Merchants from Europe could not penetrate the countries of Asia by land, as the Turkish conquests cut off traditional merchant ties with the East through the Mediterranean. They were forced to purchase Asian goods from Arab merchants. Therefore, the Europeans were interested in finding a sea route to Asia, which would allow them to acquire Asian goods without intermediaries. In the 1480s, the Portuguese tried to sail around Africa to penetrate the Indian Ocean into India.
Columbus also suggested that Asia can be reached by moving west across the Atlantic Ocean. His theory was based on the ancient doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth and the incorrect calculations of scientists of the 15th century, who considered the globe to be much smaller in size, and also underestimated the real length of the Atlantic Ocean from west to east.
Between 1483 and 1484, Columbus tried to interest the Portuguese king João II with his plan for an expedition to Asia by a western route. The monarch submitted his project for examination to the scientists of the "Mathematical Junta" (Lisbon Academy of Astronomy and Mathematics). Columbus's calculations were deemed "fantastic" by experts, and Columbus was turned down by the king.
Having received no support, in 1485 Columbus went to Spain. There, in early 1486, he was introduced to the royal court and received an audience with the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. The royal couple became interested in the project of a western route to Asia. A special commission was created to consider it, which issued an unfavorable conclusion in the summer of 1487, but the Spanish monarchs postponed the decision to organize an expedition until the end of the war they waged with the Emirate of Granada (the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula).
In the autumn of 1488, Columbus visited Portugal, where he re-proposed his project to Juan II, but was again refused and returned to Spain.
In 1489, he tried unsuccessfully to interest the regent of France, Anne de Baeuze, and two Spanish dukes with the idea of sailing west.
In January 1492, unable to withstand a long siege by the Spanish troops, Granada fell. After lengthy negotiations, the Spanish monarchs, overriding the objections of their advisers, agreed to subsidize Columbus's expedition.
On April 17, 1492, the royal couple entered into an agreement (“surrender”) with him in Santa Fe, granting him a noble rank, the titles of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean, Viceroy and Governor-General of all the islands and continents that he opens. The rank of admiral gave Columbus the right to decide in disputes arising in matters of trade, the position of viceroy made him the personal representative of the monarch, and the position of governor general provided the highest civil and military authority. Columbus was given the right to receive a tenth of everything found in the new lands and an eighth of the profits from trading in foreign goods.
The Spanish crown undertook to finance most of the expenses of the expedition. Part of the funds for it was given to the navigator by Italian merchants and financiers.
He called the island San Salvador (St. Savior), and its inhabitants - Indians, believing that he was off the coast of India.
However, the discussion about the first landing site of Columbus is still ongoing. For a long time (1940-1982), Watling Island was considered San Salvador. In 1986, the American geographer George Judge processed all the collected materials on a computer and came to the conclusion that the first American land seen by Columbus was Samana Island (120 km southeast of Watling).
On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamas. Having learned from the natives about the existence of a rich island in the south, the ships left the Bahamas on October 24 and sailed further to the southwest. On October 28, Columbus landed on the northeast coast of Cuba, which he named "Juana". After that, the Spaniards, inspired by the stories of the natives, spent a month looking for the golden island of Baneque (modern Great Inagua).
On November 21, the captain of the Pinta, Martin Pinson, took his ship away, deciding to search for this island on his own. Having lost hope of finding Baneke, Columbus turned east with the two remaining ships and on December 5 reached the northwestern tip of the island of Bohio (modern Haiti), which he named Hispaniola ("Spanish"). Moving along the northern coast of Hispaniola, on December 25 the expedition approached the Holy Cape (modern Cap Haitien), where the Santa Maria ran aground and sank, but the crew escaped. With the help of local residents, guns, supplies and valuable cargo were removed from the ship. A fort was built from the wreckage of the ship - the first European settlement in America, named on the occasion of the Christmas holiday "Navidad" ("Christmas City").
The loss of the ship forced Columbus to leave part of the team (39 people) in the founded settlement and set off on the Nina on the way back. For the first time in the history of navigation, on his orders, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor bunks. To prove that he had reached a part of the world previously unknown to Europeans, Columbus took with him seven captive inhabitants of the islands, outlandish bird feathers and the fruits of plants unseen in Europe. Having visited the open islands, the Spaniards first saw corn, tobacco, potatoes.
On January 4, 1493, Columbus put to sea on the Nina and sailed east along the northern coast of Hispaniola. Two days later he met "Pint". On January 16, both ships headed northeast, taking advantage of the favorable current - the Gulf Stream. On February 12, a storm arose, and on the night of February 14, the ships lost sight of each other. At dawn on February 15, the sailors saw the land, and Columbus determined that he was off the Azores. February 18 "Nina" managed to land on the coast of one of the islands - Santa Maria.
February 24 "Nina" left the Azores. Two days later, she again fell into a storm, which washed her on the coast of Portugal on March 4. March 9 "Nina" anchored in the port of Lisbon. The crew needed a break, and the ship needed repairs. King Juan II gave Columbus an audience at which the navigator informed him of the discovery of a western route to India. March 13 "Nina" was able to sail for Spain. March 15, 1493, on the 225th day of sailing, the ship returned to the Spanish port of Palos. On the same day, "Pinta" also came there.
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile gave Columbus a solemn reception and, in addition to the previously promised privileges, gave him permission for a new expedition.
During the first journey, Columbus discovered America, which he took for East Asia and called the West Indies. Europeans first set foot on the islands of the Caribbean - Juan (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Haiti). As a result of the expedition, the width of the Atlantic Ocean became reliably known, the Sargasso Sea was discovered, the flow of ocean water from west to east was established, and for the first time an incomprehensible behavior of the magnetic needle of the compass was noted. The political resonance of Columbus's voyage was the "papal meridian": the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the discovery of new lands by competing Spain and Portugal.
In 1493-1504, Columbus made three more voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, as a result of which he discovered part of the Lesser Antilles, the coast of South and Central America. The navigator died in 1506, being fully convinced that the lands he had discovered were part of the Asian mainland, and not a new continent.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Christopher Columbus is a medieval navigator who discovered the Sargasso and Caribbean seas, the Antilles, the Bahamas and the American continent for Europeans, the first famous traveler to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
According to various sources, Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, in what is now Corsica. Six Italian and Spanish cities claim the right to be called his homeland. Almost nothing is reliably known about the childhood and youth of the navigator, and the origin of the Columbus family is just as vague.
Some researchers call Columbus an Italian, others believe that his parents were baptized Jews, Marranos. This assumption explains the incredible level of education at that time that Christopher, who came from a family of an ordinary weaver and a housewife, received.
According to some historians and biographers, Columbus studied at home until the age of 14, while he had brilliant knowledge in mathematics, knew several languages, including Latin. The boy had three younger brothers and a sister, all of whom were taught by visiting teachers. One of the brothers, Giovanni, died in childhood, sister Bianchella grew up and married, and Bartolomeo and Giacomo accompanied Columbus on his wanderings.
Most likely, Columbus was given all possible assistance by fellow believers, rich Genoese financiers from the Marranos. With their help, a young man from a poor family got into the University of Padua.
Being an educated person, Columbus was familiar with the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers and thinkers, who depicted the Earth as a ball, and not a flat pancake, as was believed in the Middle Ages. However, such thoughts, like the Jewish origin during the Inquisition, which raged in Europe, had to be carefully hidden.
At the university, Columbus became friends with students and teachers. One of his close friends was the astronomer Toscanelli. According to his calculations, it turned out that to the cherished India, full of untold riches, it was much closer to sail in a westerly direction, and not in an eastern one, skirting Africa. Later, Christopher made his own calculations, which, being incorrect, confirmed Toscanelli's hypothesis. Thus was born the dream of a western journey, and Columbus devoted his whole life to it.
Even before entering the university, at the age of fourteen, Christopher Columbus experienced the hardships of sea travel. The father arranged for his son to work on one of the trading schooners to learn the art of navigation, trade skills, and from that moment the biography of Columbus the navigator started.
Columbus made his first voyages as a cabin boy in the Mediterranean Sea, where trade and economic routes between Europe and Asia intersected. At the same time, European merchants knew about the riches and gold placers of Asia and India from the words of the Arabs, who resold them wonderful silks and spices from these countries.
The young man listened to extraordinary stories from the mouths of eastern merchants and was inflamed with a dream to reach the shores of India in order to find her treasures and get rich.
Expeditions
In the 70s of the 15th century, Columbus married Felipe Moniz from a wealthy Italo-Portuguese family. The father-in-law of Christopher, who settled in Lisbon and sailed under the Portuguese flag, was also a navigator. After his death, he left sea charts, diaries and other documents that were inherited by Columbus. According to them, the traveler continued to study geography, at the same time studying the works of Piccolomini, Pierre de Ailly,.
Christopher Columbus took part in the so-called northern expedition, in which his path passed through the British Isles and Iceland. Presumably, there the navigator heard the Scandinavian sagas and stories about the Vikings, Erik the Red and Leyve Eriksson, who reached the coast of the "Great Land", having crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
The route that made it possible to get to India by the western route was compiled by Columbus in 1475. He presented an ambitious plan to conquer the new land to the court of the Genoese merchants, but did not meet with support.
A few years later, in 1483, Christopher made a similar proposal to the Portuguese king João II. The king assembled a scientific council, which reviewed the Genoese project and found his calculations incorrect. Frustrated, but resilient, Columbus left Portugal and moved to Castile.
In 1485, the navigator requested an audience with the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile. The couple received him favorably, listened to Columbus, who tempted them with the treasures of India, and, just like the Portuguese ruler, convened scientists for advice. The commission did not support the navigator, since the possibility of a western path implied the sphericity of the Earth, which was contrary to the teachings of the church. Columbus was almost declared a heretic, but the king and queen had mercy and decided to postpone the final decision until the end of the war with the Moors.
Columbus, who was driven not so much by a thirst for discovery as by a desire to get rich, carefully hiding the details of the planned trip, sent messages to the English and French monarchs. Charles and Henry did not answer the letters, being too busy with domestic politics, but the Portuguese king sent an invitation to the navigator to continue discussing the expedition.
When Christopher announced this in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to equip a squadron of ships to search for a western route to India, although the impoverished Spanish treasury had no funds for this enterprise. The monarchs promised Columbus a title of nobility, the title of admiral and viceroy of all the lands that he had to discover, and he had to borrow money from Andalusian bankers and merchants.
Four Expeditions of Columbus
- The first expedition of Christopher Columbus took place in 1492-1493. On three ships, the caravels "Pinta" (the property of Martin Alonso Pinson) and "Nina" and the four-masted sailing ship "Santa Maria", the navigator passed through the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea along the way, and reached the Bahamas. On October 12, 1492, Columbus set foot on the island of Saman, which he named San Salvador. This date is considered the day of the discovery of America.
- The second expedition of Columbus took place in 1493-1496. In this campaign, the Lesser Antilles, Dominica, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica were discovered.
- The third expedition refers to the period from 1498 to 1500. A flotilla of six ships reached the islands of Trinidad and Margarita, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America, and ended in Haiti.
- During the fourth expedition, Christopher Columbus sailed to Martinique, visited the Gulf of Honduras and explored the coast of Central America along the Caribbean Sea.
Discovery of America
The process of discovering the New World dragged on for many years. The most amazing thing is that Columbus, being a convinced discoverer and an experienced navigator, believed until the end of his days that he had opened the way to Asia. He considered the Bahamas, discovered in the first expedition, to be part of Japan, after which wonderful China was to open, and after it, the cherished India.
What did Columbus discover and why did the new continent get the name of another traveler? The list of discoveries made by the great traveler and navigator includes San Salvador, Cuba and Haiti, belonging to the Bahamas, the Sargasso Sea.
Seventeen ships, led by the flagship Maria Galante, went on the second expedition. This type of ship with a displacement of two hundred tons and other ships carried not only sailors, but also colonialists, livestock, and supplies. All this time, Columbus was convinced that he had discovered the Western Indies. At the same time, the Antilles, Dominica and Guadeloupe were discovered.
The third expedition brought the ships of Columbus to the continent, but the navigator was disappointed: he never found India with its gold placers. From this journey, Columbus returned in shackles, accused of a false denunciation. Before entering the port, the fetters were removed from him, but the navigator lost the promised titles and titles.
The last journey of Christopher Columbus ended with a crash off the coast of Jamaica and a serious illness of the leader of the campaign. He returned home sick, unhappy and broken by failures. Amerigo Vespucci was a close associate and follower of Columbus, who undertook four voyages to the New World. A whole continent is named after him, and one country in South America is named after Columbus, who never reached India.
Personal life
According to the biographers of Christopher Columbus, the first of whom was his own son, the navigator was married twice. The first marriage with Felipe Moniz was legal. The wife gave birth to a son, Diego. In 1488 Columbus had a second son, Fernando, from a relationship with a woman named Beatriz Henriques de Arana.
The navigator equally took care of both sons, and even took the youngest with him on an expedition when the boy was thirteen years old. Fernando was the first to write a biography of the famous traveler.
Christopher Columbus with his wife Felipe Moniz Subsequently, both sons of Columbus became influential people and took high positions. Diego was the fourth Viceroy of New Spain and Admiral of the Indies, and his descendants were titled Marquesses of Jamaica and Dukes of Veragua.
Fernando Columbus, who became a writer and scientist, enjoyed the favor of the Spanish emperor, lived in a marble palace and had an annual income of up to 200,000 francs. These titles and wealth went to the descendants of Columbus in recognition of his services to the crown by the Spanish monarchs.
Death
After the discovery of America from the last expedition, Columbus returned to Spain a terminally ill, aged man. In 1506, the discoverer of the New World died in poverty in a small house in Valladolid. Columbus used his savings to pay the debts of the members of the last expedition.
Tomb of Christopher Columbus Soon after the death of Christopher Columbus, the first ships began to arrive from America, loaded with gold, which the navigator so dreamed of. Many historians agree that Columbus knew that he had discovered not Asia or India, but a new, unexplored continent, but did not want to share glory and treasures with anyone, to which there was one step left.
The appearance of the enterprising discoverer of America is known from photos in history books. Several films have been made about Columbus, the last film being co-produced by France, England, Spain and the USA “1492: The Conquest of Paradise”. Monuments to this great man were erected in Barcelona and Granada, and his ashes were transported from Seville to Haiti.
The first colonial seizures of new territories are usually associated with the expansion of new lands by the Portuguese. However, the colonial policy of all European states was of the same type and was aimed at extracting profit from the newly developed lands. The Europeans ensured their dominance in the colonial lands with a network of fortified naval bases at the most important strategic points.
Portuguese sailors
It is difficult to overestimate the contribution to the discovery of new lands that was made by representatives of the small European kingdom of Portugal:
Infante (crown prince of the Portuguese crown) Enrique (Henry), later nicknamed the Navigator for having devoted his life to organizing research marine expeditions, although he himself did not participate in these expeditions. It was thanks to his efforts that Madeira (1419) and the Azores (1427) were discovered in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1456, Diogo Gomes reached the shores of the Cape Verde archipelago. In the following decade, several captains in the service of Prince Enrique, including the Genoese Antonio da Noli and the Venetian Aloysius Cada-Mosto, discovered the remaining islands, which had been explored as early as the 15th century. In the 1460s, the Portuguese Pedro de Sintra discovered and in 1461-1462 Pedro de Sintra reached the shores of Sierra Leone and gave their names to many geographical objects. In 1469, the Lisbon merchant Fernand Gomes financed the navigators João de Santarém, Eshcobar of Peru, Lupo Gonzalves, Fernand de Po and Pedro de Sintra. They reached the southern hemisphere and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea, including Sao Tome and Principe in 1471. In 1482, Diogo Kahn discovered the mouth of the Congo River, and in 1486 reached Cape Cross (modern Namibia). In 1488, the expedition of Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southernmost cape of Africa, which they called the "Cape of Storms" (Cape of Good Hope), anchored in Mossel Bay and then headed east to the mouth of the Great Fish River, entering the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic.
At the same time, Peru da Covilhã reached India and Ethiopia. April 25, 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral landed on the coast of Brazil. And in 1510 the Portuguese captured Goa in India, which became the center of the Portuguese colonial empire in the East, the seat of the Viceroy. Then Diu, Daman and Bombay (India), Hormuz (Persian Gulf), Malacca (Malay Peninsula), Macao (China), the Chinese island of Taiwan, the Moluccas and a number of other points were captured. Relying on this network of fortresses, the Portuguese forced the petty feudal lords to give them, in the form of tribute or at minimal prices, all the production of precious spices. Management in cities was built on the model of feudal Portuguese cities, which had the rights of self-government and privileges on the basis of granted charters. Settling on a small coastal territory - in fortresses, port cities, trading posts, the Portuguese created military strongholds for commercial domination in the country, which remained in the power of their former feudal lords.
Spanish sailors
On October 12, 1492, land was discovered and Columbus named the discovered island (in the archipelago of the Bahamas) San Salvador, as he believed he had reached the "West Indies". Columbus also discovered the northeast coast of Cuba (where he landed on October 28) and the north coast of Hispaniola (December 5). Beginning in 1497, a boom in maritime exploration of the western shores of the Atlantic began. This year, the Genoese John Cabot landed on the coast of North America, possibly Newfoundland. In 1499, João Fernandes Lavrador discovered the Labrador Peninsula, which was named after him. Around the same time, in 1499-1502, the brothers Gaspard and Miguel Cortireal explored the coast of Greenland and Newfoundland. The Florentine Amerigo Vespucci (discovered 1502-1504) soon realized that Columbus did not reach the shores of Asia, but discovered a New World for Europeans: America. The name America was first given to the continent in 1507 by cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann.
Voyage of Magellan
The difference between America and Asia was finally confirmed by Ferdinand Magellan, who carried out the first round-the-world voyage (1519-1521), which became practical evidence of the sphericity of the Earth. In 1513-1525, the Spanish conquistadors J. Ponce de Leon, F. Cordova, J. Grijalva discovered the entire eastern coast of South and Central America, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and the Florida peninsula. In 1540-1542 the Spaniards E. Sotoi and F. Coronado traveled to the Southern Appalachians and Southern Rocky Mountains, to the basins of the Colorado and Mississippi rivers.
French colonial conquests
In the second quarter of the 16th century, French navigators also achieved significant success. J. Verrazano (1524) and J. Cartier (1534--1535) discovered the eastern coast of North America and the St. Lawrence River. A French colony was formed, which later acquired the name of the country of Canada.
