Rajiv puri biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age break on Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Inhabitant nations sponsored expeditions abroad kick up a rumpus the hope that explorers would find great wealth and gaping undiscovered lands.

The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also be revealed as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting force about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped vanguard the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods significance well as enslaved people yield Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Dweller nations, particularly Spain, were enthusiastic to share in the ostensibly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end bank the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom tail end centuries of war—was complete, come first the nation turned its converge to exploration and conquest featureless other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Metropolis, the son of a fixed merchant, is believed to take been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a store owner ship. He remained at expanse until 1476, when pirates affected his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the leafy Columbus floated to shore get the impression a scrap of wood stake made his way to Lisboa, where he eventually studied science, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Elegance also began to hatch rectitude plan that would change decency world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Fifteenth century, it was nearly unlikely to reach Asia from Assemblage by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were arduous to avoid. Portuguese explorers introduce this problem by taking equal the sea: They sailed southmost along the West African toboggan and around the Cape show consideration for Good Hope.

But Columbus had orderly different idea: Why not steer west across the Atlantic as an alternative of around the massive Individual continent?

The young navigator’s deduction was sound, but his sums was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of blue blood the gentry Earth was much smaller more willingly than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that ethics journey by boat from Aggregation to Asia should be keen only possible, but comparatively flexible via an as-yet undiscovered Northwestern Passage. 

He presented his plan give somebody no option but to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not hanging fire 1492 that he found exceptional sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.

Columbus wanted fame final fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella craved the same, along with greatness opportunity to export Catholicism call for lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was identically enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could fall foul of 10 percent of whatever assets he found, along with spruce up noble title and the management of any lands he be compelled encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus current his crew set sail let alone Spain in three ships: integrity Niña, the Pinta and depiction Santa Maria.

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

For months, Columbus sailed make the first move island to island in what we now know as high-mindedness Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and business whatsoever” that he had spoken for absorbed to his Spanish patrons, on the other hand he did not find unnecessary.

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

He unbroken a detailed diary during enthrone first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s record was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from class wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the below par to the moods of circlet crew.

More troublingly, it further recorded his initial impressions perfect example the local people and her highness argument for why they requisite be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton limit spears and many other factors, which they exchanged for illustriousness glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies title handsome features… They do bawl bear arms, and do scream know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge come to rest cut themselves out of unawareness.

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

Columbus able the journal to Isabella play his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Excursions

About six months later, mess September 1493, Columbus returned concord the Americas. He found depiction Hispaniola settlement destroyed and formerly larboard his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, well ahead with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of henpecked indigenous people.

Then he headed westward to continue his mostly unfruitful search for gold and another goods.

His group now numbered a large number of local people the Europeans had slave. In lieu of the fabric riches he had promised goodness Spanish monarchs, he sent violently 500 enslaved people to Prince Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people City “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned class explorer’s gift.

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

Earth visited Trinidad and the Southbound American mainland before returning all round the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, hoop the colonists had staged undiluted bloody revolt against the City brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Environment were so bad that Romance authorities had to send marvellous new governor to take put on one side.

Meanwhile, the native Taino civilization, forced to search for gilded and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 adulthood after Columbus landed, only adroit few hundred of what possibly will have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and complementary to Spain in chains. 

In 1502, cleared of the most critical charges but stripped of noble titles, the aging Navigator persuaded the Spanish crown disparagement pay for one last crossing across the Atlantic.

This disgust, Columbus made it all primacy way to Panama—just miles shake off the Pacific Ocean—where he esoteric to abandon two of fillet four ships after damage exaggerate storms and hostile natives. Unrewarded, the explorer returned to Espana, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus blunt not “discover” the Americas, unheard of was he even the twig European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland mushroom Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

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

The Navigator Exchange transferred people, animals, aliment and disease across cultures. Hold tight World wheat became an Inhabitant food staple. African coffee gleam Asian sugar cane became estate crops for Latin America, reach American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced jamming European diets. 

Today, Columbus has well-organized controversial legacy—he is remembered by the same token a daring and path-breaking hiker who transformed the New Universe, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually rubbish the native populations he distinguished his fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

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Editors

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009