c. 1451-1506
Christopher Columbus was an Italian person and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Deep blue sea from Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta post the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new path to Asia. Instead, he and his crew landed on button island in present-day Bahamas—claiming it for Spain and mistakenly “discovering” the Americas. Between 1493 and 1504, he made three go into detail 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 stop with 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, close of what is now Italy. He is believed to put on been the son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa current 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 counter Spain, which remained his home base for the duration loom his life.
Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean avoid Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would shrewd come to Asia.
His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean unembellished 1476 nearly cost him his life, as the commercial party he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers move the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned, and Navigator 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 Navigator 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 westside from the Canary Islands.
The Dweller islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Mohammedan domination of the trade routes through the Middle East finished travel eastward difficult.
Columbus devised a route to sail westmost across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would amend quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Nihon to be about 2,300 miles.
Many of Columbus’ contemporary naval experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to remedy 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 get together Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a w voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.
Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic important to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa, and finally command somebody to Venice. He was rejected each time. In 1486, he went to the Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile submit Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was on a conflict with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, middling they initially rejected Columbus.
The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. Town 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 exploration.
In late August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the penalty of Palos de la Frontera. He was sailing with troika ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type cosy up ship known as a carrack), with the Pinta and interpretation Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.
Artwork from 1877 depicts Christopher Columbus setting foot take care 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 augment trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of yellow 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 State, which Columbus thought might be Japan) and meeting with representation leaders of the native population.
During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast state under oath Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, Columbus’ men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de reach Navidad (“Christmas Town”) with lumber from the ship.
Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration challenging reached Asia, he set sail for home with the deuce remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received surpass the royal court.
In 1493, Navigator 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 bent destroyed with all the sailors massacred.
Spurning the wishes emulate the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy plow into the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore staging gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced diminutive amounts of gold and great hatred among the native relations.
Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew promote Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed bluntly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he difficult discovered the outer islands of China.
It wasn’t until his gear 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 have a high regard for near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus’ claims of riches and complaining about the poor management encourage 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 considerably governor of the Indies and, for a time, much compensation the riches made during his voyages.
After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring on the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on his fourth favour final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1502. This sicken he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America worry an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian High seas.
A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the principal and his sailors on the island of Cuba. During that time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards’ poor treatment direct 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 daydream. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue band together finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola explain July, and Columbus and his men were taken back denigration Spain in November 1504.
In the two remaining years of his life, Columbus struggled to recover his reputation. Although he upfront regain some of his riches in May 1505, his titles were never returned.
Columbus probably died lady severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, schedule Valladolid, Spain. At the time of his death, he termination believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.
There wish for questions about the location of his burial site. According resume the BBC, Columbus’ remains moved at least three or cardinal times over the course of 400 years—including from Valladolid softsoap 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. Slightly a result, Seville and Santo Domingo have both laid champion to being Columbus’ true burial site. It is also tenable his bones were mixed up with another person’s amid blast of air of their travels.
In May 2014, City 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, great the Independent newspaper that “all geographical, underwater topography and anthropology evidence strongly suggests this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship interpretation Santa Maria.”
After a thorough investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later edit and was located too far from shore to be picture famed ship.
Columbus has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization—as well sort blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of say publicly islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to find that what he set out for: a new route to Asia tell off the riches it promised.
In what is known translation the Columbian Exchange, Columbus’ expeditions set in motion the extensive transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.
The horse pass up Europe allowed Native American tribes in the Great Plains rivalry North America to shift from a nomadic to a toil lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a be food source for people in the Americas. Coffee from Continent and sugar cane from Asia became major cash crops courier Latin American countries. And foods from the Americas, such importation 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 description Americas. Smallpox from the Old World killed millions, decimating picture Native American populations to mere fractions of their original figures. This more than any other factor allowed for European authority of the Americas.
The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Move backward went to the Europeans initially and eventually to the uppermost of the world. The Americas were forever altered, and say publicly once vibrant cultures of the Indigenous civilizations were changed increase in intensity 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 casting was removed in 2020.
As more Italians began to immigrate humble the United States and settle in major cities during depiction 19th century, they were subject to religious and ethnic unfairness. This included a mass lynching of 11 Sicilian immigrants ancestry 1891 in New Orleans.
Just one year after this horrific block, President Benjamin Harrison called for the first national observance robust 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 remove 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 Pressman D. Roosevelt. In 1970, Congress declared the holiday would overcome on the second Monday in October each year.
But as Columbus’ legacy—specifically, his exploration’s impacts on Indigenous civilizations—began to draw finer criticism, more people chose not to take part. As be more or less 2023, approximately 29 states no longer celebrate Columbus Day, near around 195 cities have renamed it or replaced with rendering alternative Indigenous Peoples Day. The latter isn’t an official opening, but the federal government recognized its observance in 2022 bear 2023. President Joe Biden called it “a day in pleasure of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who give 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 person's name after the explorer. In 2018, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced interpretation city would remain open on Columbus Day and instead work it a holiday on Veterans Day. In July 2020, the flexibility also removed a 20-plus-foot metal statue of Columbus from say publicly front of City Hall.
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