10/11/2017 Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo];[a] c. 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer, Christopher navigator, and colonizer. Born in the Republic of Genoa,[3] under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain he completed four Columbus voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages and his efforts to establish settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the permanent European colonization of the New World. At a time when European kingdoms were beginning to establish new trade routes and colonies, motivated by imperialism and economic competition, Columbus proposed to reach the East Indies (South and Southeast Asia) by sailing westward. This eventually received the support of the Spanish Crown, which saw a chance to enter the spice trade with Asia through this new route. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving in Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named San Salvador. Over the course of three more voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast Posthumous portrait of of Venezuela and Central America, claiming all of it for the Crown of Castile. Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo, Columbus is the European explorer credited with establishing and documenting routes to the Americas, though he was preceded by the 1519. There are no known [4][5] Viking expedition led by Leif Erikson in the 11th century. authentic portraits of Moreover, the voyages of Columbus led to the first lasting European [1] contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of exploration, Columbus. conquest, and colonization that lasted several centuries. These voyages thus had an enormous effect on the historical development 1st Governor of the Indies of the modern Western world. He spearheaded the transatlantic slave trade and has been accused by several historians of initiating the In office genocide of the Hispaniola natives. Columbus himself saw his 1492–1499 accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian religion.[6] Appointed by Isabella I of Columbus had set course in hopes of finding a western route to the Castile Indies (Asia). He called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited Succeeded by Francisco de indios (Spanish for "Indians").[7][8][9] His strained relationship with the Spanish crown and its appointed colonial administrators in Bobadilla America led to his arrest and dismissal as governor of the settlements Personal details on the island of Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the benefits that he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by Born Before 31 the crown. October 1451 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus 1/28 10/11/2017 Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia Genoa, Contents Republic of 1 Early life Genoa 2 Quest for Asia 2.1 Background Died 20 May 1506 2.2 Geographical considerations (aged c. 54) 2.3 Nautical considerations 2.4 Quest for financial support for a voyage Valladolid, 2.5 Agreement with the Spanish crown Crown of 3 Voyages 3.1 First voyage Castile 3.2 Second voyage 3.3 Third voyage Resting place Seville 3.4 Fourth voyage Cathedral, 4 Accusations of tyranny 5 Later life Seville, Spain 6 Illness and death Spouse(s) Filipa Moniz 7 Commemoration 8 Legacy Perestrelo 8.1 Discoverer 8.2 Flat Earth mythology Domestic Beatriz 8.3 America as a distinct land partner Enríquez de 8.4 Criticism in modern scholarship 9 Physical appearance Arana 10 See also Children Diego 11 Notes Fernando 12 References 12.1 Bibliography Relatives Brothers: 13 Further reading 14 External links Giovanni Pellegrino Giacomo Early life (also called The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation of the Latin [2] Christophorus Columbus. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Diego) Colombo and, in Spanish, it is Cristóbal Colón.[3] He was born Bartholomew before 31 October 1451 in the territory of the Republic of Genoa (now part of modern Italy), though the exact location remains Sister: disputed.[10][b] His father was Domenico Colombo,[3] a middle-class Bianchinetta wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a Columbus [3] helper. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. Bartolomeo, Occupation Maritime Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo were his brothers. Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus 2/28 10/11/2017 Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia adulthood.[11] He also had a sister named Bianchinetta.[12] Signature Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a Genoese variety of Ligurian (his name would translate in Military service the 16th-century Genoese language as Christoffa[13] Corombo[14] Ligurian pronunciation: [kriˈʃtɔffa kuˈɹuŋbu][15][16]). In one of his Rank Admiral of writings, he says he went to sea at the age of 10. In 1470, the the Ocean Columbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in Sea the service of René of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Some modern historians have argued that he was not from Genoa but, instead, from the Aragon region of Spain[17] or from Portugal.[18] These competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars.[19][20] In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola families of Genoa. Later, he allegedly made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa.[21] In May 1476, he Columbus's handwritten notes in Latin, took part in an armed on the margins of his copy of The convoy sent by Genoa to Christopher Columbus at the gates Travels of Marco Polo carry valuable cargo to of the monastery of Santa María de northern Europe. He docked la Rábida with his son Diego, by Benet Mercadé in Bristol, England[22] and Galway, Ireland. In 1477, he was possibly in Iceland.[3] In the autumn of 1477, he sailed on a Portuguese ship from Galway to Lisbon, where he found his brother Bartolomeo, and they continued trading for the Centurione family. Columbus based himself in Lisbon from 1477 to 1485. He married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, daughter of the Porto Santo governor and Portuguese nobleman of Lombard origin Bartolomeu Perestrello.[23] In 1479 or 1480, his son Diego Columbus was born. Between 1482 and 1485, Columbus traded along the coasts of West Africa, reaching the Portuguese trading post of Elmina at the Guinea coast.[6] Some records report that Filipa died sometime around 1485, while Columbus was away in Castile. He returned to Portugal to settle her estate and take his son Diego with him.[24] He had left Portugal for Castile in 1485, where he found a mistress in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named Beatriz Enríquez de Arana.[25] It is likely that Beatriz met Columbus when he was in Córdoba, a gathering site of many Genoese merchants and where the court of the Catholic monarchs was located at intervals. Beatriz, unmarried at the time, gave birth to Columbus's natural son Fernando Columbus in July 1488, named for the monarch of Aragón. Columbus recognized the boy as his offspring. Columbus entrusted his older, legitimate son Diego to take care of Beatriz and pay the pension set aside for her following his death, but Diego was negligent in his duties.[26] Ambitious, Columbus eventually learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He read widely about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Claudius Ptolemy, Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, Pliny's Natural History, and Pope Pius II's Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum. According to historian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus 3/28 10/11/2017 Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia Edmund Morgan, Columbus was not a scholarly man. Yet he studied these books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them and came out with ideas about the world that were characteristically simple and strong and sometimes wrong, ...[27] Throughout his life, Columbus also showed a keen interest in the Bible and in Biblical prophecies, often quoting biblical texts in his letters and logs. For example, part of the argument that he submitted to the Spanish Catholic Monarchs when he sought their support for his proposed expedition to reach the Indies by sailing west was based on his reading of the Second Book of Esdras (Ezra): see 2 Esdras 6:42 (http://www.biblestudytools.com/tmba/2-esdras/6-42.html), which he took to mean that the Earth is made of six parts of land to one of water. Towards the end of his life, he produced a Book of Prophecies in which his career as an explorer is interpreted in the light of Christian eschatology and of apocalypticism.[11] Quest for Asia Background Under the Mongol Empire's hegemony over Asia (the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol peace), Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage, the Silk Road, to the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) and China, which were sources of valuable goods such as spices and silk. With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the land route to Asia became much more difficult and dangerous. Portuguese navigators tried to find a sea way to Asia. In 1470, the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli suggested to King Afonso V of Portugal that "Columbus map", drawn c.