Matthias ruete biography of christopher columbus

c. 1451-1506

Who Was Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus was effect Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in loftiness Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new direction to Asia. Instead, he and his crew tidy on an island in present-day Bahamas—claiming it on Spain and mistakenly “discovering” the Americas. Between 1493 and 1504, he made three more voyages advice the Caribbean and South America, believing until top death that he had found a shorter itinerary to Asia. Columbus has been credited—and blamed—for ability up the Americas to European colonization.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Cristoforo Colombo
BORN: c. 1451
DIED: May 20, 1506
BIRTHPLACE: Genova, Italy
SPOUSE: Filipa Perestrelo (c. 1479-1484)
CHILDREN: Diego and Fernando

Where Was Columbus Born?

Christopher Columbus, whose real name was Cristoforo Colombo, was born in 1451 in depiction Republic of Genoa, part of what is these days Italy. He is believed to have been rectitude son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa reprove had four siblings: brothers Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo, and a sister named Bianchinetta. He was break off apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business snowball studied sailing and mapmaking.

In his 20s, City moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled razor-sharp Spain, which remained his home base for nobleness duration of his life.

Keep Reading

First Voyages

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in some trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean extraneous. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest sharptasting would ever come to Asia.

His first voyage smart the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life, as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers fly off the handle the coast of Portugal. His ship was turn, and Columbus had to swim to the European shore.

He made his way to Lisbon, locale he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. Goodness couple had one son, Diego, around 1480. Her highness wife died when Diego was a young schoolboy, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had simple second son, Fernando, who was born out reminiscent 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 respire and west from the Canary Islands.

Columbus’ 1492 Route and Ships

The Asian islands near China predominant India were fabled for their spices and cash, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Muhammedan domination of the trade routes through the Nucleus East made travel eastward difficult.

Columbus devised tidy route to sail west across the Atlantic hitch reach Asia, believing it would be quicker skull safer. He estimated the earth to be tidy sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Many of Columbus’ contemporary nautical experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to be accurate) second-century BCE estimate of the Earth’s circumference at 25,000 miles, which made the actual distance between birth Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles. Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters matching distance, they concurred that a westward voyage disseminate Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.

More Explorers

Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across rendering Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then survive Genoa, and finally to Venice. He was unwanted each time. In 1486, he went to high-mindedness Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile prep added to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was forethought a war with the Muslims, and their naval experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected City.

The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. City continued to lobby the royal court, and in the near future, the Spanish army captured the last Muslim citadel in Granada in January 1492. Shortly thereafter, depiction monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

In complain August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the appear of Palos de la Frontera. He was sailplaning with three ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type of ship known as great carrack), with the Pinta and the Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.

Where Did Columbus Land look 1492?

On October 12, 1492, after 36 days depict sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and a sprinkling crewmen set foot on an island in modern Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.

There, his party encountered a timid but friendly group of populace who were open to trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, extract spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of funds the natives wore for adornment.

Columbus and his other ranks continued their journey, visiting the islands of State (which he thought was mainland China) and Haiti (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Navigator thought might be Japan) and meeting with honourableness leaders of the native population.

During this disgust, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola. With the aid of some islanders, Columbus’ men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de coryza Navidad (“Christmas Town”) with lumber from the tending.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the colony. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he locate sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave span glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was feelingly received by the royal court.

Later Voyages District the Atlantic

In 1493, Columbus took to the unrelated on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hayti, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad post had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred.

Spurning the wishes of the local queen, City established a forced labor policy upon the picking population to rebuild the settlement and explore compel gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great contempt among the native population.

Before returning to Espana, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Giacomo interruption govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed in a word around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing ourselves he had discovered the outer islands of China.

It wasn’t until his third voyage that Columbus really reached the South American mainland, exploring the River River in present-day Venezuela. By this time, friendship at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to say publicly point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they difficult to understand been misled by Columbus’ claims of riches contemporary complaining about the poor management of his brothers.

The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his muscle. He returned to Spain in chains to grapple with the royal court. The charges were later deserted, but Columbus lost his titles as governor lay into the Indies and, for a time, much hold the riches made during his voyages.

Learn Estimated Other Famous Explorers

After convincing King Ferdinand that twofold more voyage would bring the abundant riches employed, Columbus went on his fourth and final passage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1502. This period he traveled along the eastern coast of Inside America in an unsuccessful search for a path to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked tiptoe of his ships, stranding the captain and monarch sailors on the island of Cuba. During that time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards’ wet treatment and obsession with gold, refused to yield them food.

In a spark of inspiration, Navigator consulted an almanac and devised a plan bolster “punish” the islanders by taking away the sputnik attendant. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse terrified the natives enough to re-establish trade with depiction Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent saturate the royal governor of Hispaniola in July, endure Columbus and his men were taken back cling on to Spain in November 1504.

In the two remaining age of his life, Columbus struggled to recover surmount reputation. Although he did regain some of sovereign riches in May 1505, his titles were on no account returned.

How Did Columbus Die?

Columbus probably died read severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain. At the time reproach his death, he still believed he had unconcealed a shorter route to Asia.

There are questions admiration the location of his burial site. According emphasize the BBC, Columbus’ remains moved at least several or four times over the course of Cardinal years—including from Valladolid to Seville, Spain, in 1509; then to Santo Domingo, in what is put in the picture the Dominican Republic, in 1537; then to Havana, Cuba, in 1795; and back to Seville meat 1898. As a result, Seville and Santo Tenor have both laid claim to being Columbus’ reckon burial site. It is also possible his patch up were mixed up with another person’s amid adept of their travels.

Santa Maria Discovery Claim

In Can 2014, Columbus made headlines as news broke walk a team of archaeologists might have found prestige Santa Maria off the north coast of State. Barry Clifford, the leader of this expedition, bass the Independent newspaper that “all geographical, underwater ground and archaeological evidence strongly suggests this wreck decay Columbus’ famous flagship the Santa Maria.”

After a exclusive investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later span and was located too far from shore simulation be the famed ship.

Columbian Exchange: A Set-up Legacy

Columbus has been credited for opening up rectitude Americas to European colonization—as well as blamed dilemma the destruction of the native peoples of decency islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to dredge up that what he set out for: a novel route to Asia and the riches it affianced.

Dive Deeper

In what is known as the Navigator Exchange, Columbus’ expeditions set in motion the extensive transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on authority planet.

The horse from Europe allowed Native Indweller tribes in the Great Plains of North Land to shift from a nomadic to a search lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a main food source for people in illustriousness Americas. Coffee from Africa and sugar cane use up Asia became major cash crops for Latin English countries. And foods from the Americas, such laugh potatoes, tomatoes and corn, became staples for Europeans and helped increase their populations.

The Columbian Move backward also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, conj albeit the effects were greatest in the Americas. Variola from the Old World killed millions, decimating prestige Native American populations to mere fractions of their original numbers. This more than any other benchmark allowed for European domination of the Americas.

The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Exchange went covenant the Europeans initially and eventually to the profit of the world. The Americas were forever paraphrastic, and the once vibrant cultures of the Feral civilizations were changed and lost, denying the earth any complete understanding of their existence.

Columbus Day: Demolish Evolving Holiday

As more Italians began to immigrate to the United States become calm settle in major cities during the 19^th hundred, they were subject to religious and ethnic one-sidedness. This included a mass lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in 1891 in New Orleans.

Just one assemblage after this horrific event, President Benjamin Harrison callinged for the first national observance of Columbus Vacation on October 12, 1892, to mark the 400^th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. Italian-Americans saw this honorary act for Columbus as spiffy tidy up way of gaining acceptance.

Colorado became the first renovate to officially observe Columbus Day in 1906 beam, within five years, 14 other states followed. Offer to a joint resolution of Congress, the short holiday officially became a federal holiday in 1934 over the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1970, Congress declared the holiday would fall on justness second Monday in October each year.

But as Columbus’ legacy—specifically, his exploration’s impacts on Indigenous civilizations—began squalid draw more criticism, more people chose not estimate take part. As of 2023, approximately 29 states no longer celebrate Columbus Day, and around 195 cities have renamed it or replaced with picture alternative Indigenous Peoples Day. The latter isn’t idea official holiday, but the federal government recognized tight observance in 2022 and 2023. President Joe Biden called it “a day in honor of even-handed diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who donate to shaping this nation.”

One of the first notable cities to move away from celebrating Navigator Day in recent years is the state funds of Columbus, Ohio, which is named after character explorer. In 2018, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced rendering city would remain open on Columbus Day illustrious instead celebrate a holiday on Veterans Day. Pound July 2020, the city also removed a 20-plus-foot metal statue of Columbus from the front uphold City Hall.

Quotes

• I went to sea from the maximum tender age and have continued in a the drink life to this day. Whoever gives himself provoke to this art wants to know the secrets of Nature here below. It is more mystify forty years that I have been thus booked. Wherever any one has sailed, there I fake sailed.
• Speaking of myself, little profit had I won from twenty years of service, during which Crazed have served with so great labors and perils, for today I have no roof over ill-defined head in Castile; if I wish to uneasiness or eat, I have no place to which to go, save an inn or tavern, direct most often, I lack the wherewithal to refund the score.
• They say that there is in delay land an infinite amount of gold; and make certain the people wear corals on their heads put forward very large bracelets of coral on their limbs and arms; and that with coral they beautify and inlay chairs and chests and tables.
• This isle and all the others are very fertile estimate a limitless degree, and this island is to some extent so. In it there are many harbors bewildering the coast of the sea, beyond comparison form a junction with others that I know in Christendom, and multitudinous rivers, good and large, which is marvelous.
• Our Powerful God has shown me the highest favor, which, since David, he has not shown to anybody.
• Already the road is opened to gold and beads, and it may surely be hoped that dearest stones, spices, and a thousand other things, option also be found.
• I have now seen so often irregularity, that I have come to another exhaust respecting the earth, namely, that it is crowd round as they describe, but of the crumb of a pear.
• In all the countries visited stomach-turning your Highnesses’ ships, I have caused a towering cross to be fixed upon every headland innermost have proclaimed, to every nation that I conspiracy discovered, the lofty estate of your Highnesses captain of your court in Spain.
• I ought to befit judged as a captain sent from Spain prefer the Indies, to conquer a nation numerous explode warlike, with customs and religions altogether different union ours.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and candor. If you see something that doesn’t look sunny, contact us!