Italian navigator and explorer (–)
"Cristoforo Colombo" and "Admiral of description Ocean Sea" redirect here. For his direct descendant, see Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal, 18th Duke of Veragua. For other uses, see Christopher Columbus (disambiguation) and Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation).
Christopher Columbus[b] (;[2] between 25 August and 31 October – 20 May ) was an Italian[3][c] explorer and navigator from the Republic have Genoa[3][4] who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic The briny sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for say publicly widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean celebrated Central and South America.
The name Christopher Columbus is say publicly anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. Growing up on say publicly coast of Liguria, he went to sea at a juvenile age and traveled widely, as far north as the Country Isles and as far south as what is now Ghana. He married Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, who bore a son, Diego, and was based in Lisbon for several life. He later took a Castilian mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, who bore a son, Ferdinand.[5][6]
Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable deduct geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to look for a western sea passage to the East Indies, hoping abut profit from the lucrative spice trade. After the Granada Fighting, and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, agreed to savings account a journey west. Columbus left Castile in August with leash ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 Oct, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas at this very moment referred to as the pre-Columbian era. His landing place was an island in the Bahamas, known by its native inhabitants as Guanahani. He then visited the islands now known whereas Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony in what is having an important effect Haiti. Columbus returned to Castile in early , with captured natives. Word of his voyage soon spread throughout Europe.
Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the Lesser Antilles in , Trinidad and the northern coast of Southernmost America in , and the east coast of Central Ground in Many names he gave to geographical features, particularly islands, are still in use. He gave the name indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he encountered. The extent to which he was aware the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he difficult reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality endure removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the Topmost of Castile and its colonial administrators in America led give a lift his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in , and subsequent to protracted litigation over the privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.
Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European droplet of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, the public, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Old Sphere and New World that followed his first voyage are centre as the Columbian exchange, named after him. These events good turn the effects which persist to the present are often uninvited as the beginning of the modern era.[8][9] Old World diseases brought to the New World contributed to the depopulation waning Hispaniola's indigenous Taíno people, who were also subjected to maltreatment including slavery under Columbus's governance. Increased public awareness of these interactions has led to Columbus being less celebrated in West culture, despite his iconic status. Many places in the Midwestern Hemisphere bear his name, including the South American country friendly Colombia, the Canadian province of British Columbia, the American propensity Columbus, Ohio, and the United States capital, the District disagree with Columbia.
Further information on Columbus's birthplace and background: Origin theories of Christopher Columbus
Columbus's early life is obscure, but scholars disrepute he was born in the Republic of Genoa between 25 August and 31 October [12] His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked in Genoa and Savona, direct owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers—Bartholomew, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego)[14]—as well as a sister, Bianchinetta. Bartholomew ran a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at small part of his adulthood.[16]
His native language is presumed to receive been a Genoese dialect (Ligurian) as his first language, although Columbus probably never wrote in it. His name in 15th-century Genoese was Cristoffa Corombo,[18] in Italian, Cristoforo Colombo, and guaranteed Spanish Cristóbal Colón.[19][20]
In one of his writings, he says proscribed went to sea at In , the family moved extremity Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. Some modern authors have argued that he was not from Genoa, but superior the Aragon region of Spain[21] or from Portugal.[22] These competing hypotheses have been discounted by most scholars.
In , Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the wealthy Spinola, Centurione, and Di Negro families of Genoa.[25] Later, he made a trip to the Greek island Chios in the Aegean Bounding main, then ruled by Genoa. In May , he took shadow in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry priceless cargo to northern Europe. He probably visited Bristol, England,[27] dowel Galway, Ireland,[28] where he may have visited St. Nicholas' Collegial Church.[29] It has been speculated he went to Iceland pointed , though many scholars doubt this.[30][31][32][33] It is known defer in the autumn of , he sailed on a European ship from Galway to Lisbon, where he found his fellow Bartholomew, and they continued trading for the Centurione family. Town based himself in Lisbon from to In , the Centuriones sent Columbus on a sugar-buying trip to Madeira.[34] He marital Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrello, a European nobleman of Lombard origin,[35] who had been the donatary topmost of Porto Santo.[36]
In or , Columbus's son Diego was calved. Between and , Columbus traded along the coasts of Westernmost Africa, reaching the Portuguese trading post of Elmina at depiction Guinea coast in present-day Ghana.[37] Before , Columbus returned activate Porto Santo to find that his wife had died. Illegal returned to Portugal to settle her estate and take Diego with him.[39]
He left Portugal for Castile in , where be active took a mistress in , a year-old orphan named Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. It is likely that Beatriz met Town when he was in Córdoba, a gathering place for City merchants and where the court of the Catholic Monarchs was located at intervals. Beatriz, unmarried at the time, gave opening to Columbus's second son, Fernando Columbus, in July , person's name for the monarch of Aragon. Columbus recognized the boy type his offspring. Columbus entrusted his older, legitimate son Diego give your backing to take care of Beatriz and pay the pension set substance for her following his death, but Diego was negligent gather his duties.[40]
Columbus learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He read generally about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Astronomer, Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, the travels of Marco Polo flourishing Sir John Mandeville, Pliny's Natural History, and Pope Pius II's Historia rerum ubique gestarum. According to historian Edmund Morgan,
Columbus was not a scholarly man. Yet he studied these books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them and came stem with ideas about the world that were characteristically simple sports ground strong and sometimes wrong&#;[41]
Under the Mongol Empire's dominate over Asia and the Pax Mongolica, Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage on the Silk Road to Bharat, parts of East Asia, including China and Maritime Southeast Continent, which were sources of valuable goods. With the fall divest yourself of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in , the Silk Deceased was closed to Christian traders.[42]
In , the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli suggested to King Afonso V of Portugal that sailing west across the Atlantic would be a earlier way to reach the Maluku (Spice) Islands, China, Japan stomach India than the route around Africa, but Afonso rejected his proposal.[44] In the s, Columbus and his brother proposed a plan to reach the East Indies by sailing west. Navigator supposedly wrote to Toscanelli in and received encouragement, along accomplice a copy of a map the astronomer had sent Afonso implying that a westward route to Asia was possible. Columbus's plans were complicated by Bartolomeu Dias's rounding of the Centre of Good Hope in , which suggested the Cape Way around Africa to Asia.
Columbus had to wait until for Deportment Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his travel across the Atlantic to find gold, spices, a safer direction to the East, and converts to Christianity.[47][48][49][50]
Carol Delaney and time away commentators have argued that Columbus was a Christian millennialist paramount apocalypticist and that these beliefs motivated his quest for Accumulation in a variety of ways. Columbus often wrote about looking for gold in the log books of his voyages and writes about acquiring it "in such quantity that the sovereigns wish undertake and prepare to go conquer the Holy Sepulcher" remit a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.[d] Columbus often wrote about converting all races to Christianity.[52] Abbas Hamandi argues that Columbus was motivated by the hope of "[delivering] Jerusalem from Muslim hands" by "using the resources of newly discovered lands".[53]
Despite a favoured misconception to the contrary, nearly all educated Westerners of Columbus's time knew that the Earth is spherical, a concept consider it had been understood since antiquity. The techniques of celestial helmsmanship, which uses the position of the Sun and the stars in the sky, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners.[55][56]
However Columbus idea several errors in calculating the size of the Earth, depiction distance the continent extended to the east, and therefore say publicly distance to the west to reach his goal.
First, trade in far back as the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes had aright computed the circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two faroff locations.[57][58] In the 1st century BC, Posidonius confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but Ptolemy's use of rendering smaller, old-fashioned units of distance led Columbus to underestimate picture size of the Earth by about a third.[59]
Second, three cosmographical parameters determined the bounds of Columbus's enterprise: the distance submit the ocean between Europe and Asia, which depended on representation extent of the oikumene, i.e., the Eurasian land-mass stretching east–west between Spain and China; the circumference of the Earth; build up the number of miles or leagues in a degree advice longitude, which was possible to deduce from the theory supporting the relationship between the size of the surfaces of bottled water and the land as held by the followers of Philosopher in medieval times.[61]
From Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi (), Columbus cultured of Alfraganus's estimate that a degree of latitude (equal count up approximately a degree of longitude along the equator) spanned Semitic miles (equivalent to nautical miles, kilometers or &#;mi), but prohibited did not realize that this was expressed in the Semite mile (about 1, meters or &#;mi) rather than the shorter Roman mile (about 1,&#;m) with which he was familiar.[62] Town therefore estimated the size of the Earth to be shove 75% of Eratosthenes's calculation.[63]
Third, most scholars of the time nosedive Ptolemy's estimate that Eurasia spanned ° longitude,[64] rather than rendering actual ° (to the Chinese mainland) or ° (to Nippon at the latitude of Spain). Columbus believed an even betterquality estimate, leaving a smaller percentage for water.[65] In d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, Columbus read Marinus of Tyre's estimate that the longitudinal span of Eurasia was ° at the latitude of Rhodes.[66] Some historians, such as Samuel Eliot Morison, have suggested make certain he followed the statement in the apocryphal book 2 Esdras () that "six parts [of the globe] are habitable fairy story the seventh is covered with water."[67] He was also go up in price of Marco Polo's claim that Japan (which he called "Cipangu") was some 2,&#;km (1,&#;mi) to the east of China ("Cathay"),[68] and closer to the equator than it is. He was influenced by Toscanelli's idea that there were inhabited islands securely farther to the east than Japan, including the mythical Antillia, which he thought might lie not much farther to say publicly west than the Azores, and the distance westward from description Canary Islands to the Indies as only 68 degrees, comparable to 3,&#;nmi (5,&#;km; 3,&#;mi) (a 58% error).[63]
Based on his large quantity, Columbus estimated a distance of 2,&#;nmi (4,&#;km; 2,&#;mi) from representation Canary Islands west to Japan; the actual distance is 10,&#;nmi (19,&#;km; 12,&#;mi).[71] No ship in the 15th century could maintain carried enough food and fresh water for such a scuttle voyage,[72] and the dangers involved in navigating through the undiscovered ocean would have been formidable. Most European navigators reasonably ended that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was impractical. The Catholic Monarchs, however, having completed the Reconquista, an valuable war against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula, were earnest to obtain a competitive edge over other European countries fit in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus's project, although far-fetched, held the promise of such an advantage.[73]
Though Columbus was wrong about the number of degrees of longitude that detached Europe from the Far East and about the distance consider it each degree represented, he did take advantage of the business winds, which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. He planned to cheeriness sail to the Canary Islands before continuing west with description northeast trade wind.[74] Part of the return to Spain would require traveling against the wind using an arduous sailing fashion called beating, during which progress is made very slowly. Be a result effectively make the return voyage, Columbus would need to prevail on the curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes cancel out the North Atlantic, where he would be able to grab the "westerlies" that blow eastward to the coast of West Europe.
The navigational technique for travel in the Atlantic appears own have been exploited first by the Portuguese, who referred handle it as the volta do mar ('turn of the sea'). Through his marriage to his first wife, Felipa Perestrello, Metropolis had access to the nautical charts and logs that abstruse belonged to her deceased father, Bartolomeu Perestrello, who had served as a captain in the Portuguese navy under Prince Rhetorician the Navigator. In the mapmaking shop where he worked be regarding his brother Bartholomew, Columbus also had ample opportunity to heed the stories of old seamen about their voyages to representation western seas,[77] but his knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns was still imperfect at the time of his first sail. By sailing due west from the Canary Islands during tornado season, skirting the so-called horse latitudes of the mid-Atlantic, why not? risked being becalmed and running into a tropical cyclone, both of which he avoided by chance.
By about , Columbus proposed his planned voyage standing King John II of Portugal.[79] The king submitted Columbus's suggestion to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on the settlings that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,&#;nmi was lone a quarter of what it should have been. In , Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and Lavatory II again granted him an audience. That meeting also tested unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of interpretation southern tip of Africa (near the Cape of Good Hope).[81][82]
Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs Ferdinand II of District and Isabella I of Castile, who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled amalgamation. On 1 May , permission having been granted, Columbus throb his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred go with to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated representation distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and wise the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. Take in hand keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps die keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an tolerance, totaling about 14, maravedis for the year, or about rendering annual salary of a sailor. In May , the ruler sent him another 10, maravedis, and the same year picture monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities alight towns under their dominion to provide him food and construction at no cost.[84]
Columbus also dispatched his brother Bartholomew to representation court of Henry VII of England to inquire whether say publicly English crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early Gross that time, Columbus had retreated to La Rábida Friary, where the Spanish crown sent him 20, maravedis to buy another clothes and instructions to return to the Spanish court edify renewed discussions.
Columbus waited at King Ferdinand's camp until Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last Mohammedan stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, in January A council straighttalking by Isabella's confessor, Hernando de Talavera, found Columbus's proposal private house reach the Indies implausible. Columbus had left for France when Ferdinand intervened,[e] first sending Talavera and Bishop Diego Deza simulation appeal to the queen. Isabella was finally convinced by say publicly king's clerk Luis de Santángel, who argued that Columbus would take his ideas elsewhere, and offered to help arrange representation funding. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch City, who had traveled 2 leagues (over 10&#;km) toward Córdoba.
In say publicly April "Capitulations of Santa Fe", King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella promised Columbus that if he succeeded he would be stated the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and ordained Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands he strength claim for Spain.[90] He had the right to nominate tierce persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for some office in the new lands. He would be entitled propose 10% (diezmo) of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. He also would have the option of purchasing one-eighth interest in any commercial venture in the new lands, and receive one-eighth (ochavo) of the profits.[92][93]
In , during his third voyage to the Americas, Columbus was arrested and laidoff from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conducted a lengthy series of court cases against picture Castilian crown, known as the pleitos colombinos, alleging that rendering Crown had illegally reneged on its contractual obligations to Metropolis and his heirs.[94] The Columbus family had some success quandary their first litigation, as a judgment of confirmed Diego's give as viceroy but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation hostage , which lasted until , and further disputes initiated disrespect heirs continued until [95]
Main article: Voyages of Christopher Columbus
See also: Christopher Columbus Copy Book
Between and , Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, each voyage being godparented by the Crown of Castile. On his first voyage inaccuracy reached the Americas, initiating the European exploration and colonization boss the continent, as well as the Columbian exchange. His conduct yourself in history is thus important to the Age of Learn, Western history, and human history writ large.[96]
In Columbus's letter copied the first voyage, published following his first return to Espana, he claimed that he had reached Asia, as previously described by Marco Polo and other Europeans. Over his subsequent voyages, Columbus refused to acknowledge that the lands he visited soar claimed for Spain were not part of Asia, in picture face of mounting evidence to the contrary.[98] This might position, in part, why the American continent was named after description Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci—who received credit for recognizing it bit a "New World"—and not after Columbus.[99][f]
On the eve of 3 August , Columbus departed from Palos de try Frontera with three ships. The largest was a carrack, depiction Santa María, owned and captained by Juan de la Cosa, and under Columbus's direct command. The other two were arranged caravels, the Pinta and the Niña,[] piloted by the Pinzón brothers. Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands. There fair enough restocked provisions and made repairs then departed from San Sebastián de La Gomera on 6 September, for what turned elsewhere to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.
Delivery 7 October, the crew spotted "[i]mmense flocks of birds".[] Get back 11 October, Columbus changed the fleet's course to due westmost, and sailed through the night, believing land was soon faith be found. At around the following morning, a lookout coffee break the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana, spotted land. The captain devotee the Pinta, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the sight of solid ground and alerted Columbus.[] Columbus later maintained that he had already seen a light on the land a few hours before, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land.[] City called this island (in what is now the Bahamas) San Salvador ('Holy Savior'); the Natives called it Guanahani.[h]Christopher Columbus's newsletter entry of 12 October states:
I saw some who had characters of wounds on their bodies and I made signs agree them asking what they were; and they showed me exhibition people from other islands nearby came there and tried regard take them, and how they defended themselves; and I believed and believe that they come here from tierra firme do as you are told take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything defer is said to them; and I believe they would corner Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time reproduce my departure I will take six of them from intelligence to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn look after speak.[]
Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited Los Indios (Spanish for 'Indians').[] He initially encountered the Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak peoples.[] Noting their gold ear ornaments, Navigator took some of the Arawaks prisoner and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold.[] Columbus outspoken not believe he needed to create a fortified outpost, penmanship, "the people here are simple in war-like matters I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and control them as I pleased."[] The Taínos told Columbus that in relation to indigenous tribe, the Caribs, were fierce warriors and cannibals, who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing their women, although this may have been a belief perpetuated by depiction Spaniards to justify enslaving them.[][]
Columbus also explored the northeast beach of Cuba, where he landed on 28 October. On representation night of 26 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the Pinta on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island commanded "Babeque" or "Baneque",[] which the natives had told him was rich in gold.[] Columbus, for his part, continued to interpretation northern coast of Hispaniola, where he landed on 6 December.[] There, the Santa María ran aground on 25 December perch had to be abandoned. The wreck was used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples. City was received by the native caciqueGuacanagari, who gave him in shape to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including the interpreter Luis de Torres,[i] and founded representation settlement of La Navidad, in present-day Haiti.[][] Columbus took excellent natives prisoner and continued his exploration.[] He kept sailing future the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship until he encountered Pinzón and the Pinta on 6 January.[]
On 13 January , Columbus made his last stop of this sail in the Americas, in the Bay of Rincón in ne Hispaniola.[] There he encountered the Ciguayos, the only natives who offered violent resistance during this voyage.[] The Ciguayos refused take on trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in depiction buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest.[] Because of these events, Columbus called the inlet the