biography of christopher columbus

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Christopher Columbus

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not “discover” the so-called New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of exploration and colonization of North and South America.

Christopher Columbus and the Age of Discovery

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions abroad in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “ Age of Discovery ,” also known as “ Age of Exploration .”

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

Did you know? Christopher Columbus was not the first person to propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing west from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea is almost as old as the idea that the Earth is round. (That is, it dates back to early Rome.)

Other European nations, particularly Spain, were eager to share in the seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of the 15th century, Spain’s “ Reconquista ”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom after centuries of war—was complete, and the nation turned its attention to exploration and conquest in other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood and made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Columbus’ Quest for Gold

On Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the Americas, he enslaved the Indigenous people and forced them to mine for gold.

Columbus’ Mutinous Crew

After 60 days and no sign of their destination, Columbus’ doubtful crew wanted to turn back.

How Early Humans First Reached the Americas: 3 Theories

How and when did humans first set foot in North America? Here are three theories.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was sound, but his math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that the journey by boat from Europe to Asia should be not only possible, but comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage . 

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile .

Columbus wanted fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, along with a noble title and the governorship of any lands he should encounter.

Exploration of North America

The Vikings Discover the New World The first attempt by Europeans to colonize the New World occurred around 1000 A.D. when the Vikings sailed from the British Isles to Greenland, established a colony and then moved on to Labrador, the Baffin Islands and finally Newfoundland. There they established a colony named Vineland (meaning fertile region) […]

The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America

Leif Eriksson Day commemorates the Norse explorer believed to have led the first European expedition to North America.

Christopher Columbus Never Set Out to Prove the Earth was Round

Humans have known the earth is round for thousands of years.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Niña , the Pinta and the Santa Maria . On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from island to island in what we now know as the Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had promised to his Spanish patrons, but he did not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions of the local people and his argument for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal to Isabella upon his return.

10 Things You May Not Know About Christopher Columbus

Check out 10 things you may not know about the Genoese explorer who sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

The Ships of Christopher Columbus Were Sleek, Fast—and Cramped

Two of Christopher Columbus’ ships were so small that men had no refuge to sleep and poor food storage led to wormy meals.

Christopher Columbus: How The Explorer’s Legend Grew—and Then Drew Fire

Columbus's famed voyage to the New World was celebrated by Italian‑Americans, in particular, as a pathway to their own acceptance in America.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Columbus returned to the Americas. He found the Hispaniola settlement destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed west to continue his mostly fruitless search for gold and other goods. His group now included a large number of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu of the material riches he had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 enslaved people to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities had to send a new governor to take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for gold and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains.

In 1502, cleared of the most serious charges but stripped of his noble titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown to pay for one last trip across the Atlantic. This time, Columbus made it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two of his four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the explorer returned to Spain, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. African coffee and Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy —he is remembered as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

Ten years after his 1492 voyage, Columbus, awaiting the gallows on criminal charges in a Caribbean prison, plotted a treacherous final voyage to restore his reputation.

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Christopher Columbus

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Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE, also known as Cristoffa Corombo in Ligurian and Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) was a Genoese explorer (identified as Italian) who became famous in his own time as the man who discovered the New World and, since the 19th century CE, is credited with the discovery of North America, specifically the region comprising the United States.

Actually, owing to the early 16th-century CE popularity of the published letters of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci (l. 1454-1512 CE), detailing his three voyages to the “New World” between 1497-1504 CE, the discovery of the Americas has been credited to him on world maps beginning in 1506 CE which is why the continents bear the feminine version of his name.

Columbus made four voyages to the area of the Caribbean, exploring Cuba, Central America, South America, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the islands of the Bahamas, and others between 1492-1504 CE:

• First Voyage: 1492-1493 CE
• Second Voyage: 1493-1496 CE
• Third Voyage: 1498-1500 CE
• Fourth Voyage: 1502-1504 CE

Columbus never set out to discover a New World, but to find a western sea route to the Far East to facilitate trade after the land route of the Silk Road , between Europe and the East, had been closed by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 CE, initiating the so-called Age of Exploration (also known as the Age of Discovery) which launched many European sea expeditions. Columbus' first voyage brought him to one of the islands of the Bahamas on 12 October 1492 CE, which he claimed in the name of the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife Isabella of Castile of Spain. His next three voyages were made to consolidate Spain's control of the region and establish colonies.

Columbus is acknowledged as the first to establish contact between Europe and the Americas known as the Columbian Exchange whereby people, plants, technology, and other aspects of culture passed between the Old and the New World, transforming both and establishing the foundation for the modern age.

Although modern-day detractors of Columbus cite the Norse community in Newfoundland as the first “discovery of America”, the Vikings under Leif Erikson , who landed in North America centuries before Columbus, had no effect on the indigenous population and their return to Greenland afterwards inspired no further expeditions.

Columbus' journeys, by contrast, opened the way for later European expeditions, but he himself never claimed to have discovered America. The story of his “discovery of America” was established and first celebrated in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by the American author Washington Irving (l. 1783-1859 CE) published in 1828 CE and this narrative (largely fictional) would eventually contribute to the establishment of Columbus Day as a United States' holiday in 1906 CE, observed up through the present.

In the 1970s CE, however, a revaluation of Columbus and the effects of his voyages on the culture and people of the Americas has increasingly called for discarding this tradition in favor of honoring the indigenous people adversely affected by the four expeditions he made to the New World and the poor treatment of the original population at the hands of the European immigrants afterwards. This debate continues in the present.

Early Life & the Silk Road Closure

Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451 CE which was then in the region of Liguria and only much later (in 1861 CE) would become part of Italy . He had three brothers – Bartolomeo, Giovanni, and Giacomo (regularly referred to as Diego), and a sister, Bianchinetta. His father, Domenico, was a weaver and tavern-keeper whose love of sea travel would significantly influence young Columbus and his mother, Susanna, a housewife.

Little is known of Columbus' early life (though he claims to have been sailing by age ten) but, by the time he was 20 years old, he was already experienced at seamanship (having traveled to Iceland and the Aegean Sea) and, by 1476 CE, he was entrusted with his own command of a trading vessel. He was married to the Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo and had a son, Diego, by 1480 CE and, by 1485 CE, was piloting ships to areas along the coast of West Africa in the service of Portugal's trade interests.

The Silk Road was comprised of numerous routes, parts of which fell under the control of one group or nationality or another at various times in its history. The European explorer Marco Polo (l. 1254-1324 CE) traveled the Silk Road and dictated details of it in his book after he returned which provided later travelers with a kind of guide and also helped them establish distances between Europe and the East.

The Silk Road was predominantly controlled by the Mongol Empire until its fall in 1368 CE after which the Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE) kept goods flowing in both directions. The Byzantines fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE, however, who then closed the overland routes and cut European merchants off from Eastern goods. In an effort to re-establish trade with the East, European merchants took to the sea, launching the so-called Age of Discovery.

The Age of Discovery & Funding

This is not to say that Europeans had no knowledge of sea travel at this time nor that European merchants suddenly scrambled to build ships or hastily draw inaccurate maps. The magnetic compass was known in Europe by 1180 CE and, using ancient texts such as Strabo's Geography and Pliny the Elder 's Natural History as well as long-established maps, European pilots were able to navigate the waters and continue trade with the East via the Black Sea.

The problem they faced, however, was Muslim Arab traders who controlled a number of significant sea routes to the East. Portuguese mariners began looking into other possible sea routes to the East, and one contributor to this effort was the Florentine astrologer and mathematician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (l. 1397-1482 CE) who had transcribed a map of the world of the ancient geographer Strabo (l. 63 BCE - 23 CE) and presented a copy to King Alfonso V of Portugal (r. 1438-1481 CE), suggesting sailing west in order to reach the Cathay (China) in the East.

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Alfonso V rejected Toscanelli's proposal and so the latter sent the copy of the map to Columbus, who by now had a reputation as an expert navigator and seaman, in 1474 CE. Columbus was still sailing in the interests of Portugal at this time, and he and his brothers were also engaged in working out a sea route to Cathay. Columbus had taught himself Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese and so was able to access a wide range of documents and maps in developing his vision of a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a new trade route with Cathay.

The Columbus brothers put together a plan and, c. 1484 CE, Columbus approached King John II of Portugal (r. 1481-1495 CE) to request funding. Columbus, basing his calculations on Toscanelli's map, Marco Polo's work, and other documents, estimated the distance from the Canary Islands to Cathay at around 2,300 miles (3,700 km), but King John II rejected the plan on the grounds that Columbus' estimate of the distance was too low (which proved to be true, as the distance was actually 12,200 statute miles or 19,600 km). Columbus then brought his proposal to the governments of Genoa and Venice but was rejected by both.

He then turned to Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain who also rejected him but were intrigued enough by his plan that they kept him on retainer, paying him a significant sum to keep him from proposing the expedition to any other government. Ferdinand and Isabella were in the midst of their own problems trying to drive the Muslim Arabs, known as the Moors, from their territory in the effort which has since come to be known as the Reconquista (711-1492 CE). The last stronghold of the Moors at Granada fell in 1492 CE, and, afterwards, Columbus was granted the three ships and funding he had requested.

The Voyages

Columbus left port on 3 August 1492 CE in his famous ships the Nina , Pinta , and Santa Maria . His main objective was reaching Cathay, but it was also made clear that he was to claim any lands not already under a sovereign nation for Spain and to the honor of the Catholic Church. To this end, he was given two official documents:

• A contract between him and the crown promising the monarchy 90% of the profits of the venture in return for funding and stipulating that Columbus was awarded the position of viceroy or governor of any lands he took for the crown.
• A letter of introduction from Ferdinand and Isabella requesting any monarch Columbus came in contact with to provide him safe passage and provision as his mission was in the service of the Christian faith.

First Voyage - 1492-1493 CE : He arrived at an island in the Caribbean on 12 October 1492 CE and was greeted by a large gathering of indigenous people on the beach. He summoned the captains of the Nina and Pinta and rowed to shore along with the secretary of the fleet and the royal inspector. He knew he had not landed at Cathay but believed he had discovered an island near to his objective which, as far as he could tell, was not claimed by any sovereign nation and so he claimed it for Spain, and this was duly noted by his witnesses.

He was given to understand by the natives that their island was called Guanahani, but he named it San Salvador (still its present name in the Bahamas). The natives (the Arawaks) probably also gave him the name they called themselves, but he referred to them as indios and so established the use of the term Indian for the people of the region and, later, for those of North, Central, and South America. No mention is made of the reactions of the people who had come to greet them, and, shortly afterwards, the five Europeans and the native islanders exchanged gifts of friendship.

Second Voyage - 1493-1496 CE : Columbus arrived back in the New World as governor of the lands he had claimed with a fleet of 17 ships full of colonists to establish communities for Spain as well as a number of dogs to be used in subduing the natives. The Mastiff had been successfully used by the Spanish against the Moors in the Reconquista and so were included as an important asset in Columbus' second voyage.

The dogs terrorized the native people, hunted down those who were accused of dereliction of duty, and broke any attempts at resistance to the European conquest . When he arrived in Jamaica in 1494 CE, he was opposed by defenders on the beach until he released the savage mastiffs which terrorized the indigenous warriors and scattered them.

The Second Voyage established the encomienda system in which Spanish settlers claimed a large tract of land on which the natives provided labor in return for food, shelter, and protection from those they labored for. By 1495 CE, the indigenous population had decreased, according to the later works of Las Casas, by 50,000 and, although that number is considered an exaggeration by many modern scholars, it is most likely too low.

The natives of the region were reduced from autonomous individuals with an established culture to slaves who could be tortured or killed for any reason at any time and suffered significant losses through European diseases they had no immunity from. Losses also stemmed from a significant portion of the populace shipped off to Europe as slaves.

Third Voyage - 1498-1500 CE : Although the Europeans had now firmly established themselves in the New World, Columbus had yet to find a way through the islands he had so far visited and reach Cathay. He was certain that the lands he had colonized for Spain were outliers of the continent of Asia and so, after his return to Spain in 1496 CE, his Third Voyage was funded to establish this; instead, he located the regions of modern-day Central and South America.

By this time, Columbus' colonists were actively engaged in capturing and selling the natives as slaves and further abusing them daily. Columbus objected to this treatment of the natives and punished the colonists severely which resulted in a charge of tyranny and corruption (as he was interfering with business practices) brought against him in 1499 CE. He and his brother Diego were arrested and sent back to Spain to answer charges. They were acquitted by Ferdinand and Isabella, equipped with new ships, and sent back to the New World.

On his own, Columbus explored the islands off Honduras, mapped Costa Rica and other sites, and was sailing on when a storm drove his ship toward Jamaica where it was wrecked. The natives despised him and refused any aid, and the regional governors of the area felt the same and would not send a rescue ship. Columbus finally frightened the natives into assisting him by claiming he would take the great light from the sky if they did not and then accurately predicted the lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504 CE, claiming to have restored the light once help was promised. He and his men were eventually rescued, largely through their own efforts, and Columbus returned to Spain where, in ill health, he died in Valladolid in May of 1506 CE.

Modern-day evaluations of historical figures and events are frequently guilty of the fallacy of presentism – judging the past by the standards and ideologies of the present – and the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus stand as one of the best, if not the best, examples of this. Prior to the publication in 1828 CE of A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving, Columbus was almost unknown in the United States. His book on Columbus, more historical or romantic fiction than history, was interpreted as a scholarly work on the life and adventures of an intrepid European explorer who had “discovered America” and went on to inform United States' history up to the present day.

Columbus never claimed to have “discovered America” and neither is there anything in his journals or the writings of near-contemporaries to suggest that scholars of his day believed the earth was flat while he proved it was round (it was well known in 1492 CE that the earth was round), nor that he “got lost” while searching for a route to India , landed in some strange place he thought was his destination, and so named the native people Indians. Most, if not all, of the myths commonly cited as history concerning Columbus were the creations of Irving who was only trying to tell a good story.

Irving's Columbus was a brave and noble adventurer who risked his life and that of his crew to extend European knowledge of the world and establish a vital link between the Old World and New. The book was so popular that it informed the decision of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison (served 1889-1893 CE) to proclaim a national day of observance in Columbus' honor in 1892 CE, on the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival. The state of Colorado would later be the first to observe this holiday in 1906 CE and other states followed suit afterwards.

The present movement to rename and rededicate Columbus Day in honor of indigenous people is understandable and admirable, but the opposing side, arguing to continue the tradition of honoring him, also has merit, especially when one considers what it meant to Italian-Americans, frequently persecuted in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, to have an "American Hero" defined as "Italian" by Irving and recognized as such by the American majority. It was largely the efforts of Italian-American community groups, in fact, which helped establish the holiday to begin with.

Healing past wounds must begin with a dialogue which recognizes the underlying causes and long-term effects of Columbus' atrocities while also acknowledging his accomplishments. However one judges Columbus in the present day, he was a product of his time who behaved toward non-Europeans precisely as one would expect a 15th-century CE European Christian to do and, unfortunately, far better than the colonizers and conquerors who came to the New World after him.

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Bibliography

• Columbus, C. & Cohen, J. The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Penguin, 2004.
• Crosby Jr., A. W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Praeger, 2003.
• de Las Casas, B. & Griffin, N. & Pagden, A. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Penguin Classics, 2000.
• Five Myths about Christopher Columbus by Kris Lane for the Washington Post , accessed 8 Oct 2020.
• Hansen, V. The Silk Road. Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Introduction to Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage by B. W. Ife , accessed 8 Oct 2020.
• Irving, W. History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Wentworth Press, 2010.
• Morison, S. E. Admiral of the Ocean Sea - A Life of Christopher Columbus. Morison Press, 2007.
• Osborne, R. Civilization: A New History of the Western World. Pegasus Books, 2008.
• Parker, C. H. Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400 -1800. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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Biography Online

Christopher Columbus Biography

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

– Christopher Columbus

Short bio Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)

Christopher Columbus was a believer in the spherical nature of the world (some Christians still held the view that the world was flat). An ambitious man, Christopher Columbus hoped to find a Western trade route to the lucrative spice markets in Asia. Rather than sailing east, he hoped that sailing west would lead to countries like Japan and China.

To gain the necessary funding and support for his journeys, he approached the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. As part of his offer, he said that he hoped to be able to spread Christianity to ‘heathen lands’ in the east. The Spanish monarchs agreed to fund Columbus, partly on the Christian missionary efforts, but also hoping to gain an upper hand in the lucrative trade markets. One advantage of the westward exploration is that it avoided conflict with the growing power of the Ottomans in the east.

“I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.” Journal of the First Voyage – 3 August 1492 diary entry

Voyages to the Americas

A map from 1474, with the perceived geography of the world in yellow (superimposed on actual land)

Columbus’ first voyage was completed in 1492. He had intended to sail to Japan but ended up in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador.

Landing of Columbus (12 October 1492), painting by John Vanderlyn

Columbus made a total of four journeys, where he sailed extensively around the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, the Bahamas and also to the mainland, to places such as Panama.

Columbus was not the first person to reach America. Previous successful voyages included a Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson. However, Columbus was the first to travel to America and establish permanent settlements. Columbus’ voyages and reports, over the next 400 years encouraged all the major European powers to seek to colonise parts of America.

Columbus was a skilled navigator with tremendous faith in the possibilities of exploration. He claimed in his diary entries, his steely will held the crew together when they feared they would never reach land.

“Here the men lost all patience, and complained of the length of the voyage, but the Admiral encouraged them in the best manner he could, representing the profits they were about to acquire, and adding that it was to no purpose to complain, having come so far, they had nothing to do but continue on to the Indies, till with the help of our Lord, they should arrive there.” Diary entry, 10 October 1492

However, his autocratic style created friction on the boats that he guided. Columbus was deeply religious and his tendency to be sanctimonious and judgemental of personal failings was not popular with sailors who took a more earthy and realistic approach to life. Yet, whilst he was pious in some regards, he also shared the view, common at the time, that European Christians had a moral superiority due to their following the one true faith. Although Columbus held back some of the worst excesses of his sailors, he took back human slaves and looted property from the indigenous people.

As part of the deal, the Spanish monarchy appointed Columbus Viceroy and Governor of the Indies in the island of Hispaniola. He also delegated the governorship to his brothers. However, in 1500, on the orders of the Spanish monarchy, Columbus was arrested and placed in chains. There were allegations of incompetence, misrule and barbaric practices in the governorship of the new colonies. After several weeks in jail, Columbus and his brothers were released, but Columbus was not allowed to be governor of Hispaniola anymore.

Towards the end of his life, Columbus became increasingly religious. In particular, he became fascinated with Biblical prophecies and wrote his own ‘Book of Prophecies’ (1505). He was also frustrated with his lack of public recognition and seeming demotion in the eyes of the Spanish monarchs. In 1503, he wrote a letter to the monarchs laying out his sense of unappreciated sacrifice

“I came to serve you at the age of 28 and now I have not a hair on me that is not white, and my body is infirm and exhausted. All that was left to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, even to the cloak that I wore, without hearing or trial, to my great dishonor.” – Lettera Rarissima to the Sovereigns, Fourth Voyage (7 July 1503)

Columbus died in 1506, aged 54 from a heart attack related to reactive arthritis. Undoubtedly, the rigours of travelling across the seas weighed upon Columbus’ health. Towards the end of his life, he was frequently in physical pain from his journeys.

Columbus is venerated by many European Americans as the man who helped put America on the map. Columbus Day is observed on 12 October in Spain and across the Americas. Others take a more critical view of Columbus, arguing that his “discovery” was not really a discovery – because the land was already populated and that through his actions the ensuing European colonisations led to the mistreatment and genocide of the Native American people who already lived there.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Christopher Columbus”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 13th May. 2009. Updated 22 January 2020.

Who was Christopher Columbus?

Who was Christopher Columbus? at Amazon

The Ages of Exploration

Christopher columbus, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

He is credited for discovering the Americas in 1492, although we know today people were there long before him; his real achievement was that he opened the door for more exploration to a New World.

Name : Christopher Columbus [Kri-stə-fər] [Kə-luhm-bəs]

Birth/Death : 1451 - 1506

Nationality : Italian

Birthplace : Genoa, Italy

Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the “discovery” of the Americas. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Early Life Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents’ names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father’s business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea. 1 After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. 2 This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Principal Voyage Columbus’ voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon. 3 This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. 4 Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people “Indians.” In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus’ leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus’s goal was to find the “Strait of Malacca,” to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain .

Later Years and Death Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believed that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His “re-discovery,” however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys. 5 Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

• Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.
• Fleming, Off the Map , 30
• William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.
• Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus , 155.
• Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.

Bibliography

Doak, Robin. Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World . Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration . New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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Christopher Columbus

By michele debczak | mar 20, 2020.

SCIENTISTS (1451–1506); GENOA, ITALY

Most people who went to elementary school in the United States know the name Christopher Columbus. Born Cristoforo Colombo, he's one of history's most famous explorers, but his accomplishments and legacy are hotly disputed today. Christopher Columbus may not have discovered America, but he did take several voyages to the continent that helped ignite Europe’s Age of Exploration. And while he's celebrated for his achievements in some circles, he's vilified in others, due to his mistreatment of indigenous populations and even his own crew. Find out more about the complicated life of Christopher Columbus.

1. Most historians believe Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy.

According to the consensus among historians, Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa (or Genova) in what would later become Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it’s estimated he was born sometime in 1451. It’s possible that his mother was Susanna Fontanarossa and his father was a wool merchant named Domenico Colombo.

2. There's also the theory that Christopher Columbus was from Portugal.

Italians have long claimed Christopher Columbus as one of their own, but not everyone is in agreement about the explorer’s birthplace. In 2012 , University of Lisbon professor Fernando Branco published a book proposing that Columbus was actually born in Portugal. The theory states that Columbus was really a man named Pedro Ataíde and his more famous identity was a cover. Pedro Ataíde allegedly died during a naval battle in 1476, but Branco postulates that he survived and washed up on the shores of the Algarve in Southern Portugal. One of the first historical records of Columbus describes him swimming away from a shipwreck. Much of the evidence Branco presents can be chalked up to coincidence, but the theory does highlight the fact that many details are missing from historical records of Columbus’s early life.

3. Christopher Columbus's voyage to America started from Spain, not Italy.

To make the question of his ethnicity even more confusing, Christopher Columbus didn’t take his famous voyage under the flags of Italy or Portugal. In the late 15th century, Columbus hatched a plan to chart a passage to the East Indies by sailing West instead of East. If his trip was successful, the profits he’d gain through an alternative spice trading route could make him rich—but he still needed funds to get a ship out of the dock. Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon ultimately agreed to sponsor his journey, and in August 1492, he led the Pinta , the Niña , and the Santa Maria out of the port of Palos in Spain and into the New World.

4. The ships Christopher Columbus used to sail to America were a nightmare.

The two smaller boats that made up Christopher Columbus's fleet—the Niña and the Pinta (which were nicknames , not official names)—were state-of-the-art caravels . These vessels were known for their aerodynamic sails and lightweight build that made them fast and easy to navigate. They were also famously uncomfortable. The one cabin at the back of the ship was reserved for its captain, and the rest of the 20 to 30 crew members had to sleep on the cramped deck—that is, if they could ever stop working long enough to actually rest for a moment. The situation was slightly better on the larger Santa Maria, where there were cabins for both Columbus and his crew. Even so, the sailors were close to mutiny by the time the fleet reached the Bahamas following roughly two months at sea.

5. Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first European to discover North America.

For centuries, Christopher Columbus has been erroneously credited with discovering North America—a continent where human civilization had already been flourishing for thousands of years . But even his title as the first European to travel to the Americas is inaccurate. Viking explorer Leif Erikson beat Columbus by about 500 years , likely landing in Newfoundland, Canada, around 1000 CE. Some legends even suggest that Irish monks traveled to Canada by the North Sea before either explorer set sail.

6. Christopher Columbus’s voyage in 1492 wasn’t his only trip to North America.

Following his initial contact with the Americas in 1492, Columbus made a few return trips. He was back in Spain for less than a year when he boarded a ship in September 1493 and crossed the Atlantic a second time. There was a five-year gap between this trip and his third journey to North America in 1498, which eventually involved him being arrested for his mismanagement and cruelty during the whole fiasco.

His fourth and final voyage to the Caribbean took place in 1502. Columbus never found China or India or the gold he was looking for, but he did manage to terrorize and enslave native islanders, turn his crews against him ( feeding them worm-infested biscuits will do that), and get stranded in Jamaica for a year after wrecking a four-boat fleet. Christopher Columbus would die on May 20, 1506.

7. Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937—but not everyone is a fan.

In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared October 12 as Columbus Day, a federal day of observance that became a reality thanks to the influence of a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus. In 1971 , President Richard Nixon created the modern version of Columbus Day by declaring that it be observed on the second Monday of every October. This was in an attempt to make  uniform holidays that took place on Mondays to create more three-day weekends for Americans.

That doesn't mean everyone is a fan of the holiday. Due to Columbus's malicious treatment of Native Americans and other indigenous people, many states and cities refuse to recognize Columbus Day, instead opting for Indigenous Peoples' Day, while others celebrate Leif Erikson Day to honor the traveling Norseman.

Christopher Columbus: A Brief Biography

A man of convictions, Christopher Columbus used his strong personality to persuade rulers and scholars to overlook the accepted theories about the size of the Earth to search out a new route to Asia. Although he wasn't the first European to find the American continent (that distinction goes to Viking Leif Ericson), his journeys opened up the trade of goods and ideas between the two lands.

Born by the sea

Born in 1451 to Domenico and Susanna (Fontanarossa), young Christopher grew up in Genoa, Italy. While living in Spain in later years, he went by Cristóbal Colón rather than his given name of Cristoforo Colombo. He was the oldest of five, and worked closely with his brothers in adulthood.

Located on the northwest coast of Italy, Genoa was a seaport city. Columbus completed his formal education at an early age and began sailing on trading trips. In 1476, he traveled to Portugal, where he set up a mapmaking business with his brother, Bartholomew. In 1479, he married Felipa Perestrello Moniz, the daughter of the governor of a Portguese island. Their only child, Diego, was born in 1480. Felipa died a few years later. His second son, Fernando, was born in 1488 to Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

Round Earth and a route to Asia

In the 1450s, the Turkish Empire controlled northern Africa, blocking Europe's easiest access to the valuable goods of the Orient, such as spices. In a search for an alternative to the dangerous and time-consuming land route, many countries turned their eyes to the sea. Portugal in particular made great strides in finding a route around the southern tip of Africa, eventually rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Rather than circling the southern-stretching continent, Columbus began a campaign to reach Asia by traveling west. Educated people knew that the world was round; the looming question was, just how large was the planet?

The Greek mathematician and astronomer Eratosthenes first calculated its size around 240 BCE, and subsequent scholars had refined the number, but it had never been proven. Columbus argued that the numbers most scholars agreed on were too large, and that the vast land mass of Asia would further shrink the amount of sea travel necessary. His calculations set the world at 66 percent smaller than previous estimates—estimates that were actually impressively close to the Earth's true size .

Columbus first presented his plan to Portugal in 1483, where it was rejected. He went on to Spain, ruled jointly by the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The royal pair were engaged in driving the Muslims from Granada but granted him a salary and a position in the Spanish court. Spain gained control of the southern province in January 1492; in April of the same year, Columbus' plan received approval. He began to plan for his voyage.

Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria

Columbus set sail from the Canary Islands in September 1492. He captained the caravel (a type of Portuguese ship) known as the Santa Maria. Two other ships, the Niña and the Pinta, traveled with him, carrying 90 crew members. On Oct. 12, 1492, they landed on a small island in the Caribbean Sea that Columbus called San Salvador. (This day of his discovery is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States on the second Monday of October; other countries in the Americas also celebrate it under various names.)

Certain that he had arrived in the East Indies, Columbus dubbed the natives he met Indians. Described by the Italian captain as gentle and primitive, the people were quickly mistreated by the Europeans.

Leaving San Salvador, the crew traveled along the coast of Cuba and Hispaniola (where the present-day countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) are located. On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria crashed into a reef off of Haiti. Forty men remained at a hastily built fort to hunt for gold when Columbus took the Niña and Pinta back to Spain to announce his success. Several captive natives were taken to prove he had achieved his goal, though a number of them did not survive the rough sea voyage.

Columbus wasn't the first European to land in the New World. Vikings had reached the land several hundred years previously. But their journeys were scattered, and word of them never spread enough for most of Europe to learn about it.

After Columbus' voyage, goods, people, and ideas were traded between the two continents.

Three more trips

Columbus made three more journeys to the New World over the remainder of his life, searching for the mainland of Asia. On his return, he led 17 ships with about 1,500 men back to the islands where he had been appointed governor. They found no sign of the men they had left behind only a few short months before. Columbus settled his company along several smaller forts along the coast of Hispaniola.

Problems quickly erupted as the colonists and investors realized that the easy gold Columbus had promised did not exist. Within a short span of time, a dozen of the ships, filled with discontent voyagers, returned to Spain. Relationships with the native Taino people became more challenging, as they resisted efforts by the Spanish to force them into searching for gold. With criticism of his management of the colony reaching the ears of the monarchs, Columbus returned to Spain and managed to successfully defend himself from the complaints.

In 1498, Columbus took six ships to search for the Asian mainland south of the area he had already explored. Instead, he found the coast of Venezuela. When he returned to Hispaniola, he gave land to the settlers and permitted the enslavement of the Taino people to work it. Complaints still trickled back to Spain, and eventually the monarchs sent a commissioner to investigate. Shocked by conditions at the colony, the commissioner arrested Columbus and his brothers and sent them back to Spain for trial. The brothers were released by the king and queen, but Columbus was removed from his position as governor of Hispaniola.

In 1502, Columbus made a last-ditch effort to find the bulk of Asia. He set sail with his son Ferdinand. The company traveled along the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Two ships were beached on the northern coast of Jamaica due to leaks, and the crew was stranded for nearly a year before being rescued and returning home.

Columbus returned to Spain in 1504. He died two years later , on May 20, 1506, still believing he had found a water route to Asia.

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Christopher Columbus Biography

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus left home in Genoa, Italy, as a teenager to become a sailor on the Mediterranean Sea. In the late 1470s he settled in Lisbon, Portugal, where he worked closely with master navigators and adopted the then-radical idea that land—specifically Asia—could be found by sailing west. (At the time, many Europeans believed that a ship sailing west would eventually drop off the edge of the world.) It took Columbus years to find sponsors for such a westward journey; finally, on August 3, 1492, he sailed for Spain with three ships: the Santa Maria (which he commanded), the Pinta , and the Nina .

After a stopover in the Canary Islands, Columbus sailed west from September 6 to October 7, and then southwest. Because the length and risk of the voyage alarmed the crew, Columbus kept secret his own log of distance traveled, and created a false log for the crew that indicated a lesser (and therefore less frightening) distance from Europe. Nevertheless, mutiny nearly occurred on October 10, just two days before reaching land in the Bahamas. After visiting numerous islands of the West Indies, Columbus returned to Portugal in January 1493, and on March 15 received a hero’s welcome in Spain.

On Columbus’s second voyage (1493–1496), he sailed for the West Indies with seventeen ships to establish colonies for Spain. But within months of the colonists’ arrival in Hispaniola—considered the most promising site—tens of thousands of natives had died from European diseases, forced labor, and murder at the hands of the Spanish.

On his third voyage (1498–1500), Columbus explored Trinidad and some of the South American mainland, and learned that conditions in Hispaniola had grown worse. When reports of Hispaniola reached Spain, Spanish officials were sent to arrest Columbus and bring him back in chains. Columbus was permitted to make a fourth voyage (1502–1504), but after landing in Honduras, he was stranded on Jamaica for a year and had to be rescued by the Spanish. He died two years later, still believing that he had reached Asia. Columbus’s explorations changed the course of western history. As a result, he remains a controversial figure. While some admire his bravery and consider him a hero, others condemn his role in the colonization of the Americas and the genocide of native peoples.

See also Encyclopedia: Christopher Columbus .

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1492: An Ongoing Voyage Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth

After five centuries, Columbus remains a mysterious and controversial figure who has been variously described as one of the greatest mariners in history, a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist.

Columbus' enterprise to find a westward route to Asia grew out of the practical experience of a long and varied maritime career, as well as out of his considerable reading in geographical and theological literature. He settled for a time in Portugal, where he tried unsuccessfully to enlist support for his project, before moving to Spain. After many difficulties, through a combination of good luck and persuasiveness, he gained the support of the Catholic monarchs, Isabel and Fernando.

The widely published report of his voyage of 1492 made Columbus famous throughout Europe and secured for him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. Columbus, who never abandoned the belief that he had reached Asia, led three more expeditions to the Caribbean. But intrigue and his own administrative failings brought disappointment and political obscurity to his final years.

In Search and Defense of Privileges

Queen Isabel and King Fernando had agreed to Columbus' lavish demands if he succeeded on his first voyage: he would be knighted, appointed Admiral of the Ocean Sea, made the viceroy of any new lands, and awarded ten percent of any new wealth. By 1502, however, Columbus had every reason to fear for the security of his position. He had been charged with maladministration in the Indies.

The Library's vellum copy of the Book of Privileges is one of four that Columbus commissioned in 1502 to record his agreements with the Spanish crown. It is unique in preserving an unofficial transcription of a Papal Bull of September 26, 1493 in which Pope Alexander VI extended Spain's rights to the New World.

Much concerned with social status, Columbus was granted a coat of arms in 1493. By 1502, he had added several new elements, such as an emerging continent next to islands and five golden anchors to represent the office of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

As a reward for his successful voyage of discovery, the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus the right to a coat of arms. According to the blazon specified in letters patent dated May 20, 1493, Columbus was to bear in the first and the second quarters the royal charges of Castile and Léon—the castle and the lion—but with different tinctures or colors. In the third quarter would be islands in a wavy sea, and in the fourth, the customary arms of his family.

The earliest graphic representation of Columbus' arms is found in his Book of Privileges and shows the significant modifications Columbus ordered by his own authority. In addition to the royal charges that were authorized in the top quarters, Columbus adopted the royal colors as well, added a continent among the islands in the third quarter, and for the fourth quarter borrowed five anchors in fess from the blazon of the Admiral of Castille. Columbus' bold usurpation of the royal arms, as well as his choice of additional symbols, help to define his personality and his sense of the significance of his service to the Spanish monarchs.

Columbus' Coat of Arms in Christopher Columbus, His Book of Privileges, 1502 . Facsimile. London, 1893. Harisse Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress

The Book of Privileges is a collection of agreements between Columbus and the crowns of Spain prepared in Seville in 1502 before his 4th and final voyage to America. The compilation of documents includes the 1497 confirmation of the rights to titles and profits granted to the Admiral by the 1492 Contract of Santa Fé and augmented in 1493 and 1494, as well as routine instructions and authorizations related to his third voyage. We know that four copies of his Book of Privileges existed in 1502, three written on vellum and one on paper.

All three vellum copies have thirty-six documents in common, including the Papal Bull Inter caetera of May 4, 1493, defining the line of demarcation of future Spanish and Portuguese explorations, and specifically acknowledging Columbus' contributions. The bull is the first document on vellum in the Library's copy and the thirty-sixth document in the Genoa and the Paris codices. The Library copy does not have the elaborate rubricated title page, the vividly colored Columbus coat of arms, or the authenticating notarial signatures contained in the other copies. The Library's copy, however, does have a unique transcription of the Papal Bull Dudum siquidem of September 26, 1493, extending the Spanish donation. The bull is folded and addressed to the Spanish sovereigns.

This intriguing Library copy is the only major compilation of Columbus' privileges that has not received modern documentary editing. Comprehensive textual analysis and careful comparison with other known copies is essential to establishing its definitive place in Columbus scholarship.

Book of Privileges in [Christopher Columbus], [ Códice Diplomatico Columbo-Americano ], Vellum. [Seville, ca. 1502]. Manuscript Division , Library of Congress

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Christopher Columbus

Introduction.

Columbus began an unstoppable wave of European settlement in the Americas. This settlement brought European culture to the Western Hemisphere. It also brought great hardship to the Native Americans there. They suffered from diseases brought by the Europeans. They were also enslaved and forced to mine gold for the Europeans.

Cristoforo Colombo was born in Genoa, Italy , in 1451. He is known as Christopher Columbus to English-speaking people. He was the son of a weaver and had little schooling.

In about 1476 Columbus settled in Portugal . In the 1480s he started planning a voyage to discover a sea route to Asia. Europeans were eager for Asian goods. However, these goods were costly because they had to be brought to Europe over a dangerous land route. Columbus knew that Earth was round. He thought that Asia must lie to the west, across the Atlantic Ocean .

First Voyage

Later Voyages

Ferdinand and Isabella were pleased with Columbus and his discoveries. They soon sent him back for a second trip. On his second voyage, from 1493 to 1496, Columbus had 17 ships and about 1,300 men. He found that the men he had left behind on Hispaniola had been killed. He then started a new colony and explored island coasts. He left his brothers in charge of the new colony when he returned to Spain.

On the third voyage, from 1498 to 1500, Columbus explored the Caribbean coast of South America. During this time, many people in the Hispaniola colony became angry with the rule of Columbus and his brothers. They complained to Spanish authorities. Columbus was eventually arrested and sent back to Spain in chains.

Upon his return, however, he was freed. He convinced Ferdinand and Isabella that he would find them treasures if he was allowed to return to the Americas. Columbus’s last trip started in 1502. He explored the Central American coast but lost all four of his ships. He had to be rescued.

Columbus returned to Spain in November 1504. He died on May 20, 1506. Until his death he remained convinced that he had reached Asia.

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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who, in 1492, sailed across the Atlantic from Spain with the ships La Pinta and La Niña hoping to find a new route to India. He made a total of four voyages to the Caribbean and South America and is credited with opening the Americas to European colonization .

Personal information

• Birth date : 1451
• Birthplace : Genoa, Italy
• When did he die : 20/05/1506
• Where did he die : Valladolid, Castile

Who was Christopher Columbus?

He was a man full of polemics and mysteries, navigator and discoverer , self-taught and an observer who came to discover what we know today as the New World , being the first admiral , viceroy and governor of the Indies.

Characteristics

Biography of christopher columbus, trips of christopher columbus, origin of christopher columbus, contributions, descendants, books and films about christopher columbus.

Some characteristics of Christopher Columbus were the following:

• He was an artisan and merchant .
• He worked in coastal navigation for mercantile
• He dedicated part of his life to making maps .
• He thought the earth was round and not flat.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa , or what is now Italy. When he was 20, he moved to Lisbon , Portugal, and later relocated to Spain , which was his base of operations throughout his life.

Columbus went to sea as a teenager, participating in several commercial trips in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One of those trips, to the island of Khios, in modern Greece, brought him as close as he could get to Asia.

His first voyage to the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 almost cost him his life because the commercial fleet with which he sailed was attacked by French corsairs off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned and Columbus had to swim towards the Portuguese coast. He went to Lisbon, Portugal, where he finally settled and married with Felipa Perestrelo . They had a son, Diego and his wife died shortly after, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando , who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enríquez de Arana .

On August 3, 1492, he left Puerto de Palos with two caravels, La Niña and La Pinta and La Santa María . Seeing time go by without touching land, the crew were desperate, provoking a mutiny that Columbus calmed, assuring that if in three days they did not see land, they would return to Spain.

On October 12, 1492 , sailor Rodrigo de Triana spotted land. Christopher Columbus and his expedition reached the island that the natives called Guanahani , which Columbus named San Salvador , located in the Bahamas. He immediately explored and arrived in what is now Cuba , which he called Juana .

Columbus believed he had arrived in the East Indies and so he called his inhabitants “ Indians “. Then he came to the island that today is from Haiti and the Dominican Republic and called it Hispaniola . On January 4, 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain with the two caravels he had left, leaving 40 men at the Navidad Fort .

Second trip

Supported by the kings, he begins his second journey to discover oriental treasures. He left Cadiz on September 25, 1493 and discovered the Antilles, Cuba and Puerto Rico . He managed to reach Hispaniola , where he found the Navidad Fort destroyed and the men murdered. Columbus founded in that place the Isabela in honor of the Queen of Spain. After traveling and discovering Jamaica he returned to Isabela where he found chaos as the Spaniards forced the Indians to hand over the gold and killed each other.

Several conditions and requirements were imposed on him so that, he could make the trip, and it took him longer to find people who would like to go with him. He left Cadiz on May 30th, 1498, with 6 ships. They arrived at the Canary Islands where 3 caravels left for the island of Hispaniola and another 3, where Columbus was travelling to Cape Green . On July 31 they discovered the Orinoco River and arrived in Venezuela . In this trip the rebellion of Francisco Roldán , who was the mayor of Hispaniola, took place.

Fourth trip

He left Cadiz on May 9, 1502 for the Canary Islands , then for the Lesser Antilles and from there, they went to Santo Domingo , where the governor Frey Nicolás de Obando , by order of the Catholic Monarchs, prohibited him from disembarking, so he had to continue towards Jamaica and Cuba , then descending towards Honduras, where on August 1 a contact between Europeans and Mayans was made.

They traveled the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama arriving at Belén River, where they founded the first Spanish city: Santa María de Belén . There, they lost one of the caravels, destroyed by the storms. Then they arrived in Veragua where they lost another caravel. They only had two caravels left. They arrived in Jamaica on June 25, 1503 where they parked their two remaining caravels so as not to lose them in the sea.

Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid on May 20th, 1506, at the age of 55, as a result of a heart attack . According to a study, published by Antonio Rodríguez Cuartero , of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Granada, Columbus died of a heart attack caused by Reiter’s syndrome or reactive arthritis . According to his personal diaries and his friends’ references, the symptoms of this disease were very visible in his last three years.

His remains were buried in Valladolid and then in the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville .

The exact origin of Christopher Columbus has not yet been defined. His origin has been attributed to Italian nationality, specifically Genoa, however, it is said that he did not speak Italian. Many countries claim their nationality, Genoese, Corsican French, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician, Andalusian, Catalan, Majorcan, etc..

There is also a theory that Columbus was hiding that he was Jewish , since at that time, Jews were about to be expelled from Spain . The letters he sent to Italy were in Spanish and were addressed to Italian people who did not speak the language. On the other hand, studies show that he wrote with Catalan characters and his maps have the Catalan style . Finally, in his will, he says that he was of Genovese origin.

Among the main contributions of Christopher Columbus we can mention the following:

• The expansion of the European continent was achieved.
• The communication between the old and the new world was opened.
• A great variety of new species were discovered.
• With his travels, he was able to demonstrate that it was possible to sail towards the west of the European continent.
• He discovered the magnetic declination of the earth.
• He verified and demonstrated that the Earth was not flat .

The greatest importance given to Christopher Columbus was that thanks to his travels, he managed to know different and new routes for trade and how to get to Asia by west, in addition to the great wealth that were obtained by Europeans.

The importance of Columbus’ voyages was also the official conquest of the Americas, taking into consideration that these lands had already been discovered by Vikings and others.

His father’s name was Domenico Colombo and he was born in the Republic of Genoa , and his mother’s name was Sunsanna Fontanarrossa who was a young woman who was born in the district of Val Bisagno in Genoa and whose father was a master weaver and also a merchant.

• Fernando Colón : born August 15, 1488 in Seville. He was the son of Christopher Columbus and Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. He was his second son and was born five years before his father discovered America.
• Diego Colón : son and successor of Christopher Columbus in the viceroyalty and government of the Indies. He was the first-born son of Columbus and Felipa Moniz Perestrelo.

Some of his most important phrases are:

• The sea will give each man a new hope , as sleep gives him dreams.
• Find happiness in your work or you’ll never be happy.
• They love their neighbors as themselves, and have the sweetest speech in the world, and gentle and always with laughter.
• Very well done, very beautiful bodies and very good faces .
• I want to go to the Indies by the west. The Earth is round .

Some famous books that tell the story of Christopher Columbus are:

• Diary On board of Christopher Columbus : tells us how he is surrounded by controversy and mystery.
• The Four Journeys and the Testament : narrates the first expeditions to the New World.
• On board diary : stories of Christopher Columbus and his enigmas and secrets.
• The great adventure of Christopher Columbus : the life of Columbus narrated by Manuel Fernández Álvarez.

Several films have also been created where the story is reflected, among them we can mention:

• Also the rain : starring Gabriel Bernal and Luis Tosar shows us the two faces that Christopher Columbus had, one ambitious and the other as an intrepid navigator.
• Alba de América : This is one of the most controversial in the history of Columbus’ arrival in America.
• The Other Conquest : narrates the resistance that Emperor Moctezuma put up against the Spanish invasion.
• The Golden One : a film shot in Costa Rica that narrates the role of Spain during the conquest.
• The Conquest of Paradise : narrates the discovery of America and the experiences of Christopher Columbus, and how the lives of the Indians changed with the discovery.

How to cite this article?

Briceño V., Gabriela. (2019). Christopher Columbus . Recovered on 23 February, 2024, de Euston96: https://www.euston96.com/en/christopher-columbus/

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What Was Christopher Columbus’ Heritage?

The famed explorer was always searching for new places, but his lasting legacy has people searching for his true nationality.

Spain’s role in Columbus’ story has, perhaps unsurprisingly, led some people to believe that the explorer was of Spanish origin. But those of Italian descent, particularly Italian-Americans, have laid claim to Columbus, despite the modern-day controversies surrounding his mistreatment of the Indigenous populations he encountered in the “New World.”

It turns out that determining Columbus’ true origins is just as complicated, with theories and supposed evidence linking him to any number of regions, countries and even religions, and unanswered questions that linger more than 500 years after his voyages.

Many think Columbus was Italian

Conventional wisdom has long held that Columbus was born Cristoforo Colombo around 1451, in the region of Liguria, in what is now Northwest Italy. In Columbus’ time, Liguria’s capital was Genoa, a rich, influential and independent city-state (Italy as a unified nation-state did not exist until 1861). He may have been the son of Susanna Fontanarossa and Domenico Colombo, a wool merchant.

Genoa had close trading ties with other regions, including several Spanish kingdoms, and Columbus likely learned multiple languages before adulthood. According to later accounts, including those by his son Ferdinand (or Hernando), Columbus left Genoa as a teenager, serving in the Portuguese merchant marines and gaining valuable seafaring experience on explorations that took him as far afield as Ireland, Iceland, and West Africa. While in Portugal, he married a woman from a noble, but somewhat poor, family and began seeking support from the Portuguese court for his cross-Atlantic expedition. When they refused, he moved to Spain in 1485, where years of lobbying monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella finally paid off in 1492, when they agreed to fund his first voyage.

Supporters of the “Italian” origin point to Columbus’ own writings from late in his life, including his will, in which he purportedly claimed to be from Genoa. However, relatively few surviving, contemporary accounts support this. Despite Columbus’ successes, Genoese ambassadors in Spain did not claim him as their own in their correspondence, and unlike other explorers who sailed under Spain’s flag, official government documents make no reference to Columbus as a foreigner.

And, most intriguingly, even Ferdinand Columbus seemingly admitted that his father wished, for unknown reasons, to obscure his true origins. However, many historians point to the fact that documents, letters and even early maps produced in the decades immediately following Columbus’ death identify him as hailing from Genoa as proof of his origins.

Others believe Columbus was Portuguese

Columbus’ strong ties to Portugal have led many to believe he was born there, not in Genoa. Some historians have argued that his marriage into a noble Portuguese family would have been unlikely had he been an unknown (and yet-unproven) foreigner. In 2012, Fernando Branco, an engineering professor at the University of Lisbon, published a book that argued that Columbus was actually Portuguese-born and his real name was Pedro Ataíde. Ataíde, the illegitimate child of a Portuguese lord, was presumed to have died in a naval battle in 1476. But Branco and a number of Portuguese historians believe that he actually survived, and to avoid persecution for his family’s possible treasonous opposition to the Portuguese crown, changed his name to Culon, after a French sailor he served with, embarking on a new life with a new identity.

In early 2018, researchers began to put this theory to the test. Using the previously authenticated and sequenced DNA of Columbus’ son, Fernando, they hope to find a genetic match with DNA extracted from the remains of Ataíde’s cousin, Antonio, a Portuguese count and diplomat.

People assume Columbus was Spanish

Supporters of the idea that Columbus was from Spain after all have also gotten a boost in recent years. In 2009, Georgetown University linguistic professor Estelle Irizarry published her book, "Christopher Columbus: The DNA of His Writings," based on close examination of hundreds of documents written by Columbus. According to her research, he was born in the kingdom of Aragon, in Northern Spain, and his primary language was Castilian (there are no existing documents in which Columbus used Ligurian, the common language of Genoa).

But if he was Spanish all along, why go to great lengths to disguise his identity? Because, Irizarry and a number of other historians argue, Columbus was actually Jewish. Linguistic traits in his writings led them to believe Columbus was raised learning Ladino, a hybrid form of Castilian Spanish, comparable to Yiddish, which was spoken by Spain’s Sephardic Jewish community. They believe there is ample evidence to support their conclusions, including the existence of a Hebrew blessing, “with God’s help,” on all but one of Columbus’ letters to another son, Diego (but which do not appear on letters to anyone outside his family).

They also point to Columbus’ links to the wealthy Sephardic businessmen who helped fund his expeditions, bequests he made to other Jews and even the triangular symbol that Columbus used as a family signature of sorts, which is similar to inscriptions on gravestones of Sephardim. And they believe that Columbus’ one-day delay in leaving Spain in August 1492 was to ensure he did not set sail on the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

If Columbus was, in fact, Jewish, he would have had every reason to obscure his true origins. For decades, Ferdinand and Isabella had been pursuing the fabled “Reconquista” of Spain, which saw the forced conversion and harsh persecution of tens of thousands of Spanish Jews and Muslims. Those Sephardim who converted and remained became known as Marranos. Those who refused to convert were forced to sell their possessions and leave the country entirely — the very same year that Columbus first set sail for the New World.

There is a far-fetched theory that he was Scottish

While the evidence linking Columbus to Genoa, Spain and Portugal seems credible, other theories seem more far-fetched, including those that claim he was the son of a Polish king, who also survived his supposed death before fleeing to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where Columbus was born in secrecy. Or that he was born in Genoa as the son of a Scottish family living in the city, and his real name was Pedro Scotto, which he changed to Columbus after the pirate he worked for in his youth.

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The second and third voyages of Christopher Columbus

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The gold, parrots, spices, and human captives Columbus displayed for his sovereigns at Barcelona convinced all of the need for a rapid second voyage. Columbus was now at the height of his popularity, and he led at least 17 ships out from Cádiz on September 25, 1493. Colonization and Christian evangelization were openly included this time in the plans, and a group of friars shipped with him. The presence of some 1,300 salaried men with perhaps 200 private investors and a small troop of cavalry are testimony to the anticipations for the expedition.

Sailing again via Gomera in the Canary Islands , the fleet took a more southerly course than on the first voyage and reached Dominica in the Lesser Antilles on November 3. After sighting the Virgin Islands , it entered Samaná Bay in Hispaniola on November 23. Michele de Cuneo, deeply impressed by this unerring return, remarked that “since Genoa was Genoa there was never born a man so well equipped and expert in navigation as the said lord Admiral.”

An expedition to Navidad four days later was shocked to find the stockade destroyed and the men dead. Here was a clear sign that Taino resistance had gathered strength. More fortified places were rapidly built, including a city, founded on January 2 and named La Isabela for the queen. On February 2 Antonio de Torres left La Isabela with 12 ships, some gold, spices, parrots, and captives (most of whom died en route), as well as the bad news about Navidad and some complaints about Columbus’s methods of government. While Torres headed for Spain , two of Columbus’s subordinates , Alonso de Ojeda and Pedro Margarit, took revenge for the massacre at Navidad and captured slaves. In March Columbus explored the Cibao Valley (thought to be the gold-bearing region of the island) and established the fortress of St. Thomas (Santo Tomás) there. Then, late in April, Columbus led the Niña and two other ships to explore the Cuban coastline and search for gold in Jamaica , only to conclude that Hispaniola promised the richest spoils for the settlers. The admiral decided that Hispaniola was indeed the biblical land of Sheba and that Cuba was the mainland of Cathay. On June 12, 1494, Columbus insisted that his men swear a declaration to that effect—an indication that he intended to convince his sovereign he had reached Cathay , though not all of Columbus’s company agreed with him. The following year he began a determined conquest of Hispaniola, spreading devastation among the Taino . There is evidence, especially in the objections of a friar, Bernardo Buil , that Columbus’s methods remained harsh.

The admiral departed La Isabela for Spain on March 10, 1496, leaving his brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, in charge of the settlement. He reached Cádiz on June 11 and immediately pressed his plans for a third voyage upon his sovereigns, who were at Burgos . Spain was then at war with France and needed to buy and keep its alliances; moreover, the yield from the second voyage had fallen well short of the investment. Portugal was still a threat, though the two nations had divided the Atlantic conveniently between themselves in the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494). According to the treaty, Spain might take all land west of a line drawn from pole to pole 370 leagues—i.e., about 1,185 miles (1,910 km)—west of the Cape Verde Islands , whereas Portugal could claim land to the east of the line. But what about the other side of the world, where West met East? Also, there might be a previously undiscovered antipodean continent. Who, then, should be trusted to draw the line there? Ferdinand and Isabella therefore made a cautious third investment. Six ships left Sanlúcar de Barrameda on May 30, 1498, three filled with explorers and three with provisions for the settlement on Hispaniola. It was clear now that Columbus was expected both to find great prizes and to establish the flag of Spain firmly in the East.

Certainly he found prizes, but not quite of the kind his sponsors required. His aim was to explore to the south of the existing discoveries, in the hope of finding both a strait from Cuba (his “Cathay”) to India and, perhaps, the unknown antipodean continent. On June 21 the provision ships left Gomera for Hispaniola, while the explorers headed south for the Cape Verde Islands. Columbus began the Atlantic crossing on July 4 from São Tiago (Santiago) in Cape Verde. He discovered the principle of compass variation (the variation at any point on the Earth’s surface between the direction to magnetic and geographic north), for which he made brilliant allowance on the journey from Margarita Island to Hispaniola on the later leg of this voyage, and he also observed, though misunderstood, the diurnal rotation of the northern polestar ( Polaris ). After stopping at Trinidad (named for the Holy Trinity , whose protection he had invoked for the voyage), Columbus entered the Gulf of Paria and planted the Spanish flag on the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela . He sent the caravel El Corréo southward to investigate the mouth of the Grande River (a northern branch of the Orinoco River delta), and by August 15 he knew by the great torrents of fresh water flowing into the Gulf of Paria that he had discovered another continent—“another world.” But he did not find the strait to India, nor did he find King Solomon’s gold mines, which his reading had led him and his sovereigns to expect in these latitudes; and he made only disastrous discoveries when he returned to Hispaniola.

Both the Taino and the European immigrants had resented the rule of Bartholomew and Diego Columbus . A rebellion by the mayor of La Isabela, Francisco Roldán, had led to appeals to the Spanish court, and, even as Columbus attempted to restore order (partly by hangings), the Spanish chief justice , Francisco de Bobadilla , was on his way to the colony with a royal commission to investigate the complaints. It is hard to explain exactly what the trouble was. Columbus’s report to his sovereigns from the second voyage, taken back by Torres and so known as the Torres Memorandum, speaks of sickness, poor provisioning, recalcitrant natives, and undisciplined hidalgos (gentry). It may be that these problems had intensified, but the Columbus family must be held at least partly responsible, intent as it was on enslaving the Taino and shipping them to Europe or forcing them to mine gold on Hispaniola. Under Columbus’s original system of gold production, local chiefs had been in charge of delivering gold on a loose per capita basis; the adelantado (governor) Bartholomew Columbus had replaced that policy with a system of direct exploitation led by favoured Spaniards, causing widespread dissent among unfavoured Spaniards and indigenous chiefs. Bobadilla ruled against the Columbus family when he arrived in Hispaniola. He clapped Columbus and his two brothers in irons and sent them promptly back on the ship La Gorda , and they arrived at Cádiz in late October 1500.

During that return journey Columbus composed a long letter to his sovereigns that is one of the most extraordinary he wrote, and one of the most informative. One part of its exalted, almost mystical, quality may be attributed to the humiliations the admiral had endured (humiliations he compounded by refusing to allow the captain of the La Gorda to remove his chains during the voyage) and another to the fact that he was now suffering severely from sleeplessness, eyestrain, and a form of rheumatoid arthritis , which may have hastened his death. Much of what he said in the letter, however, seems genuinely to have expressed his beliefs. It shows that Columbus had absolute faith in his navigational abilities, his seaman’s sense of the weather, his eyes, and his reading. He asserted that he had reached the outer region of the Earthly Paradise , in that, during his earlier approach to Trinidad and the Paria Peninsula, the polestar’s rotation had given him the impression that the fleet was climbing. The weather had become extremely mild, and the flow of fresh water into the Gulf of Paria was, as he saw, enormous. All this could have one explanation only—they had mounted toward the temperate heights of the Earthly Paradise, heights from which the rivers of Paradise ran into the sea. Columbus had found all such signs of the outer regions of the Earthly Paradise in his reading, and indeed they were widely known. On this estimate, he was therefore close to the realms of gold that lay near Paradise. He had not found the gold yet, to be sure, but he knew where it was. Columbus’s expectations thus allowed him to interpret his discoveries in terms of biblical and Classical sources and to do so in a manner that would be comprehensible to his sponsors and favourable to himself.

This letter, desperate though it was, convinced the sovereigns that, even if he had not yet found the prize, he had been close to it after all. They ordered his release and gave him audience at Granada in late December 1500. They accepted that Columbus’s capacities as navigator and explorer were unexcelled, although he was an unsatisfactory governor, and on September 3, 1501, they appointed Nicolás de Ovando to succeed Bobadilla to the governorship. Columbus, though ill and importunate, was a better investment than the many adventurers and profiteers who had meantime been licensed to compete with him, and there was always the danger (revealed in some of the letters of this period) that he would offer his services to his native Genoa. In October 1501 Columbus went to Sevilla to make ready his fourth and final expedition .

10 Facts About Christopher Columbus

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When it comes to Christopher Columbus , most famous of the explorers of the Age of Discovery , it's hard to separate truth from myth, and fact from legend. Here are ten things that maybe you didn't already know about Christopher Columbus and his four legendary voyages.

Christopher Columbus Wasn't His Real Name

Christopher Columbus is an Anglicization of his real name, given to him in Genoa where he was born: Cristoforo Colombo. Other languages have changed his name, too: he is Cristóbal Colón in Spanish and Kristoffer Kolumbus in Swedish, for example. Even his Genoese name is not certain, as historical documents about his origin are scarce.

He Almost Never Got to Make His Historic Journey

Tm/Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Columbus became convinced of the possibility of reaching Asia by traveling west, but getting the funding to go was a hard sell in Europe. He tried to get support from many sources, including the King of Portugal, but most European rulers thought he was a crackpot and didn’t pay much attention to him. He hung around the Spanish court for years, hoping to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to finance his journey. In fact, he had just given up and was headed to France in 1492 when he got the news that his voyage had finally been approved.

His agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella signed April 17, 1492 , included a proviso that he would keep 10% of the"pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices...which may be bought, bartered, discovered, acquired, or obtained."

He Was a Cheapskate

On his famous 1492 voyage , Columbus had promised a reward of gold to whoever saw land first. A sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see land on October 12, 1492: a small island in the present-day Bahamas Columbus named San Salvador. Poor Rodrigo never got the reward, however: Columbus kept it for himself, telling everyone he had seen a hazy sort of light the night before. He had not spoken up because the light was indistinct. Rodrigo may have gotten hosed, but there is a nice statue of him sighting land in a park in Seville.

Half of His Voyages Ended in Disaster

Jose Maria Obregon/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0

On Columbus’ famed 1492 voyage, his flagship the Santa Maria ran aground and sank, causing him to leave 39 men behind at a settlement named La Navidad . He was supposed to return to Spain loaded with spices and other valuable goods and knowledge of an important new trade route. Instead, he returned empty-handed and without the best of the three ships entrusted to him. On his fourth voyage , his ship rotted out from under him and he spent a year with his men marooned on Jamaica.

He Was a Terrible Governor

Grateful for the new lands he had found for them, the King and Queen of Spain made Columbus governor in the newly-established settlement of Santo Domingo. Columbus, who was a fine explorer, turned out to be a lousy governor. He and his brothers ruled the settlement like kings, taking most of the profits for themselves and antagonizing the other settlers. Although Columbus instructed his settlers to make sure that the Tainos on Hispaniola be protected, during his frequent absences, the settlers rampaged the villages, robbing, raping, and enslaving. Disciplinary actions by Columbus and his brother were met with open revolt.

It got so bad that the Spanish crown sent an investigator, who took over as governor, arrested Columbus, and sent him back to Spain in chains. The new governor was far worse.

He Was a Very Religious Man

Luis Garcia/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.5

Columbus was a very religious man who believed that God had singled him out for his voyages of discovery. Many of the names he gave to islands and lands he discovered were religious ones: On his first landing in America, he named the island San Salvador, in hopes that the natives he had seen from the ship would find "salvation in Christ." Later in life, he took to wearing a plain Franciscan habit everywhere he went, looking much more like a monk than a wealthy admiral (which he was). At one time during his third voyage, when he saw the Orinoco River empty out into the Atlantic Ocean off of northern South America, he became convinced he had found the Garden of Eden.

He Enslaved People

Since his voyages were primarily economic in nature, Columbus was expected to find something valuable on his travels. Columbus was disappointed to find that the lands he discovered were not full of gold, silver, pearls and other treasures, but he soon decided that the Indigenous people themselves could be a valuable resource. He brought 550 of them back as enslaved people after his first voyage—most of them died and the rest were sold—and his settlers brought more when they returned after his second voyage .

He was devastated when Queen Isabela decided that the New World Indigenous people were her subjects, and therefore could not be enslaved. Of course, during the colonial era, the Indigenous people would be enslaved by the Spanish in all but name.​

He Never Believed He Had Found a New World

Richardo Liberato/Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Columbus was looking for a new passage to Asia... and that’s just what he found, or so he said until his dying day. In spite of mounting facts that seemed to indicate that he had discovered lands previously unknown, he continued to believe that Japan, China and the court of the Great Khan were very close to the lands he had discovered. Isabella and Ferdinand knew better: the geographers and astronomers they consulted knew the world was spherical and estimated that Japan was 12,000 miles from Spain (correct if you go by ship heading eastward from Bilbao ), while Columbus held out for 2,400 miles.

According to biographer Washington Irving (1783–1859), Columbus even proposed a ridiculous theory for the discrepancy: that the Earth was shaped like a pear, and that he had not found Asia because of the part of the pear that bulges out towards the stem. At court, it was the width of the ocean westward that was in question, not the shape of the world. Fortunately for Columbus, the Bahamas was located about the distance he expected to find Japan.

By the end of his life, he was a laughingstock in Europe because of his stubborn refusal to accept the obvious.

Columbus Made First Contact With One of the Major New World Civilizations

David Berkowitz/Flickr / CC BY 2.0

While exploring the coast of Central America , Columbus came upon a long dugout trading vessel whose occupants had weapons and tools made of copper and flint, textiles and a beer-like fermented beverage. It is believed that the traders were from one of the Mayan cultures of northern Central America. Interestingly, Columbus decided not to investigate further and turned south instead of north along Central America.

No One Knows for Sure Where His Remains Are

Sridhar1000/Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Columbus died in Spain in 1506, and his remains were kept there for a while before being sent to Santo Domingo in 1537. There they remained until 1795​ when they were sent to Havana and in 1898 they supposedly went back to Spain. In 1877, however, a box full of bones bearing his name was found in Santo Domingo. Since then, two cities—Seville, Spain, and Santo Domingo—claim to have his remains. In each city, the bones in question are housed in elaborate mausoleums.

Sources and Further Reading

• Burley, David V., et al. " Jamaican Taíno Settlement Configuration at the Time of Christopher Columbus ." Latin American Antiquity 28.3 (2017): 337–52. Print.
• Carle, Robert. " Remembering Columbus: Blinded by Politics ." Academic Questions 32.1 (2019): 105–13. Print.
• Cook, Noble David. "Sickness, Starvation, and Death in Early Hispaniola." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 32.3 (2002): 349–86. Print.
• Deagan, Kathleen, and José M. Cruxent. "Columbus's Outpost among the Tainos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498." New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Print.
• Hazlett, John D. " Literary Nationalism and Ambivalence in Washington Irving's the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus ." American Literature 55.4 (1983): 560–75. Print.
• Kelsey, Harry. "Finding the Way Home: Spanish Exploration of the Round-Trip Route across the Pacific Ocean." Science, Empire and the European Exploration of the Pacific . Ed. Ballantyne, Tony. The Pacific World: Lands, Peoples, and History of the Pacific, 1500–1900. New York: Routledge, 2018. Print.
• Stone, Erin Woodruff. "America's First Slave Revolt: Indians and African Slaves in Española, 1500–1534 ." Ethnohistory 60.2 (2013): 195–217. Print.
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