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