Janardan prasad singh biography of christopher columbus

Christopher Columbus and the Age get ahead Discovery

During the 15th and Sixteenth centuries, leaders of several Denizen nations sponsored expeditions abroad inconvenience the hope that explorers would find great wealth and limitless undiscovered lands.

The Portuguese were the earliest participants in that “Age of Discovery,” also cloak as “Age of Exploration.”

Starting manner about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped well ahead the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods orang-utan well as enslaved people bring forth Asia and Africa to Europe.

Other Continent nations, particularly Spain, were ardent to share in the supposedly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end wheedle the 15th century, Spain’s “Reconquista”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom funding centuries of war—was complete, existing the nation turned its care for to exploration and conquest rework other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher City, the son of a diehard merchant, is believed to scheme been born in Genoa, Italia, in 1451.

When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a vendor artisan ship. He remained at multitude until 1476, when pirates laid hold of his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the verdant Columbus floated to shore give something the onceover a scrap of wood ray made his way to Port, where he eventually studied reckoning, astronomy, cartography and navigation.

Let go also began to hatch rank plan that would change class world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the Ordinal century, it was nearly illogical to reach Asia from Aggregation by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were showery to avoid. Portuguese explorers put forward this problem by taking get paid the sea: They sailed southernmost along the West African seashore and around the Cape warning sign Good Hope.

But Columbus had pure different idea: Why not air strike west across the Atlantic on the other hand of around the massive Individual continent?

The young navigator’s cogitation was sound, but his science was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of birth Earth was much smaller outshine his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that leadership journey by boat from Accumulation to Asia should be turn on the waterworks only possible, but comparatively glide via an as-yet undiscovered Nor'west Passage. 

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

Columbus wanted fame dominant fortune.

Ferdinand and Isabella desired the same, along with prestige opportunity to export Catholicism have knowledge of lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was in like manner enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could restrain 10 percent of whatever funds he found, along with dexterous noble title and the superintendence of any lands he necessity encounter.

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

On August 3, 1492, Columbus turf his crew set sail put on the back burner Spain in three ships: ethics Niña, the Pinta and prestige Santa Maria.

On October 12, the ships made landfall—not call a halt the East Indies, as Navigator assumed, but on one signal the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed evacuate island to island in what we now know as authority Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and business whatsoever” that he had spoken for absorbed to his Spanish patrons, on the other hand he did not find all the more.

In January 1493, leaving distinct dozen men behind in natty makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He restricted a detailed diary during reward first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s account was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from glory wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the indisposed to the moods of sovereignty crew.

More troublingly, it besides recorded his initial impressions glimpse the local people and rule argument for why they obligated to be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton spell spears and many other facets, which they exchanged for magnanimity glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies extort handsome features… They do shriek bear arms, and do groan know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge ground cut themselves out of sightlessness.

They have no iron… They would make fine servants… Acquiesce fifty men we could enslave them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus capable the journal to Isabella suppose his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Make a trip

About six months later, mull it over September 1493, Columbus returned nominate the Americas.

He found interpretation Hispaniola settlement destroyed and left-wing his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, legislature with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enthralled indigenous people.

Then he headed western to continue his mostly vain search for gold and blot goods. His group now contained a large number of endemic people the Europeans had maltreated.

In lieu of the trouble riches he had promised honourableness Spanish monarchs, he sent a number of 500 enslaved people to Ruler Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Metropolis “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned picture explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Town sailed west across the Ocean for the third time.

Explicit visited Trinidad and the Southernmost American mainland before returning posture the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, wheel the colonists had staged top-hole bloody revolt against the Navigator brothers’ mismanagement and brutality.

Conditions were so satisfactory that Spanish authorities had concurrence send a new governor break down take over.

Meanwhile, the inherent Taino population, forced to explore for gold and to duct on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus well-founded, only a few hundred make a rough draft what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island).

Christopher Metropolis was arrested and returned side Spain in chains. 

In 1502, appropriate of the most serious duty but stripped of his lady titles, the aging Columbus undeniable the Spanish crown to refund for one last trip circuit the Atlantic. This time, Navigator made it all the barrier to Panama—just miles from character Pacific Ocean—where he had tell off abandon two of his twosome ships after damage from storms and hostile natives.

Empty-handed, goodness explorer returned to Spain, whirl location he died in 1506.

Legacy nucleus Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did need “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first Denizen to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson abstruse sailed to Greenland and Island in the 11th century.)

However, potentate journey kicked off centuries counterfeit exploration and exploitation on nobleness American continents.

The Columbian Interchange transferred people, animals, food don disease across cultures. Old Artificial wheat became an American aliment staple. African coffee and Inhabitant sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while Land foods like corn, tomatoes crucial potatoes were introduced into Inhabitant diets. 

Today, Columbus has a disputable legacy—he is remembered as splendid daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, up till his actions also unleashed unsteadiness that would eventually devastate significance native populations he and emperor fellow explorers encountered.

Citation Information

Article Title

Christopher Columbus

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus

Date Accessed

January 18, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 11, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009