Christopher Columbus was a sailor and discoverer of the Sargasso Sea, the Bahamas and the archipelago of Antilles. He first reached the northern coast of South America and the Caribbean coastline of Central America.
Christopher Columbus is one of the most enigmatic historical figures. There is no certain information about his birth, origin, education, professional activities before the first expedition to the West India. That’s why historians and biographers wrote more than hundred books about his discoveries. Therefore, the history of Columbus contains continuous mysteries, assumptions and doubts.
Christopher Columbus was born in 1451, the day between August 25 and October 31. This is the main common version, inscribed in the encyclopedia. Controversial version is considered 1446. A seaside city Genoa is considered the place of birth of discoverer. This is the basic version. Still a number of cities in Italy and Spain dispute the honor of being the birthplace of Columbus (Irving, 1981, 20-25).
Until 1485 Christopher sailed on Portuguese ships. He lived in Lisbon and on Madeira. In Porto Santo he worked in trade, was mapping and dedicated time to self-education. It is not clear when and where he drafted the west way that was considered the shortest sea route from Europe to India. This project was settled on the ancient explorers of the sphericity of the Earth of scientists of the 15th century. In 1485 the Portuguese king refused to support the project. Columbus moved to Castile and with the help of Andalusian merchants and bankers organized with the government support a naval expedition.
The first expedition of Christopher Columbus was in 1492-1493. There were 90 people in three ships called "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina". They were started from Palos on August 3, 1492, after the Canary Islands they turned west, crossed the Atlantic and reached the Sargasso Sea and the islands in the Bahamas archipelago. The discoverers reached it on October 12, 1492 (the official date of the discovery of America) and called it San Salvador.
On October 14-24 Columbus came back to several Bahama Islands, and on October 28 - December 5 opened part of the north-eastern coast of Cuba. On December 6 he reached Haiti and moved along it northern coast. On the night of December 25 the flagship "Santa Maria" in the low waters grounded on the reef. All the crew escaped. First time in the history of seafaring on the ships of Columbus sailors used Indian hammocks as the bunks.
Columbus returned to Castile at the ship "Nine" on March 15, 1499. Expedition of Columbus had a huge political resonance. After the discoveries the "papal meridian" in the Atlantic was established by the head of the Catholic Church. It specified multiple destinations for the discovery of new lands between Spain and Portugal.
The second expedition (1493-96), headed by Admiral Columbus, as vice-king of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 vessels with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On 3-15 November 1493 Columbus discovered Dominica, Guadeloupe and twenty islands of the Lesser Antilles. On November 19 he landed on the island of Puerto Rico. On March 1494 in search of gold the expedition delved into the island of Haiti, opened south-eastern and southern coast of Cuba. Then the expedition got to the Isla de la Juventud and the land of Jamaica.
Within 40 days, Columbus explored the southern coast of Haiti and in the spring of 1496 he sailed back home in Castile, finishing his second voyage on June 11. The colonization of the discovered lands began soon after his return.
The third expedition of Columbus (1498-1500) consisted of six ships. On July 31, 1498 he discovered Trinidad, got to the Gulf of Paria, beginning the discovery of South America. On August 15 Columbus opened Margarita Island and on 31 August arrived in Haiti. In 1500, Christopher Columbus was arrested and sent to Castile. For a long time he was waiting for the salvation and for receiving a permission to continue the sailings.
As he took the permission from the king he began the expedition to find a western route to India. Columbus organized four ships for his fourth expedition in 1502-1504. On June 15, 1502 they reached Martinique. On July 30 the crew discovered the Gulf of Honduras. On this island he met the representatives of the Mayan civilization for the first time of history. From August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503 he opened 2,000 kilometers of Caribbean coast of Central America. Unfortunately, on June 25, 1503 the ship wrecked off on the coast of Jamaica. The help came only after one year of their life on Jamaica. Columbus returned in Castile on 7 November 1504 already seriously ill.
Different disease and bad negotiations with the king didn’t permit him to continue his sailings. He had lack of money and on May 20, 1506 he died in Valladolid. His discoveries were accompanied with colonization of lands, with the Spanish settlements, brutal enslavement and mass extermination by conquistadors of indigenous tribes called "Indians" (Wade, 2007, 56-89).
Christopher Columbus was not the discoverer of America. Islands and the coast of North America had been visited by the Normans hundreds years before. But the discoveries of Columbus had world-historical significance. He found a new part of the world that was finally proved by Magellan.
Bibliography
Irving, Washington, and John H. McElroy. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. Print.
Wade, Mary D, Rod Whigham, and Charles Barnett. Christopher Columbus: Famous Explorer. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press, 2007. Print.
