Tag: Christopher Columbus

Pre-Columbian Civilizations: America Before Columbus
January 29, 2025
Christopher Columbus: Biography of the Italian Explorer of the New World
Navigator in the service of the Spanish sovereigns, Christopher Columbus was born on January 1, 1451, in Genoa (Italy). He died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid. Aboard his three ships, he unknowingly sailed toward the New World.
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He is known as “the man who discovered America” in 1492. However, other navigators, such as the Icelandic Leif Erikson (son of Erik the Red), had done so centuries before him. Yet, history remembers the name of the Italian navigator. Columbus had a dream: to find a new route to the Indies. Although he unknowingly failed in this quest, his discovery was no less significant.
Birth (and youth) of Christopher Columbus
Cristoforo Colombo, known as Christopher Columbus, was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, although doubts still persist about his birthplace. He was the son of a weaver, Domenico Colombo. Rejecting the life of an artisan, Columbus decided early on to become a sailor. The young man studied navigation and sciences. In 1476, he set sail aboard a ship bound for Lisbon and England. Following an attack by the French, Columbus ended up in Lagos and then joined his brother in Portugal. There, he met Filipa Perestrelo e Moniz, the daughter of one of Madeira’s colonizers. He married her in 1479, and they had a son, Diego.
The Origin of Christopher Columbus’ Voyage
Columbus harbored a dream: to discover a new route to the Indies by crossing the Atlantic. Until then, explorers would go around Africa, which was costly. Columbus studied the writings of various scholars. Adhering to the idea that the Earth was round, he believed he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic. In his mind, Europe wasn’t far from Asia. While Ptolemy estimated the distance to be 16,090 km, Columbus reduced it to 2,414 km.
The explorer presented his project to a committee of experts appointed by King John II of Portugal. The committee rejected it, and the king refused to finance him. Not giving up, Columbus presented his plan to Isabella of Castile in 1486. She refused in 1490 due to his demands: Columbus wanted to be named Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of all discovered lands. The following year, he re-pitched his proposal to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. King Ferdinand’s advisor convinced Queen Isabella by highlighting the financial benefits of the endeavor. She was also swayed by the evangelical goals tied to the expedition.
Ships
Replicas of Columbus’s three ships (1893)
To chart a new route to the Indies—a quest he would fail but lead to an even more significant discovery—Columbus set sail from Palos, Andalusia, on August 3, 1492. He commanded three ships and a crew of 90 men. These ships are famous: the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. The Santa María was the largest and the ship Columbus sailed on. The Pinta was the fastest, and the Niña was the smallest, as its name suggests. After a stop in the Canary Islands, the expedition embarked on a two-month-long voyage. Worried, the crew almost mutinied.
Columbus and America
On October 10, 1492, land was finally sighted. The ships landed on October 12 on the island of Guanahami, in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus claimed it in the name of the Spanish Catholic Monarchs and named it San Salvador. The navigator believed he had reached the Indies, which is why he called the indigenous people “Indians.” The locals informed him of the presence of gold in Cuba. He arrived on the island on October 28 and declared it Spanish territory.
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The captain of the Pinta deserted to search for gold further west. In December, the Santa María wrecked, and Columbus found himself on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), where he found gold and left about 40 men in a fort. Columbus returned to Spain aboard the Niña and reunited with the Pinta on the way back. Upon his return to Europe, the success of the expedition increased the Admiral’s ambition, and he was already preparing for another voyage.
As for the name “America,” it comes from the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. His name was used by a printer from the Vosges in 1507 when he wanted to reprint Ptolemy’s Cosmographia, the geographic reference of that time. The printer wanted to include the newly discovered lands and called upon the geographer Martin Waldseemüller to map them. Waldseemüller recalled Vespucci’s work Mundus Novus from 1503, which mentioned new lands. He named these lands “America” in honor of the navigator. Vespucci had made several voyages to America, though the exact number and dates are uncertain. He did not precede Columbus but played a part in organizing Columbus’s second voyage, and the two became friends. Though he was not the first to land on the continent, Vespucci was the first to recognize that they had discovered a new continent.
Christopher Columbus and 1492
1492… a date that resonates as a major historical event: Christopher Columbus discovers America! Ironically, he was convinced he had reached the Indies and was completely satisfied with having achieved his goal. He would never know that he had discovered a new continent and that his discovery would earn him a place in the annals of geography. To everyone, Christopher Columbus is the one who discovered America. In reality, other navigators, such as the Icelander Leif Eriksson (the son of Erik the Red), had done so several centuries before him. But history has retained the name of the Italian navigator.
Christopher Columbus and His Other Voyages
Columbus’s copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, with his handwritten notes in Latin written in the margins
In September 1493, once again mandated by Queen Isabella I of Spain, Christopher Columbus set sail with a fleet of 17 ships and 1,500 men with the goal of establishing a colony. The Admiral discovered the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and Dominica) and Puerto Rico. He explored the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica. He found the garrison in Hispaniola, which he had established during his first voyage, decimated by syphilis (or by the Indigenous peoples). Columbus settled farther away and founded the colony of Isabela, entrusting its governance to his brother, Bartolomeo Columbus. He discovered that the indigenous people of these islands practiced cannibalism, using this as a pretext to enslave them. He returned to Spain in 1496.
Shortened Third Voyage
Christopher Columbus set sail again for the “Indies” in 1498. Five of the eight ships were redirected to Hispaniola to supply it. The Admiral continued his expedition toward the island of Trinidad. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain received complaints about the mismanagement of the colony. They sent Francisco de Bobadilla (a Spanish colonial administrator) to arrest Columbus and his brother. Bobadilla brought them back to Spain for trial.
Eventful Fourth Voyage
After the trial, Christopher Columbus was stripped of control over his new lands. However, he was allowed to embark on his fourth voyage in 1502. He reached the coasts of present-day Honduras and discovered an abundance of gold in Panama. However, he had to confront the Indigenous people and lost four of his ships. He took refuge on the island of Jamaica. Eventually, he was rescued and decided to return to Spain in 1504. The great navigator passed away in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, still believing he had reached the Indies but deprived of all his privileges.
Christopher Columbus’ Logbook
The explorer’s voyages are compiled in his logbook titled “Logbook (1492-1493),” in which he described the stages of his journeys. These daily notes were later transcribed and abridged by the Dominican priest and Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las Casas (1485-1566), who was also a writer and historian and a defender of the rights of the Indigenous people against the practices of the Spanish colonists. The original logbook of Christopher Columbus had been given by the navigator himself to the Spanish sovereigns (the Catholic Monarchs) upon his return from the expedition but was later lost.
Christopher Columbus: Key Dates
Presumed portrait of Christopher Columbus, attributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio: blue eyes, elongated face with high forehead, aquiline nose, dimpled chin, hair turned white at the age of 30. Image: Public Domain
January 1, 1451: Birth of Christopher Columbus
Cristoforo Colombo, also known as Christopher Columbus, was born in Genoa, Italy. The son of a weaver, he chose a life at sea early on.
1479: Married
Christopher Columbus married Filipa Perestrelo e Moniz, the daughter of one of the colonizers of Madeira. She bore him a son and died shortly after.
1480: He nurtures great ambition
Columbus studied sciences, navigation, cartography, and cosmography. He began to imagine reaching the Indies by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. His next challenge was convincing the Spanish or Portuguese monarchs to support his project, a task that proved difficult.
1484: Columbus tries to convince the King of Portugal
Christopher Columbus presented his project to a commission of specialists appointed by King John II of Portugal. After the commission’s negative recommendation, the king declined.
1486: Christopher Columbus turns to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain
Columbus met the Catholic Monarchs and presented his project. A scientific commission was assembled to evaluate the expedition. In 1487, following the commission’s recommendation, the Catholic Monarchs gave him a negative response. Columbus did not give up and would try to convince them again a few years later.
April 17, 1492: The Capitulations of Santa Fe
The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, convinced by Columbus’s arguments, agreed to finance his project to cross the Atlantic. They signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe (named after the camp near Granada), which allowed Columbus to outfit ships and gave him the title of Viceroy of the lands to be discovered. The generosity of the monarchs can be attributed to their euphoria following their victory over Granada, ending Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula. Columbus would return triumphantly to Seville on March 31, 1493, believing he had discovered the Indies by sailing west.
August 3, 1492: Christopher Columbus leaves Spain
The Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus departed from the port of Palos (Andalusia), hoping to reach the East Indies and their spices by sailing west. Portugal, having discovered the route to the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, had rejected his plan. But the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, eager to evangelize the world, agreed to finance his voyage.
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Three caravels—the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña—left Spain, sailing westward. Two months later, they would arrive in the Caribbean, believing they had reached the Indies.
October 28, 1492: Columbus discovers Cuba
A few days after setting foot on the first Caribbean islands (October 12), Christopher Columbus encountered the large island of Cuba. He claimed it for Spain and named it “Juana” in honor of the son of the Catholic Monarchs: Prince Juan.
September 25, 1493: Columbus embarks on his second voyage to the New World
The Genoese navigator began his second voyage to what he still believed were the Indies. Mandated once again by Queen Isabella of Spain, he led a fleet of 17 ships. During this expedition, he discovered the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and Dominica) and Puerto Rico. He explored the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica. In Haiti, he found the garrison he had established during his first visit had been decimated by syphilis. He discovered that the indigenous peoples of these islands were cannibals and enslaved them under this pretext. Columbus did not find the riches and gold he sought and returned to Spain in 1496.
May 3, 1494: Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica
Columbus’s fleet discovered the island of Jamaica, then called Xaymaca by the indigenous Arawak people, the first inhabitants of the island. The Spanish would establish a colony, massacre the indigenous people, and import African slaves to work on tobacco and sugar plantations. The English seized the island in 1655, and Jamaica gained independence within the Commonwealth in 1962.
1498: A shortened third voyage
The Admiral set sail again with eight ships for a third voyage. On July 31, five ships were redirected to the Hispaniola colony to supply it with basic goods. Columbus himself reached the island of Trinidad. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, having received complaints about Columbus’s poor governance of the colony, sent Bobadilla to arrest Columbus and his brothers and bring them back to Spain. Following his trial, the great navigator lost all his privileges.
1502: Fourth and final voyage
Columbus was granted permission to depart again in 1502. He landed on the coasts of Honduras, where he found gold but faced hostility from the indigenous people. He lost four ships and requested help from the Hispaniola colony. The colonists eventually intervened, finding Columbus in poor condition. He returned to Spain for good in 1504.
May 20, 1506: Death of Christopher Columbus
The great navigator died in Valladolid, Spain, still believing he had reached the Indies but stripped of all his privileges.
September 30, 2024
How Did The Discovery of America Change The World?
How did Christopher Columbus discover America and change the world? Christopher Columbus transported the Europeans to the “New World” and died without understanding that the lands he discovered were not the coastlines he was seeking for. He lived only 55 years before dying in Spain, having been largely exhausted throughout his life. This brings us to the moment of the discovery of the “New World” by Columbus in 1492, which afterwards was renamed “America.”
Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America
With Columbus’ discovery of the new continent, the process of colonization through the slaughter of thousands of locals had begun.
When Columbus returned to Europe in 1493, the news he brought caused tension between Portugal and Spain. Until that time, Portugal had been leading the opening of new trade routes to Africa. In 1481, the Papacy officially declared that all lands in the south of the Canary Islands belonged to Portugal, which meant a new source of income for the office of Pope.
But now Spain was opposed to the north-south divide. Fernando and Isabel claimed that they had rights to all discoveries in the west and consulted with Pope Alexander VI for justice. In 1493, the Pope decided to draw a perpendicular line 370 miles west of the Azores; the lands to the east of it belonged to Portugal and those to the west to Spain.
Portuguese King Joao opposed this decision because it cut off the favorable winds that carried the ships to the south. In 1494, the two ambassadors met at Tordesillas to solve the problem. The line would be shifted approximately 1,000 miles west so that their ships could go south and east without violating Spanish rights.
What no one knew at that time was that the line cut the east coast of South America. A Portuguese sailor, Pedro Alvares Cabral, on his way to India in 1500, encountered a large piece of land east of the line and registered it on behalf of his country. For this reason, the lands we know today as Brazil belonged to Portugal.
How the discovery of America affected the New World
Until the beginning of the 15th century, Europe’s only relationship with Africa and the East was through the land, and it was a difficult and slow-moving relationship. However, after Christopher Columbus’ journeys, the seas meant new possibilities for connection, not obstacles.
This development had disastrous consequences for the peoples of America, the first continent to fully experience the influence of Europeans. Until that day, many cultures had risen, fought, and collapsed in South and Central America. Some societies, such as the Aztecs and Incas, created great empires. Others, such as Peru’s Mochica and the Maya of Central America, created the finest examples of art that would be called the “pre-Columbian era.”
With the arrival of the Europeans, these cultures were doomed to die. Europeans were supported by ships, weapons, and horses and proved to be invincible. On the other hand, the destructive effects of diseases to which Americans were not resistant brought death to the majority of the local people in the 100 years following the arrival of foreigners. All local cultures disappeared, from Mexico to Peru in the south and the Amazon in the east. Tons of handmade objects, especially golden ones, were stolen.
Despite that, the shadow of pre-Columbian culture continued to exist. Blended with European influence in architecture, the visual arts, religion, language, and technology, these cultures became even more complicated with the arrival of African slaves, who introduced a completely different culture.
The effects of the discovery of America on Europe
The first things imported from the New World were potato plants and hammocks.
The discovery of America’s first impact on Europe was the precious metal mining influx. In the 50 years after the discovery of America, Spain seized around 180 tons of gold, largely artistic pieces, and practically melted all of it. This plunder is considered one of the greatest wealth transfers and art thefts of all time. Meanwhile, the Spaniards extracted 16,000 tons of silver from the mines and sent it to their home country.
This action deprived the world of this unique artistic heritage forever, leading to controversial wastefulness in Europe. The transferred wealth was mostly spent on war, which caused prices to rise to excessive levels. On the other hand, the relationship with America had another surprising consequence. Many unknown plants were growing in Europe on the hills of the high Andes Mountains; potatoes, tomatoes, and corn were completely new tastes for the Old World. Tobacco was also unknown until the Spaniards saw the Indians smoking it for medical purposes and religious ceremonies.
Over the centuries, thousands of medicines have been produced with the resources gathered from South America. For example, a curative plant—a poison that affected the nerves—used by the Amazon’s indigenous arrows was used as a muscle relaxant during surgeries.
Who followed Colombus?
Vasco da Gama sailed from Africa to India and opened a way to Asia, making Portugal the biggest power in the Indian Ocean. “Vasco da Gama” (circa 1460-1524), oil on canvas, by Antonio Manuel da Fonseca, 1838
While Spain was trying to provide capital through the achievements of Christopher Columbus, Portugal continued to travel to the south and east. In 1497, Vasco da Gama toured the Cape of Good Hope, discovered the coasts of East Africa, and then set out for India, intending to break the Arab monopoly in Indian trade. This was also an unfortunate journey, as he could not sell anything, and the scurvy outbreak turned his three-month return journey into hell. However, this road proved to be usable. In the next decade, Portugal would use da Gama’s success as a step both to improve its trade with India and to move toward the Spice Islands (Moluccas) in Southeast Asia. In 1509, a trade fleet arrived in Malaysia. From 1520 on, Portugal dominated the Southeast Asian trade.
The Great Ocean was the last thing that needed to be completed. It was believed that America was a large piece of territory, and another ocean behind this continent was located in 1513 when Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Panama Canal and set foot on the beaches of the Great Ocean. The first round-the-world voyage took place between 1519 and 1522, and thus the southern tip of the continent was fully discovered.
Who coined the name “America”?
Amerigo Vespucci knew that the new land was not the Far East that everyone initially thought, and so the continent was named after him.
The continent was named “America” after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who descended from the east coast of South America to Patagonia between 1501 and 1502. Vespucci realized that this place could not be the Far East and concluded that this land had to be between Europe and China, whether it ended with a nose or reached the South Pole. Therefore, in 1504, he wrote that it would be more appropriate to call it the “New World.” German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller gave these lands the name of Vespucci, on an atlas he made in 1507. Amerigo Vespucci calculated the circumference of the Earth as only a minus 50 miles from its actual length. So, Waldseemüller named the continent after Vespucci.
Vikings discovered America before Christopher Columbus
In fact, Columbus had not “discovered” America. Millions of native Americans had been living there for tens of thousands of years. Columbus wasn’t the first visitor to reach the continent, either. Recent discoveries in Newfoundland point to a residential area where the Vikings seemed to lived for more than a generation. According to Icelandic epics, Bjarni Herjolfsson, a Greenland Viking, had gone off course on his ship in the 1000s when the winds of the North Atlantic were softer and had probably reached a temperate, forested land that is today’s Newfoundland coast.
Bjarni spent a winter in that land and eventually left the area as a result of the attacks from the locals and the shortage of food. Another Viking, Leif Ericson, reached North America as well. The Vikings noted that they stayed in the land for a short time, which they called “Vinland” because of the abundance of vines.
According to a Latin manuscript from the 10th century, Irish priest Saint Brendan VI, who lived in the 19th century, roamed the Atlantic Ocean in a leather boat stretched on a wooden frame. Although there are references to Iceland’s volcanoes and icebergs, there is no evidence that Brendan reached America.
Christopher Columbus quotes
- “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
- “Gold is a treasure and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world.”
- “Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.”
- “When there are such lands there should be profitable things without number.”
- “Riches don’t make a man rich, they only make him busier.”
September 7, 2022