Was Christopher Columbus Italian? - Quora Quora There are many theories of his place of birth, but Genoa, in current Italy, is by far the most probable place of Columbus' birth. Any other place lacks any documented and contemporary basis, and rely mainly on speculations. There are several documents stating that Columbus was genoese. In a 1498 deed of primogeniture, Columbus writes: Siendo yo nacido en Genova... de ella salí y en ella naci... —As I was born in Genoa... came from it and was born there... Many historians, including a distinguished Spanish scholar, Altolaguirre, affirm the document's authenticity; others believe it apocryphal. Some believe that the fact that it was produced in court, during a lawsuit among the heirs of Columbus, in 1578, does not strengthen the case for it being genuine. A letter from Columbus, dated 2 April 1502, to the Bank of Saint George, the oldest and most reputable of Genoa's financial institutions, begins with the words: Bien que el coerpo ande aca el coracon esta ali de continuo...

—Though my body is here, my heart is constantly there... Although a few people consider this letter suspect, the vast majority of scholars believe it genuine. The most scrupulous examination by graphologists testifies in favor of authenticity. The letter is one of a group of documents entrusted by Columbus to a Genoese friend, after the bitter experiences of his third voyage, before setting out on his fourth. In the spring of 1502, the Admiral collected notarized copies of all the writings concerned with his rights to the discovery of new lands. He sent these documents to Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Republic of Genoa. To this same Oderico he handed over the letter to the Bank of Saint George, in which he announced that he was leaving the bank one-tenth of his income, with a recommendation for his son Diego. Oderico returned to Genoa and delivered the letter to the bank, which replied, on 8 December 1502 lauding the gesture of their "renowned fellow-citizen" towards his "native land".

The reply, unfortunately, never reached its destination; the Admiral, back in Castile after his fourth voyage, complained about this in another letter to Ambassador Oderico, dated 27 December 1504, and promptly annulled the bequest. So we have four documents: the first preserved in the archives of the Bank of Saint George until, when it was taken over by the municipality of Genoa, the other three in the Oderico family archives until 1670, then donated to the Republic of Genoa. After the fall of the Republic, they passed to the library of one of its last senators, Michele Cambiaso, and in they were finally acquired by the city of Genoa. There are also public and notarial acts (more than a hundred) — copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona — regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives But, of course, even with these and additional documents, there are some doubts, such as why he always wrote in Spanish or Portuguese and not in Italian, even when addressing to Genoese (like the letter to the Banco de San Giorgio)?

736 Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Written Jul 14, 2015 Most scholars believe Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa to a family if wool weavers. There are a number of references to this issue. There is the famous Assereto document, involving a 1479 lawsuit over a sugar transaction on the Atlantic island of Madeira. In it young Christopher swore that he was a 27-year-old Genoese citizen resident in Portugal and had been hired to represent the Genoese merchants in that transaction. This showed that he was living in Portugal in 1479 and testified that he was born in Genoa. He couldn't be Italian since Genoa was a (very rich) city state at that time and Italy as a unified nation did not yet exist. It is presumed he spoke the language of Genoa Ligurian and his name would have been "Cristoforo Colombo" 198 Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Christopher Columbus :: Christopher Columbus Essays Open Document My name is Christopher Columbus. I was born in the Italian city of Genoa in the year 1451.

My father was a wool weaver and merchant who sold cloth. Genoa was famous for its traders, map-makers, and explorers and many men became sailers. I went to sea at the age of fourteen. In 1476, the ship on which I was aboard was attacked off the coast of Portugal. I managed to swim six miles to Lisbon. There I joined my brother Bartholomew, who was a chart maker. I also became a chart maker for a short period of time. I worked as a sugar buyer in the Portuguese islands off of Africa. From 1477-1482, I made merchant voyages as far as Iceland and Guinea. During this time I met pilots and navigators who believed in the existence of islands farther west. I settled in Lisbon and married the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman. By the time I was 32, I had become a master mariner in the Portuguese merchant service. Influenced by my brother and Alonso Pinzon, I believed that I could reach land by sailing farther west. I began seeking support for a voyage to the west. After being turned down several times, I finally gained the support of Ferdinand and Isabella after they conquered Granada.

On August 3, 1492, I left Palos, Spain for my trip to the new world. I left with three ships, the Nina , Pinta, and Santa Maria, which I commanded. I first stopped in the Canary Islands and then sailed west until October 7th, when I change my course to Southwest. On October 12, I landed on a small island in the Bahamas. I found Cuba on October 27 and reached Hispaniola on December 5. Leaving some men to found a colony, I returned to Spain on the Nina. In October 1493, I set out on a second expedition and discovered Puerto Rico before arriving at Hispaniola to find the colony destroyed by Native Americans. I left in 1494 to explore the southern coast of Cuba. I left my brother in charge of the colony and returned to Spain in 1496.

How to Cite this Page MLA Citation: Christopher Columbus | Italian explorer | Britannica.com Christopher Columbus Alternative Titles: Cristóbal Colón, Cristoforo Colombo Christopher Columbus Vasco Núñez de Balboa Christopher Columbus, Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristóbal Colón (born between August 26 and October 31?, 1451, Genoa [Italy]—died May 20, 1506, Valladolid, Spain), master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages (1492–93, 1493–96, 1498–1500, and 1502–04) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas. He has long been called the “discoverer” of the New World, although Vikings such as Leif Eriksson had visited North America five centuries earlier. Columbus made his transatlantic voyages under the sponsorship of Ferdinand II and Isabella I , the Catholic Monarchs of Aragon , Castile , and Leon in Spain .

He was at first full of hope and ambition, an ambition partly gratified by his title “Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” awarded to him in April 1492, and by the grants enrolled in the Book of Privileges (a record of his titles and claims). However, he died a disappointed man. Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock The period between the quatercentenary celebrations of Columbus’s achievements in 1892–93 and the quincentenary ones of 1992 saw great advances in Columbus scholarship. Numerous books about Columbus appeared in the 1990s, and the insights of archaeologists and anthropologists began to complement those of sailors and historians. This effort gave rise to considerable debate. There was also a major shift in approach and interpretation; the older pro-European understanding gave way to one shaped from the perspective of the inhabitants of the Americas themselves.

According to the older understanding, the “discovery” of the Americas was a great triumph, one in which Columbus played the part of hero in accomplishing the four voyages, in being the means of bringing great material profit to Spain and to other European countries, and in opening up the Americas to European settlement. The more recent perspective, however, has concentrated on the destructive side of the European conquest, emphasizing, for example, the disastrous impact of the slave trade and the ravages of imported disease on the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean region and the American continents. The sense of triumph has diminished accordingly, and the view of Columbus as hero has now been replaced, for many, by one of a man deeply flawed. While this second perception rarely doubts Columbus’s sincerity or abilities as a navigator, it emphatically removes him from his position of honour. Political activists of all kinds have intervened in the debate, further hindering the reconciliation of these disparate views. Life EU Considers Rules For Robots Early career and preparation for the first voyage Little is known of Columbus’s early life.

The vast majority of scholars, citing Columbus’s testament of 1498 and archival documents from Genoa and Savona , believe that he was born in Genoa to a Christian household; however, it has been claimed that he was a converted Jew or that he was born in Spain , Portugal , or elsewhere. Columbus was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a Genoese wool worker and merchant, and Susanna Fontanarossa, his wife. His career as a seaman began effectively in the Portuguese merchant marine. After surviving a shipwreck off Cape Saint Vincent at the southwestern point of Portugal in 1476, he based himself in Lisbon , together with his brother Bartholomew . Both were employed as chart makers, but Columbus was principally a seagoing entrepreneur . In 1477 he sailed to Iceland and Ireland with the merchant marine, and in 1478 he was buying sugar in Madeira as an agent for the Genoese firm of Centurioni. In 1479 he met and married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, a member of an impoverished noble Portuguese family. Their son, Diego , was born in 1480.

Between 1482 and 1485 Columbus traded along the Guinea and Gold coasts of tropical West Africa and made at least one voyage to the Portuguese fortress of São Jorge da Mina (now Elmina, Ghana ) there, gaining knowledge of Portuguese navigation and the Atlantic wind systems along the way. Felipa died in 1485, and Columbus took as his mistress Beatriz Enríquez de Harana of Córdoba, by whom he had his second son, Ferdinand (born c. 1488). Christopher Columbus with his sons, Diego and Ferdinand, and a woman, engraving by I. Stockdale, … Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. LC-USZ62-106029) In 1484 Columbus began seeking support for an Atlantic crossing from King John II of Portugal but was denied aid. (Some conspiracy theorists have alleged that Columbus made a secret pact with the monarch, but there is no evidence of this.) By 1486 Columbus was firmly in Spain, asking for patronage from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

After at least two rejections, he at last obtained royal support in January 1492. This was achieved chiefly through the interventions of the Spanish treasurer, Luis de Santángel, and of the Franciscan friars of La Rábida, near Huelva , with whom Columbus had stayed in the summer of 1491. Juan Pérez of La Rábida had been one of the queen’s confessors and perhaps procured him the crucial audience. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Christian missionary and anti-Islamic fervour, the power of Castile and Aragon, the fear of Portugal, the lust for gold, the desire for adventure, the hope of conquests, and Europe’s genuine need for a reliable supply of herbs and spices for cooking, preserving, and medicine all combined to produce an explosion of energy that launched the first voyage. Columbus had been present at the siege of Granada , which was the last Moorish stronghold to fall to Spain (January 2, 1492), and he was in fact riding back from Granada to La Rábida when he was recalled to the Spanish court and the vital royal audience.

Granada’s fall had produced euphoria among Spanish Christians and encouraged designs of ultimate triumph over the Islamic world , albeit chiefly, perhaps, by the back way round the globe. A direct assault eastward could prove difficult, because the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic states in the region had been gaining strength at a pace that was threatening the Christian monarchies themselves. The Islamic powers had effectively closed the land routes to the East and made the sea route south from the Red Sea extremely hard to access. Christopher Columbus requesting support from Isabella I and Ferdinand II of Spain, chromolithograph … Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

(LC-DIG-pga-03133) Human Exploration: From Earth to Space In the letter that prefaces his journal of the first voyage, the admiral vividly evokes his own hopes and binds them all together with the conquest of the infidel, the victory of Christianity, and the westward route to discovery and Christian alliance: …and I saw the Moorish king come out of the gates of the city and kiss the royal hands of Your Highnesses…and Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians…took thought to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said parts of India, to see those princes and peoples and lands…and the manner which should be used to bring about their conversion to our holy faith, and ordained that I should not go by land to the eastward, by which way it was the custom to go, but by way of the west, by which down to this day we do not know certainly that anyone has passed; therefore, having driven out all the Jews from your realms and lordships in the same month of January, Your Highnesses commanded me that, with a sufficient fleet, I should go to the said parts of India, and for this accorded me great rewards and ennobled me so that from

 that time henceforth I might style myself “Don” and be high admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy and perpetual Governor of the islands and continent which I should discover…and that my eldest son should succeed to the same position, and so on from generation to generation forever.

Christopher Columbus (second from right) planning his expedition to the New World. © iStockphoto/Thinkstock Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Thus a great number of interests were involved in this adventure, which was, in essence, the attempt to find a route to the rich land of Cathay ( China ), to India , and to the fabled gold and spice islands of the East by sailing westward over what was presumed to be open sea. Columbus himself clearly hoped to rise from his humble beginnings in this way, to accumulate riches for his family, and to join the ranks of the nobility of Spain. In a similar manner, but at a more exalted level, the Catholic Monarchs hoped that such an enterprise would gain them greater status among the monarchies of Europe, especially against their main rival, Portugal. Then, in alliance with the papacy (in this case, with the Borgia pope Alexander VI [1492–1503]), they might hope to take the lead in the Christian war against the infidel. At a more elevated level still, Franciscan brethren were preparing for the eventual end of the world, as they believed was prophesied in the Revelation to John .

According to that eschatological vision, Christendom would recapture Jerusalem and install a Christian emperor in the Holy Land as a precondition for the coming and defeat of Antichrist , the Christian conversion of the whole human race, and the Last Judgment . Franciscans and others hoped that Columbus’s westward project would help to finance a Crusade to the Holy Land that might even be reinforced by, or coordinated with, offensives from the legendary ruler Prester John , who was thought to survive with his descendants in the lands to the east of the infidel. The emperor of Cathay—whom Europeans referred to as the Great Khan of the Golden Horde —was himself held to be interested in Christianity, and Columbus carefully carried a letter of friendship addressed to him by the Spanish monarchs. Finally, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was known to have pressed southward along the coast of West Africa, beyond São Jorge da Mina, in an effort to find an easterly route to Cathay and India by sea. It would never do to allow the Portuguese to find the sea route first.

Page 1 of 3 Christopher Columbus | historyvault.ie Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus: People-in-History-Christopher-Columbus Born: 1451 in Genoa, Italy. (Italian port city) The eldest of five children. Youth: worked in his father’s wool weaving business. At 14, went to work at sea on merchant ships. Studied: Sailing & Cartography (the study of maps & map-making). A quicker route to China & the Far East Concept: ‘Entreprise of the Indies’ (theory that declared by sailing west, one would reach the Far East). At this time, European countries wanted to find new routes to China & the Far East, where valuable and precious spices were to be found. Most ships sailed down around the coast of Africa and across the Indian Ocean up to this time. Columbus believed that there was a more direct way. ________________________ The Search for a Sponsor 1st Plea for Sponsorship: King of Portugal & other kings in Europe (all unsuccessful) 2nd Plea for Sponsorship: King Ferdinand II & Queen Isabella I of Spain.

(1492 – after 7 years of pleas) Ferdinand & Isabella’s Motives for Sponsorship: Wealth & spices, new territories to control and spreading Christianity. Their rivalry with Portugal was also a key motive in the Spanish Court backing his expedition. Columbus demanded 10% of all revenue accrued from successful explorations. He also demanded to be made Viceroy of all new lands found on his expedition. _______________________ _______________________ A Hero’s Return March 1493: Columbus returns to Spain a hero in March 1493, with Indian women, gold and exotic gifts. The Spanish Court then agreed to fund a much larger second voyage of 17 ships. _______________________ Later Voyages 2nd Voyage: (24th of September 1493) Columbus returned to the fort built on Hispaniola to find that many of his men had been killed. Natives over the age of 14 were then forced to mine for gold. Columbus returned to Spain in 1496.

3rd Voyage: (30th May 1498) Word spread about the lack of gold, sailors dying from unknown diseases and the dangers posed by travelling on Columbus’ expeditions. He set sail on his third voyage with ten prisoners who had been granted amnesties to make up a full crew compliment. Columbus sailed further south on this voyage. Dealing with rebellious settlers in a harsh fashion, including hanging some of them, Columbus was returned to Spain in chains. Columbus’ Last Voyage 4th Voyage: (11th May 1502): set sail on just four sub-standard ships. He tried to sail to present-day Central America, trying to find a route to Asia. His ships finally broke up after harbouring on present-day Jamaica. Returned on a ship to Spain in 1504. Death: 20th May,1506 _________________________ Legacy: accredited with finding the ‘New World’. Spaniards & Natives both suffered from new diseases which both sets of people were unable to recover from. Large-scale slavery and exploitation of indigenous people. Christopher Columbus - The first voyage | Italian explorer | Britannica.com The first voyage Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent The ships for the first voyage—the Niña , Pinta , and Santa María —were fitted out at Palos, on the Tinto River in Spain. Consortia put together by a royal treasury official and composed mainly of Genoese and Florentine bankers in Sevilla (Seville) provided at least 1,140,000 maravedis to outfit the expedition, and Columbus supplied more than a third of the sum contributed by the king and queen. Queen Isabella did not, then, have to pawn her jewels (a myth first put about by Bartolomé de Las Casas in the 16th century). Illustration depicting Christopher Columbus’s fleet departing from Spain in 1492. Kean Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The little fleet left on August 3, 1492. The admiral’s navigational genius showed itself immediately, for they sailed southward to the Canary Islands , off the northwest African mainland, rather than sailing due west to the islands of the Azores .

The westerlies prevailing in the Azores had defeated previous attempts to sail to the west, but in the Canaries the three ships could pick up the northeast trade winds; supposedly, they could trust to the westerlies for their return. After nearly a month in the Canaries the ships set out from San Sebastián de la Gomera on September 6. Print depicting Christopher Columbus bidding farewell to Queen Isabella I on his departure for the … Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-pga-02392) On several occasions in September and early October, sailors spotted floating vegetation and various types of birds—all taken as signs that land was nearby. But by October 10 the crew had begun to lose patience, complaining that with their failure to make landfall, contrary winds and a shortage of provisions would keep them from returning home. Columbus allayed their fears, at least temporarily, and on October 12 land was sighted from the Pinta (though Columbus, on the Niña, later claimed the privilege for himself).

The place of the first Caribbean landfall, called Guanahani, is hotly disputed, but San Salvador (Watlings) Island in the Bahamas is generally preferred to other Bahamian islands ( Samana Cay , Rum Cay, or the Plana Cays) or to the Turks and Caicos Islands . Beyond planting the royal banner, however, Columbus spent little time there, being anxious to press on to Cipango, or Cipangu ( Japan ). He thought that he had found it in Cuba , where he landed on October 28, but he convinced himself by November 1 that Cuba was the Cathay mainland itself, though he had yet to see evidence of great cities. Thus, on December 5, he turned back southeastward to search for the fabled city of Zaiton ( Quanzhou , China), missing through this decision his sole chance of setting foot on Florida soil.

Landing of Columbus, oil on canvas by John Vanderlyn, 1846; in the … Architect of the Capitol Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Adverse winds carried the fleet to an island called Ayti ( Haiti ) by its Taino inhabitants; on December 6 Columbus renamed it La Isla Española, or Hispaniola . He seems to have thought that Hispaniola might be Cipango or, if not Cipango, then perhaps one of the legendarily rich isles from which King Solomon ’s triennial fleet brought back gold, gems, and spices to Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:11, 22); alternatively, he reasoned that the island could be related to the biblical kingdom of Sheba ( Sabaʾ ). There Columbus found at least enough gold and prosperity to save him from ridicule on his return to Spain. With the help of a Taino cacique, or Indian chief, named Guacanagarí, he set up a stockade on the northern coast of the island, named it La Navidad, and posted 39 men to guard it until his return.

The accidental running aground of the Santa María on December 25, 1492, provided additional planks and provisions for the garrison. Human Exploration: From Earth to Space On January 16, 1493, Columbus left with his remaining two ships for Spain. The journey back was a nightmare. The westerlies did indeed direct them homeward, but in mid-February a terrible storm engulfed the fleet. The Niña was driven to seek harbour at Santa Maria in the Azores, where Columbus led a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to the shrine of the Virgin; however, hostile Portuguese authorities temporarily imprisoned the group. After securing their freedom Columbus sailed on, stormbound, and the damaged ship limped to port in Lisbon. There he was obliged to interview with King John II. These events left Columbus under the suspicion of collaborating with Spain’s enemies and cast a shadow on his return to Palos on March 15. On this first voyage many tensions built up that were to remain through all of Columbus’s succeeding efforts. First and perhaps most damaging of all, the admiral’s apparently high religious and even mystical aspirations were incompatible with the realities of trading, competition, and colonization.

Columbus never openly acknowledged this gulf and so was quite incapable of bridging it. The admiral also adopted a mode of sanctification and autocratic leadership that made him many enemies. Moreover, Columbus was determined to take back both material and human cargo to his sovereigns and for himself, and this could be accomplished only if his sailors carried on looting, kidnapping, and other violent acts, especially on Hispaniola. Although he did control some of his men’s excesses, these developments blunted his ability to retain the high moral ground and the claim in particular that his “discoveries” were divinely ordained. Further, the Spanish court revived its latent doubts about the foreigner Columbus’s loyalty to Spain, and some of Columbus’s companions set themselves against him. Captain Martín Pinzón had disputed the route as the fleet reached the Bahamas ; he had later sailed the Pinta away from Cuba, and Columbus, on November 21, failing to rejoin him until January 6. The Pinta made port at Bayona on its homeward journey, separately from Columbus and the Niña. Had Pinzón not died so soon after his return, Columbus’s command of the second voyage might have been less than assured.

As it was, the Pinzón family became his rivals for reward. The second and third voyages Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest 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.” Trending Topics Opium Wars 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. Christopher Columbus - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1451-1506). On the morning of Oct. 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus stepped ashore on an island in what has since become known as the Americas. The arrival of his ships in the Western Hemisphere was one of the pivotal events in world history. It opened up a new world for Europeans and initiated the spread of Western civilization to a new hemisphere. But if these lands were a new world for Europeans, they were a very old world for the inhabitants Columbus and his successors encountered. Cultures dating back perhaps 20,000 years already existed on the two "new" continents and neighboring islands.

These native cultures ranged from Stone Age societies of hunters and gatherers to highly developed, settled agricultural communities with central cities and imposing monuments. Under the effects of the European explorers and, later, colonists, these native cultures suffered nearly total annihilation. Article Contributors Christopher Columbus Biography Christopher Columbus Biography 123 Tips Net Christopher Columbus Biography Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506), Italian Spanish navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a route to Asia but achieved fame by making landfall in the Americas instead. On October 12, 1492, two worlds unknown to each other met for the first time on a small island in the Caribbean Sea . While on a voyage for Spain in search of a direct sea route from Europe to Asia, Christopher Columbus unintentionally discovered the Americas. However, in four separate voyages to the Caribbean from 1492 to 1504, he remained convinced that he had found the lands that Marco Polo reached in his overland travels to China at the end of the 13th century. To Columbus it was only a matter of time before a passage was found through the Caribbean islands to the fabled cities of Asia.

Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas�Vikings from Scandinavia had briefly settled on the North American coast, in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in the late 10th or early 11th century. However, Columbus�s explorations had a profound impact on the world. They led directly to the opening of the western hemisphere to European colonization; to large-scale exchanges of plants, animals, cultures, and ideas between the two worlds; and, on a darker note, to the deaths of millions of indigenous American peoples from war, forced labor, and disease. Understanding Christopher Columbus is difficult without understanding the world into which he was born. The 15th century was a century of change, and many events that occurred during that time profoundly affected European society. Many of these events were driven by the centuries-long conflict between Christians and Muslims, followers of the religion known as Islam. The event that had the most far-reaching effects on Europe in the 15th century was the fall of the city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) to the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Constantinople had been the capital of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire for centuries, and it was an important center for trade between Europe and Asia. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire, which had already conquered much of southeastern Europe, captured the city, closing an important trade route from Europe to the east (see Ottoman Empire). European merchants could still buy Asian goods from Muslims in places such as Alexandria, Egypt. However, Europeans longed for a sea route to Asia that would allow them to bypass the Muslims and purchase Asian products directly. In addition, European princes and kings quickly realized that the first nation to find such a route could become very wealthy by monopolizing the highly profitable Asian trade. The first European nation to begin actively seeking a sea route to Asia was Portugal. The Portuguese had already begun exploring Africa in the early 1400s, and in 1415 they invaded northern Africa and conquered the Muslim commercial center of Ceuta on the Strait of Gibraltar. This gained the Portuguese access to the lucrative African trade, which, until that time, had been dominated by the Muslims.

Under the tutelage of Prince Henry the Navigator, who established a school for navigators in southern Portugal shortly after the Ceuta invasion, the Portuguese began exploring the western coast of Africa, hoping to find a route to the riches of Asia by going around the southern tip of the continent. Other nations, not wanting to be left behind, began sponsoring voyages of exploration as well. Into this world, full of the excitement of exploration and discovery, Christopher Columbus was born. Biographical facts on Columbus vary from author to author. However, most scholars generally agree that he was born in the Italian port city of Genoa, on the Ligurian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea), between August 25 and October 31, 1451. His name in Italian was Cristoforo Colombo, which is translated into English as Christopher Columbus, into Spanish as Crist�bal Col�n, and into Portuguese as Christov�o Colom. Columbus used the Portuguese version of his name while in Portugal and the Spanish version after moving to Spain in 1485. Columbus�s father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who was also involved in local politics.

His mother was Suzanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of a wool weaver. The eldest of five children, Christopher had three brothers�Bartholomew, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo�and one sister, Bianchinetta. The entire family moved to the nearby port city of Savona, west of Genoa, in 1470. Although how much formal education Columbus received as a child is not known, the schools of Italian craft guilds (which Columbus, as the son of a wool weaver, would have attended) did offer a rudimentary level of reading and writing. As a boy, Christopher joined his father in the family business of wool processing and selling. He may have worked as a clerk in a Genoese bookshop as well. However, as did many other young men who grew up in a major seaport, Columbus soon began a life of seafaring. Beginning his seagoing career at age 14, Columbus served on various ships in various roles, including messenger, common sailor, and, perhaps, even as a 21-year-old privateer.

Columbus�s son Ferdinand stated in History of the Life and Deeds of Christopher Columbus that in 1472 Columbus was given command of a ship on a privateering expedition to Tunis in northern Africa. In a lost letter, Columbus supposedly related to his son how Ren� I, duke of the French province of Anjou, had commissioned Columbus to make a surprise attack on a large Spanish ship sailing off the coast of North Africa. Most historians doubt, however, that Columbus ever received command of the expedition. Much more credible, though, is a subsequent expedition. In 1474 Columbus was hired as a sailor on a ship bound for the island of Kh�os in the Aegean Sea, an arm of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. This was his first long voyage and must have proved profitable, because after spending a year on the island he was able to become economically independent from his family. This voyage also represents a great irony in the life of Columbus�the trip to this small island in the Aegean brought him the closest he would ever get to Asia.

On August 13, 1476, a Genoese commercial expedition of five ships bound for England gave Columbus his first opportunity to leave the Mediterranean Sea and sail into the Atlantic Ocean. But it was an inauspicious beginning for Columbus: According to tradition, the entire fleet was attacked by French privateers off Cape Saint Vincent on the southwestern tip of Portugal. Both sides lost ships; Columbus, one of the unfortunate ones whose ship was burned, had no escape other than to swim for the Portuguese coast. He made it the 10 km (6 mi) to shore by clinging to wreckage. After regaining his strength in the port of Lagos, Columbus made his way to Lisbon and its large community of Genoese merchants and shipbuilders. He was 25 years old. By 1477 Columbus was settled in Lisbon. Since the beginning of Portuguese voyages of exploration in the middle of the 14th century, Lisbon had become a haven for explorers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, merchants, and any others who saw their fortunes tied to the trade winds and ocean currents.

Columbus�s brother Bartholomew worked in Lisbon as a mapmaker, and for a time the brothers worked together as draftsmen and book collectors. Later that year, Columbus set sail on a convoy loaded with goods to be sold in northern Atlantic ports. In 1478 or 1479 Columbus met and married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, the daughter of a respected, though relatively poor, noble family. Felipa�s father, Bartolomeo Perestrello, who was already deceased when Columbus met Felipa, had served as governor of Porto Santo in the Madeira Islands, a Portuguese possession off the northwest coast of Africa. Soon after their marriage, the newlyweds accompanied the rest of the family back to Porto Santo, where Felipa�s oldest brother took over the governorship. Columbus and Felipa moved to the larger island of Madeira in 1480 or 1481, soon after their son Diego was born. It is believed that Felipa died soon thereafter. In late 1481 or early 1482 Columbus sailed to the Portuguese fortress of Elmina, in what is now Ghana, on the western coast of Africa.

Columbus was impressed with the riches Africa offered, especially gold. In addition, like all good navigators, he was eager to learn about winds and ocean currents from the local pilots and sailors. In the waters off the coast of Africa and the nearby Canary Islands Columbus first observed the ocean phenomenon known as the Canaries Current (see Atlantic Ocean: Currents). Knowledge of this fast-moving current running west of the Canary Islands could well have been the reason that Columbus later chose to start his crossing of the Atlantic in the latitude of the Canaries, far south of Spain or Portugal. The experiences of these years led directly to the genesis of Columbus�s plan to reach the east by going west, what he called his �Enterprise of the Indies.� (To Europeans in Columbus�s day, all lands to the east of the Indus River in Asia were �the Indies.�) Inspiration and assistance for his plan came from a number of sources. First, his marriage into the Portuguese nobility proved helpful because, although relatively poor, the family still had connections to the Portuguese court.

Columbus apparently gained access to his father-in-law�s papers and found a wealth of information, including maps, charts revealing ocean currents, interviews with sailors, and stories about objects that had drifted to the coast of the Madeira Islands from the west. Also contributing to the formation of Columbus�s plan were his association with the Genoese community in Portugal and his expeditions to Africa. Both furthered his knowledge of Atlantic waters, and his trips to Africa brought him close to the Canary Islands, giving him knowledge of the Canaries Current. Also, while in ports in England, Ireland, Iceland, and other northern regions, Columbus may have heard stories of lands to the west of Iceland. Although the histories of the Vikings, who settled Iceland and Greenland in the 9th and 10th centuries, never became part of the knowledge base of medieval Europeans, it is believed that stories of their encounters with unknown islands in the northern Atlantic were widespread. Columbus�s genius was his remarkable ability to gather information from around the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and combine his own experiences with ancient theories from books in a way that few navigators could.

Columbus�s idea of sailing west to get to the east was not original with him, nor did he ever claim that it was. Columbus drew upon science and knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. In Greek and Roman times, for example, geographers theorized that there was only one body of water on the surface of the Earth and that it connected Europe and Asia. If so, one could theoretically sail from the west to get to the east. Only the distance was disputed. Columbus�s ideas of the size of the earth and the distance between Europe and Asia were based on the descriptions contained in several geographic works. These works included the 2nd-century manuscript Geography by Ptolemy; Imago Mundi (Image of the World) by Pierre d�Ailly, published in the early 1480s; and The Travels of Marco Polo, written in 1298 after Marco Polo returned from China. Unfortunately, his ideas did not prove particularly accurate.

Columbus founded his theory on two mistaken propositions�that the Asian continent stretched much farther to the east than it actually does, and that Japan lay about 2,400 km (about 1,500 mi) east of the Asian mainland. Columbus also greatly underestimated the circumference of the earth. Columbus calculated that the Canary Islands lay only about 4,440 km (about 2,760 mi) from Japan; the actual distance is about 19,000 km (about 12,000 mi). Similar errors were made by other learned men of the time, including the Florentine geographer Paulo de Pozzo Toscanelli, with whom Columbus may have corresponded. Neither Columbus nor anyone else in Europe suspected that two vast continents lay in the way of a westward passage to Asia. Columbus decided to seek patronage for his plan first in Portugal. With few interruptions, the Portuguese crown had encouraged and supported exploration for over a century, and nearly all new discoveries in the Atlantic were Portuguese.

Furthermore, it was well known that the reigning monarch, King John II, was personally committed to sailing around Africa and discovering a direct sea route to the Indian Ocean and Asia. The king�s strong support of geographical exploration made him a logical choice for Columbus to approach. In addition, Columbus had been in Portugal for seven years and had married a Portuguese noblewoman. According to tradition, in 1484 the king listened to Columbus�s proposal to sail to the east by going west and summarily passed it on to his Council of Geographical Affairs. But after a public hearing, the council denied the request on the grounds that it was too expensive, that Columbus was wrong about distances and measurements, and that such a plan contradicted Portugal�s commitment to finding an eastward route to Asia by traveling around Africa.

Question: In which Italian city was Christopher Columbus born?
Answer: Genoa