Admiral and master navigator Christopher Columbus, also known by the Italian and Spanish names Cristoforo Colombo and Cristóbal Colón, oversaw four transatlantic voyages between 1492 and 1502 that paved the way for modern shipping. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, between August 26 and October 31, 1451, and died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506.
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the Catholic Kings of Aragon, Castile, and Leon in Spain, supported Columbus’ transatlantic voyages despite the fact that Vikings like Leif Eriksson had visited the region. His title as “Admiral of the Ocean Sea,” awarded to him in April 1492, and the grants listed in the Book of Privileges (which serves as a record of his titles and claims), in part, initially satisfied his ambition. But he died, feeling disappointed.
Young Age
Little is known about Columbus’ formative years. Although it has been suggested that Columbus was a converted Jew or that he was born in Spain, Portugal, or elsewhere, the vast majority of scholars hold that he was born in Genoa to a Christian family and support this assertion with references to his testament from 1498 and archival records from Genoa and Savona. Columbus was the oldest child of Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa, a wool worker and merchant from Genoa. He actually had a successful start to his maritime career in the Portuguese merchant marine. After escaping a shipwreck off the southwest coast of Portugal in 1476, he and his brother Bartholomew made their home in Lisbon. Columbus was primarily a seafaring businessman, despite the fact that they were both chart makers.
In 1477, using the merchant marine, he visited Iceland and Ireland. He was making sugar purchases in Madeira in 1478 on behalf of the Genoese firm Centurioni. In 1479, he married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, a Portuguese noblewoman from a low-income family. They had a son in 1480 who was named Diego. Between 1482 and 1485, between the coasts of tropical West Africa’s Guinea and Gold, Columbus conducted commercial trade. During at least one of these trips, he visited the Portuguese fortress of So Jorge da Mina, now Elmina, Ghana, where he learned about Portuguese navigation and the patterns of the Atlantic winds. After Felipa’s passing in 1485, Columbus wed Cordoba’s Beatriz Enriquez de Harana. Ferdinand, Columbus’ second son, was born in the late 1500s and was conceived by Beatriz. 1488).
Initial Journey
The three ships for the inaugural voyage, the Nia, Pinta, and Santa Mara, were outfitted in Palos, Spain, on the Tinto River. The expedition received at least 1,140,000 maravedis for supplies from consortia organized by a royal treasury official in Sevilla (Seville) and primarily made up of Genoese and Florentine bankers, who contributed more than a third of the money provided by the king and queen. Because of this, Bartolomé de Las Casas’s 16th-century legend that Queen Isabella was forced to pawn her jewelry was untrue.
Navigator
On August 3, 1492, the small fleet sailed off. They headed south to the Canary Islands, off the coast of northwest Africa, rather than sailing due west to the Azores, demonstrating the admiral’s mastery of navigation right away. The three ships could pick up the northeast trade winds in the Canaries, theoretically allowing them to sail west. The ships left San Sebastian de la Gomera on September 6 after spending almost a month in the Canaries. Earlier attempts to sail west had been thwarted by the westerlies that prevailed in the Azores.
Third and Second Voyages
Everyone was persuaded that a quick second voyage was required by Columbus’s display of gold, parrots, spices, and human captives for his sovereigns in Barcelona. At the height of his fame, on September 25, 1493, Columbus set sail from Cadiz in command of at least 17 ships. This time he was accompanied by a group of friars, and colonization and Christian evangelization were openly included in the plans. The expedition’s lofty objectives are confirmed by a small cavalry troop, about 200 individual investors, and 1,300 salaried employees.
Fourth Voyage and Later Years
Winter and spring of 1501-02 saw a tremendous amount of activity. Columbus wrote about 20 of the letters and memos that are still in existence when the four ships were chosen, bought, outfitted, and manned. Many of these memos and letters offered refutations of Bobadilla’s charges, while others emphasized the necessity of recapturing Jerusalem and the proximity of the Earthly Paradise. Columbus began referring to himself as the “Christbearer” in his letters, and he also adopted an enigmatic signature that has never been satisfactorily explained.
In addition, he began to compile his Book of Privileges, which defends the Columbus family’s land and financial claims, and his apocalyptic Book of Prophecies, which contains a number of biblical verses. Even though they seem to go against each other, the admiral’s mind connected the first and second compilations. He seemed to be absolutely certain that his mission was being guided by the divine. As the threats to his personal goals grew, so did his aspirations for the spiritual realm. On May 9, 1502, Columbus set out on his fourth expedition from Cádiz, despite all of these difficulties and perils.
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