Christopher columbus voyages to the new world

Isidore in the seventh century. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in Januarythe Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage. On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas.

Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. On 13 SeptemberColumbus observed that the needle of his compass no longer pointed to the North Star. It was once believed that Columbus had discovered magnetic declinationbut it was later shown that the phenomenon was already known, both in Europe and in China.

After 29 days out of sight of land, on October 7the crew spotted "[i]mmense flocks of birds", some of which his sailors trapped and determined to be "field" birds probably Eskimo curlews and American golden plovers. Columbus changed course to follow their flight. On October 10, Columbus quelled a mutiny by sailors who wanted to abandon the search and return to Spain.

At around pm on 11 October, Columbus thought he saw a light "like a little wax candle rising and falling". They landed on the morning of October Columbus called this island San Salvador; its indigenous name was Guanahani. Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can.

I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.

Columbus called the indigenous Americans indios Spanish for 'Indians' [ 55 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] in the mistaken christopher columbus voyages to the new world that he had reached the East Indies; [ 58 ] the islands of the Caribbean are termed the West Indies because of this error. Columbus observed the people and their cultural lifestyle.

He also explored the northeast coast of Cubalanding on 28 Octoberand the north-western coast of Hispaniolapresent day Haitiby December 5 Columbus was received by the native cacique chieftain Guacanagariwho gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including the interpreter Luis de Torres[ 61 ] [ n ] and founded the settlement of La Navidad.

On 16 Januarythe homeward journey was begun. On the morning of 15 February, land was spotted. Columbus believed they were approaching the Portuguese Azores Islandsbut others felt that they were considerably north of the islands. Columbus turned out to be right. At this spot, Columbus took aboard several islanders with food. When told of the vow to Our Lady, the islanders directed the crew to a small shrine nearby.

When Columbus defied him, Castanheira said he did not believe or care about Columbus' story, denounced the Spaniards, and went back to the island. After another two days, Castanheira released the prisoners, having been unable to get confessions from them or to capture his real target, Columbus. Some claimed that Columbus was captured, but this is contradicted by Columbus's logbook.

He anchored next to a king's harbor patrol ship on 4 Marchwhere he was told a fleet of caravels had been lost in the storm. After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. He arrived back in Palos on 15 March and later met with Ferdinand and Isabella in Barcelona to report his findings. He emphasized the potential riches of the land, exaggerating the abundance of gold, and that the natives seemed ready to convert to Christianity.

Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals Upon Columbus's return, most people initially accepted that he had reached the East Indies, including the sovereigns and Pope Alexander VI[ 58 ] though in a letter to the Vatican dated 1 Novemberthe historian Peter Martyr described Columbus as the discoverer of a Novi Orbis " New Globe ".

Inter caeteraissued 4 Maydivided the world outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a north—south meridian leagues west of either the Azores or Cape Verde Islands in the mid-Atlantic, thus granting Spain all the land discovered by Columbus. The stated purpose of the second voyage was to convert the indigenous Americans to Christianity.

Before Columbus left Spain, he was directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving, relations with the natives. The fleet for the second voyage was much larger: two naos and 15 caravels. In addition, the expedition saw the construction of the first ship in the Americas, the Santa Cruz or India. On 3 NovemberChristopher Columbus landed on a rugged shore on an island that he named Dominica.

On Santa Cruzthe Europeans saw a canoe with a few Carib men and two women. They had two male captives, and had recently castrated them. The Europeans pursued them, and were met with arrows from both the men and women, [ 84 ] fatally wounding at least one man, who perished about a week later. The fleet continued to the Greater Antillesfirst sighting the eastern coast of the island of Puerto Ricoknown to its native Taino people as Borinquenon the afternoon of 17 November Upon landing, Columbus christened the island San Juan Bautista after Saint John the Baptistpreacher and prophet who baptized Jesus Christand remained anchored there for two days, 20 and 21 November The women rescued in Guadeloupe explained that any male captives were eaten, and that their own male offspring were castrated and made to serve the Caribs until they were old enough to be considered good to eat.

The Europeans rescued three of these boys. A canoe party led by a cousin of Guacanagari presented Columbus with two golden masks and told him that Guacanagari had been injured by another chief, Caonaboand that except for some Spanish casualties resulting from sickness and quarrel, the rest of his men were well. There, they established the settlement of La Isabela.

Finding some, he established a small fort in the interior. Columbus left Hispaniola on 24 Apriland arrived at the island of Cuba which he had named Juana during his first voyage on 30 April and Discovery Bay, Jamaicaon 5 May. He explored the south coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula of China rather than an island, and several nearby islands including La Evangelista the Isle of Youthbefore returning to Hispaniola on 20 August.

Columbus had planned for Queen Isabella to set up trading posts with the cities of the Far East made famous by Marco Polo, but whose Silk Road and eastern maritime routes had been blockaded to her crown's trade. InColumbus sent Alonso de Ojeda whom a contemporary described as "always the first to draw blood wherever there was a war or quarrel" to Cibao where gold was being mined[ 95 ] which resulted in Ojeda's capturing several natives on an accusation of theft.

Ojeda cut the ears off of one native, and sent the others to La Isabela in chains, where Columbus ordered them to be decapitated. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds. ByColumbus had shared his viceroyship with one of his military officers named Margarit, ordering him to prioritize Christianizing the natives, but that part of their noses and ears should be cut off for stealing.

Margarit's men exploited the natives by beating, raping and enslaving them, with none on Hispaniola being baptized for another two years. Columbus's brother Diego warned Margarit to follow the admiral's orders, which provoked him to take three caravels back to Spain. Fray Buil, who was supposed to perform baptisms, accompanied Margarit. After arriving in Spain in lateBuil complained to the Spanish court of the Columbus brothers and that there was no gold.

Groups of Margarit's soldiers who remained in the west continued brutalizing the natives. In June of that year, the Spanish crown sent ships and supplies to the colony on Hispaniola, which Florentine merchant Gianotto Berardi had helped procure. Columbus's tribute system was described by his son Ferdinand: "In the Cibao, where the gold mines were, every person of fourteen years of age or upward was to pay a large hawk's bell of gold dust; [ y ] all others were each to pay 25 pounds of cotton.

Whenever an Indian delivered his tribute, he was to receive a brass or copper token which he must wear about his neck as proof that he had made his payment; any Indian found without such a token was to be punished. Columbus became ill inand during this time, his troops acted out of order, enacting cruelties on the natives, including torturing them to learn where the supposed gold was.

The Spanish fleet departed La Isabela on 10 March Upon going ashore, the Spaniards were ambushed by arrows; in response, they destroyed some huts. They then held a group of 13 native women and children hostage to force a sale of cassava. King John reportedly knew of the existence of such a mainland because "canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise.

Three of the ships headed directly for Hispaniola with much-needed supplies, while Columbus took the other three in an exploration of what might lie to the south of the Caribbean islands he had already visited, including a hoped-for passage to continental Asia. On 13 July, Columbus's fleet entered the doldrums of the mid-Atlantic, where they were becalmed for several days, the heat doing damage to their ships, food, and water supply.

Columbus recognized from the topography that it must be the continent's mainland, but while describing it as an otro mundo 'other world'[ ] retained the belief that it was Asia—and perhaps an Earthly Paradise. They sailed further west, where the sight of pearls compelled Columbus to send men to obtain some, if not gold. The natives provided nourishment including a maize wine, new to Columbus.

Compelled to reach Hispaniola before the food aboard his ship spoiled, Columbus was disappointed to discover that they had sailed into a gulf, and while they had obtained fresh water, they had to go back east to reach open waters again. Making observations with a quadrant at sea, Columbus inaccurately measured the polar radius of the North Star's diurnal motion to be five degrees, double the value of another erroneous reading he had made from further north.

This led him to describe the figure of the Earth as pear-shapedwith the "stalk" portion ascending towards Heaven. In poor health, Columbus returned to Hispaniola on 19 August, only to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were in rebellion against his christopher columbus voyages to the new world, claiming that Columbus had misled them about the supposedly bountiful riches they expected to find.

A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. Columbus had some of his crew hanged for disobedience. He had an economic interest in the enslavement of the Hispaniola natives and for that reason was not eager to baptize them, which attracted criticism from some churchmen.

Columbus was eventually forced to make peace with the rebellious colonists on humiliating terms. He was eventually freed and allowed to return to the Americas, but not as governor. After his second journey, Columbus had requested that people be sent to stay permanently though voluntarily on Hispaniola, all on the king's pay. Specifically, he asked for men to work as wood men, soldiers, and laborers; 50 farmers, 40 squires, 30 sailors, 30 cabin boys, 20 goldsmiths, 10 gardeners, 20 handymen, and 30 women.

In addition to this, plans were made to maintain friars and clergymen, a physician, a pharmacist, an herbalist, and musicians for entertaining the colonists. Fearing that the king was going to restrict money allotted for wages, Columbus suggested that Spanish criminals be pardoned in exchange for a few years unpaid service in Hispaniola, and the king agreed to this.

A pardon for the death penalty would require two years of service, and one year of service was required for lesser crimes. They also instructed that those who had been sentenced to exile would also be redirected to be exiled in Hispaniola. These new colonists were sent directly to Hispaniola in three ships with supplies, while Columbus was taking an alternate route with the other three ships to explore.

Over months, Columbus tried negotiating with the rebels. Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted; his body was wracked by arthritis and his eyes by ophthalmia. In Octoberhe sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Castile to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern. On 3 Februaryhe returned to Santo Domingo with plans to sail back to Spain to defend himself from the accounts of the rebels.

The sovereigns gave Francisco de Bobadillaa member of the Order of Calatravacomplete control as governor in the Americas. Bobadilla arrived in Santo Domingo in Augustwhere Diego was overseeing the execution of rebels, while Columbus was suppressing a revolt at Grenada. Bobadilla used force to prevent the execution of several prisoners, and subsequently took charge of Columbus's possessions, including papers that he would have used to defend himself in Spain.

In early OctoberColumbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard La GordaColumbus's own ship. Bobadilla's inquiry produced testimony that Columbus forced priests not to baptize natives without his express permission, so he could first decide whether or not they should be sold into slavery. Other allegations include that he: ordered a woman to be whipped naked on the back of a donkey for lying that she was pregnant, had a woman's tongue cut out for seeming to insult him and his brothers, cut a Spaniard's throat for being homosexual, ordered Christians to be hanged for stealing bread, ordered a cabin boy's hand cut off and posted publicly for using a trap to catch a fish, and ordered for a man to have his nose and ears cut off, as well as to be whipped, shackled, and banished.

Christopher Columbus was not the first person to propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing west from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea is almost as old as the idea that the Earth is round. That is, it dates back to early Rome. Christopher Columbus is born in the Republic of Genoa. He begins sailing in his teens and survives a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal in In Octoberhis expedition makes landfall in the modern-day country of The Bahamas.

Columbus establishes a settlement on the island of Hispaniola present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In NovemberColumbus returns to the settlement on Hispaniola to find the Europeans he left there dead. Under this system, Spanish subjects seize land and force Native people to work on it. He makes his first landfall in South America and plants a Spanish flag in present-day Venezuela.

After failing to find the strait, he returns to Hispaniola, where Spanish authorities arrest him for the brutal way he runs the colony there. InColumbus returns to Spain in chains. The Spanish government strips Columbus of his titles but still frees him and finances one last voyagealthough it forbids him return to Hispaniola. Still in search of a strait to India, Columbus makes it as far as modern-day Panama, which straddles the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Christopher columbus voyages to the new world

In his return journey, his ships become beached in present-day Jamaica and he and his crew live as castaways for a year before rescue. On May 20,Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain at age 54, still asserting that he reached the eastern part of Asia by sailing across the Atlantic. Despite the fact that the Spanish government pays him a tenth of the gold he looted in the Americas, Columbus spends the last part of his life petitioning the crown for more recognition.

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy, in Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. Between andhe made three more voyages to the Caribbean and South America, believing until his death that he had found a shorter route to Asia. Columbus has been credited—and blamed—for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

Christopher Columbus, whose real name was Cristoforo Colombo, was born in in the Republic of Genoa, part of what is now Italy. He is believed to have been the son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa and had four siblings: brothers Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo, and a sister named Bianchinetta. In his 20s, Columbus moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled in Spain, which remained his home base for the duration of his life.

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would ever come to Asia. His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in nearly cost him his life, as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal.

His ship was burned, and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore. He made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around His wife died when Diego was a young boy, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Columbus learned about the Atlantic currents that flow east and west from the Canary Islands. The Asian islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel eastward difficult.

Columbus devised a route to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would be quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2, miles. Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.

Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa, and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus. The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer.