Cristopher Columbus

Student: Sabău Ligia

Giorgiana
Third year
English-Romanian group
• Explorer Christopher Columbus
(1451–1506) is known for his 1492
‘discovery’ of the New World of the
Americas on board his ship Santa
Maria.
In actual fact, Columbus did NOT discover
North America. He was the first European to
sight the Bahamas archipelago and then the
island later named Hispaniola, now split into
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. On his
subsequent voyages he went farther south, to
Central and South America. He never got close
to what is now called the United States.
 ABOUT
HIS LIFE
The son of a wool merchant, Cristopher
Columbus is believed to have been born in
Genoa, Italy, in 1451

The details of his youth are unclear and

largely based on speculation. It seems that he was
attracted to commerce at an early age, probably
also because of his father, involved in the fabric
trade.
WITH AN IMPRESSIVE AMBITION, THE
ITALIAN BORN IN GENOA, LEARNED
SEVERAL FOREIGN LANGUAGES.
COLUMBUS ALSO LEARNED LATIN, WHICH
ALLOWED HIM TO STUDY ASTRONOMY,
GEOGRAPHY AND NAVIGATION BOOKS ON
HIS OWN. BASED ON THIS INFORMATION,
COLUMBUS WAS CONVINCED THAT A
JOURNEY TO ASIA COULD ALSO BE MADE
BY TRAVELING WESTWARD WITH THE
EQUIPMENT OF HIS DAY, WHICH WOULD
HAVE LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF
AMERICA. DESPITE A POPULAR
PREJUDICE, COLUMBUS DID NOT HAVE
TO FACE THE FALSE BELIEF THAT THE
EARTH IS FLAT, OR THAT HE WOULD
REACH THE END OF THE WORLD. THE
SCHOLARS OF THE TIME ALREADY KNEW
THAT THE EARTH IS NOT FLAT,
KNOWLEDGE AVAILABLE SINCE
ANTIQUITY
 FIRST VOYAGE
His first trip to the Atlantic
Ocean took place in 1476. In the
same year, he settled in Lisbon,
where he married Felipa
Perestrello. Around 1480, Felipa
dies and Columbus moves to
Spain. However, the few years
spent in Portugal would leave a
deep mark on the Genoese, as he
studied here various maritime
maps made by the daring
Lusitanian navigators, who were
reaching further and further
south, down Africa.
BASED ON THIS INFORMATION, THE
IDEA OF ​FINDING A NEW ROUTE, BY
WATER, TO THE LEGENDARY
RICHES OF THE EAST BEGINS TO
SPROUT IN COLUMBUS'S MIND.
CONVINCED THAT THE EARTH IS
ROUND, SMALLER THAN THOUGHT
AND THAT THE WEST OF EUROPE IS
NOT SEPARATED FROM THE FAR
EAST BUT BY THE ATLANTIC, THE
GENOESE NAVIGATOR PROPOSES TO
KING JOHN II OF PORTUGAL TO
SUPPORT HIM IN HIS ATTEMPT TO
CROSS THE OCEAN TO THE INDIES .
HE IS STRUCK BY THE REFUSAL OF
THE SOVEREIGN.
It was not until 1492 when he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish
monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille. Columbus wanted fame
and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity
to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic,
was equally enthusiastic about this possibility)
 THE JOURNEY BEGAN ON
AUGUST 3, 1492, WHEN THREE
SHIPS LIFTED ANCHOR FROM
THE PORT OF PALOS IN
SOUTHERN SPAIN: THE
CARAVELS PINTA AND NINA,
ALONG WITH THE SAILING SHIP
SANTA MARIA. AT TWO
O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING ON
OCTOBER 12, JUAN RODRIGUEZ
BERMEJO, SAILOR ON THE
PINTA, WAS THE FIRST TO
NOTICE A "WHITE RISE OF
SAND„. TODAY WATLING
ISLAND, COLUMBUS CLAIMED
THE ISLAND ON BEHALF OF
THE CATHOLIC KINGS OF SPAIN
 SECOND JOURNEY

ON MARCH 15, 1493, COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SPAIN, COVERED WITH

GLORY AND HONORS, IN SEPTEMBER OF THE SAME YEAR, HE
UNDERTOOK HIS SECOND TRIP TO AMERICA, AFTER WHICH THE
FIRST PERMANENT EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS WERE ESTABLISHED ON
THE NEW CONTINENT, ON THE TERRITORY OF THE CURRENT
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. EVEN NOW, THE FIRST CONFLICTS WITH THE
NATIVES APPEAR, WHOM COLUMBUS CONSIDERED "INDIANS", BEING
CONVINCED THAT HE HAD REACHED THE INDIES. COLUMBUS
CONTINUED TO EXPLORE, FROM JAMAICA TO ANTIGUA, REMAINING
STEADFAST IN HIS BELIEF THAT HE WAS ON ASIAN LANDS. THE
SECOND EXPEDITION ENDED IN JUNE 1496.
 THIRD AND FOURTH JOURNEY
 The third journey took place in may 1498, when Columbus sailed west
across the Atlantic and visited Trinidad and South American mainland. When
he returned to the Hispaniola settlement, the colinists staged a revolt against
the Columbus brothers’. Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to
Spain in chains.

 His fourth and last journey of Columbus took

place in 1502. This time he made it all the way to
Panama, just miles from the Pacific Ocean. There
he was forced to abandon two of his four ships due
to the damage from the storms and hostile natives.
He returned to Spain empty-handed.
• Gradually, the fame and influence of Christopher Columbus at the court of
Spain faded, because the colonists did not find the hoped-for riches,
neither gold nor spices. Returning to Spain in 1504, Columbus died poor
and almost forgotten on May 20, 1506, without realizing even in the last
moments of his life the importance and relevance of his discovery.
 THE JOURNAL
He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage.
Christopher Columbus’s journal was written
between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492
and mentions everything from the wildlife he
encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the
weather to the moods of his crew. More
troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions
of the local people and his argument for why they
should be enslaved.
“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they
exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything
they owned … They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features …They do not
bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and
cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron …They would make fine servants …
With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
AMERIGO VESPUCCI
Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th century navigator, after whom the American
continents are named.

Vespucci was the first person to recognize North and

South America as distinct continents that were
previously unknown to Europeans, Asians and
Africans

Prior to Vespucci's discovery, explorers, including

Columbus, had assumed that the New World was part
of Asia. Vespucci made his discovery while sailing near
the tip of South America in 1501
THE ONE WHO LED THE FIRST EUROPEAN
EXPEDITION THAT DISCOVERED THE LANDS OF THE
NEW WORLD. ITS IMPORTANCE IS LINKED NOT ONLY
TO THE SIMPLE GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY, BUT
ALSO TO THE FACT THAT, THROUGH ITS ACTIONS, IT
GAVE RISE TO A LONG PERIOD OF EXPLORATIONS,
CONQUESTS AND COLONIZATIONS, WHICH IN TURN
MASSIVELY INFLUENCED THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE MODERN WESTERN WORLD
• Bibliography
• https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/christopher-columbus
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/columbus_christopher.shtml
• https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus