Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was the oldest son of Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. Christopher was born between August and October 1451, in Genoa, Italy. Christopher also had two younger brothers, Bartholomew and Diego. Christopher received little formal education and was a largely self-taught man. Later, he learned to read Latin and write Castilian.
In 1475, Columbus began his first sea voyage to the Aegean Island of Chios. One year later, he survived a shipwreck off Cape St. Vincent so he had to swim to shore. In 1477, Columbus sailed to England and Ireland with Portuguese marines.
In 1479, Christopher married Felipa Perestello e Moniz from a poor noble Portuguese family. Their son, Diego, was born in 1480. Felipa died in 1485, and Columbus later began a relationship with Beatriz Enriquez de Harana of Cordabo, with whom Christopher had his second son, Ferdinand. Columbus and Enriquez never were married, but Columbus supported her.
In the mid-1480’s, Christopher had become focused on his plans of discovery. His biggest dream was to find a westward route to Asia. In 1484, he had asked King John of Portugal to back his voyage west, but he was refused. The next year, he set out to Spain with his son, Diego to look for help from Queen Elizabeth of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon. Even though the Spanish monarchs first rejected Christopher’s request, but they gave him a small grant to live on, and he remained determined to convince them. In January of 1492, Christopher gained the support of Elizabeth and Ferdinand, after being rejected twice by the Spanish monarchs.
On August 3rd, the fleet of three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, set forth from Palos, on the Tinto River in southern Spain. The first sight of land came at dawn on October 12th from the Pinta Ship. The place of the first Caribbean landfall was most likely modern, San Salvador or Waitling Island in the Bahamas.
Thinking he has reached the East Indies, Columbus referred to the native residents of the island as “Indians,” a name often used to identify local people of the New World. The three ships sailed along the other Bahama Islands and landed in Cuba, which Columbus mistakenly called Mainland of Cathay (China). There were a little gold there, and his exploration continued by sea to Ayti on December 6th,...