Columbus's Voyage
Uploaded by tare_42 on Sep 19, 2007
Columbus’s Voyage
Christopher Columbus was a Spanish explorer born in Genoa Italy, between August and October, in 1451. He was the oldest son of Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa with four brothers and one sister. He did not receive much formal education though he did learn to read and write in Spanish and read Latin while he was at sea because most maps were written in Latin. Also he could write in Castilian.
Columbus’s father was a wool weaver and was lower middle class. He was described as a very optimistic man, as was his son, but lacked his son’s strong will. Christopher worked for his father until he was 22 then pursued his dream to become a sea captain. 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 and had to swim to shore. Imagine what would have happened to the Americas if he had died.
In 1479, Christopher married Felipa Perestello e Moniz and in 1480, He had a son of his own, Diego. Felipa died in 1485, and a while later Columbus became in a relationship with Beatriz Enriquez de Harana of Cordabo, and had his second son, Ferdinand. Columbus and Enriquez never were married, but Columbus supported her.
Columbus loved being a sea captain but he longed for more. He wanted riches and glory. Back then to get to India they had to go all the way around Africa which slowed trade. So Columbus decided to try and go the opposite way, across the Atlantic Ocean. He was not trying to prove the world round but to find a faster route to India. In 1484, he asked King John of Portugal to support his voyage west, but he was rejected. So he went to Spain with Diego to look for help from Queen Elizabeth and her husband King Ferdinand. Even though they first rejected Christopher’s idea, they gave him a small grant to live on, and he remained determined to convince them.
In January 1492, Christopher convinced Elizabeth and Ferdinand, after being rejected twice, to give him support on his voyage west. He took three ships; the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. When everything was prepared they set sail from Palos. The first sight of land came at on October 12th from the Pinta. They most likely landed in the Bahamas on...