Cristobal columbus biography

He subsequently married and had a son, also named Diego, who died of illness in Following Columbus's death, Diego spent the rest of his life confined to Santo Domingoand does not reappear in the historical record following a smallpox epidemic that swept Hispaniola in Columbus's letter on the first voyageprobably dispatched to the Spanish court upon arrival in Lisbon, was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about his voyage.

Almost immediately after his arrival in Spain, printed versions began to appear, and word of his voyage spread rapidly. They were replaced by the Treaty of Tordesillas of He sailed with nearly 1, men, including sailors, soldiers, priests, carpenters, stonemasons, metalworkers, and farmers. On 3 November, they arrived in the Windward Islands ; the first island they encountered was named Dominica by Columbus, but not finding a good harbor there, they anchored off a nearby smaller island, which he named Mariagalantenow a part of Guadeloupe and called Marie-Galante.

Upon landing, Columbus christened the island San Juan Bautista after John the Baptistand remained anchored there for two days from 20 to 21 November, filling the water casks of the ships in his fleet. On 22 November, Columbus returned to Hispaniola to visit La Navidad in modern-day Haitiwhere 39 Spaniards had been left during the first voyage.

Columbus found the fort in ruins. Columbus then established a poorly located and short-lived settlement to the east, La Isabela[ ] in the present-day Dominican Republic. A number of Spanish were killed in retaliation. By the time Columbus returned from exploring Cuba, the four primary leaders of the Arawak people in Hispaniola were gathering for war to try to drive the Spanish from the Island.

Columbus assembled a large number of troops, and joined with his one native ally, chief [Guacanagarix], met for battle. Columbus implemented encomienda[ ] [ ] a Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of conquered non-Christian people. It is also recorded that punishments to both Spaniards and natives included whippings and mutilation cutting noses and ears.

Columbus and the colonists enslaved many of the indigenous people, [ ] including children. In FebruaryColumbus rounded up about 1, Arawaks, some of whom had rebelled, in a great slave raid. About of the strongest were shipped to Spain as slaves, [ ] with about two hundred of those dying en route. In Junethe Spanish crown sent ships and supplies to Hispaniola.

He renewed his effort to get supplies to Columbus, and was working to organize a fleet when he suddenly died in December. On 8 June the crew sighted land somewhere between Lisbon and Cape St. The fleet called at Madeira and the Canary Islands, where it divided in two, with three ships heading for Hispaniola and the other three vessels, commanded by Columbus, sailing south to the Cape Verde Islands and then westward across the Atlantic.

It is probable that this expedition was intended at least partly to confirm rumors of a large continent south of the Caribbean Sea, that is, South America. On 31 July they sighted Trinidad[ ] the most southerly of the Caribbean islands. On 5 August, Columbus sent several small boats ashore on the southern side of the Paria Peninsula in what is now Venezuela, [ ] [ ] near the mouth of the Orinoco river.

On 19 August, Columbus returned to Hispaniola. There he found settlers in rebellion against his rule, and his unfulfilled promises of riches. Columbus had some of the Europeans tried for their disobedience; at least one rebel leader was hanged. In OctoberColumbus sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern.

The sovereigns sent Francisco de Bobadillaa relative of Marquesa Beatriz de Bobadillacristobal columbus biography patron of Columbus and a close friend of Queen Isabella, [ ] [ ] to investigate the accusations of brutality made against the Admiral. Arriving in Santo Domingo while Columbus was away, Bobadilla was immediately met with complaints about all three Columbus brothers.

Bobadilla reported to Spain that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. He claimed that Columbus regularly used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. In early OctoberColumbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard La Gordathe caravel on which Bobadilla had arrived at Santo Domingo.

Not long after, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to the Alhambra palace in Granada. The sovereigns expressed indignation at the actions of Bobadilla, who was then recalled and ordered to make restitutions of the property he had confiscated from Columbus. New light was shed on the seizure of Columbus and his brother Bartholomew, the Adelantadowith the discovery by archivist Isabel Aguirre of an incomplete copy of the testimonies against them gathered by Francisco de Bobadilla at Santo Domingo in The ships were crewed by men, including his brother Bartholomew as second in command and his son Fernando.

The siege had been lifted by the time they arrived, so the Spaniards stayed only a day and continued on to the Canary Islands. On 15 June, the fleet arrived at Martiniquewhere it lingered for several days. A hurricane was forming, so Columbus continued westward, [ ] hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at Santo Domingo on 29 June, but was denied port, and the new governor Francisco de Bobadilla refused to listen to his warning that a hurricane was approaching.

Instead, while Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the Rio Jaina, the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. Columbus's ships survived with only minor damage, while 20 of the 30 ships in the governor's fleet were lost along with lives including that of Francisco de Bobadilla. Although a few surviving ships managed to straggle back to Santo Domingo, Agujathe fragile ship carrying Columbus's personal belongings and his 4, pesos in gold was the sole vessel to reach Spain.

Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe. Sailing south along the Nicaraguan coast, he found a channel that led into Almirante Bay in Panama on 5 October. Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16 April. On 10 May he sighted the Cayman Islandsnaming them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there. For six months Columbus and of his men remained stranded on Jamaica.

Columbus had always claimed that the conversion of non-believers was one reason for his explorations, and he grew increasingly religious in his later years. In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Crown of Castile give him his tenth of all the riches and trade goods yielded by the new lands, as stipulated in the Capitulations of Santa Fe.

After his death, his heirs sued the Crown for a part of the profits from trade with America, as well as other rewards. This led to a protracted series of legal disputes known as the pleitos colombinos 'Columbian lawsuits'. During a violent storm on his first return voyage, Columbus, then 41, had suffered an attack of what was believed at the time to be gout.

In subsequent years, he was plagued with what was thought to be influenza and other fevers, bleeding from the eyes, temporary blindness and prolonged attacks of gout. The attacks increased in duration and severity, sometimes leaving Columbus bedridden for months at a time, and culminated in his death 14 years later. Based on Columbus's lifestyle and the described symptoms, some modern commentators suspect that he suffered from reactive arthritisrather than gout.

InFrank C. Arnett, a medical doctor, and historian Charles Merrill, published their paper in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences proposing that Columbus had a form of reactive arthritis; Merrill made the case in that same paper that Columbus was the son of Catalans and his mother possibly a member of a prominent converso converted Jew family.

Some historians such as H. He stubbornly continued to make pleas to the Crown to defend his own personal privileges and his family's. Columbus's remains were first buried at the Chapel of Wonders at the Convent of St. Francis, Valladolid[ ] but were then moved to the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville southern Spain by the will of his son Diego.

In aboutthe remains of both Columbus and his son Diego were moved to a cathedral in Colonial Santo Domingoin the present-day Dominican Republic ; Columbus had requested to be buried on the island. These matched corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, supporting that the two men had the same mother. Inscriptions found the next year read "Last of the remains of the first admiral, Sire Christopher Columbus, discoverer.

Assistant Secretary of State John Eugene Osbornewho suggested in that they travel through the Panama Canal as a part of its opening ceremony. The authorities in Santo Domingo have never allowed these remains to be DNA-tested, so it is unconfirmed whether they are from Columbus's body as well. The figure of Columbus was not ignored in the British colonies during the colonial era: Columbus became a unifying symbol early in the history of the colonies that became the United States when Puritan preachers began to use his life story as a model for a "developing American spirit".

The use of Columbus as a founding figure of New World nations spread rapidly after the American Revolution. This was out of a desire to develop a national history and founding myth with fewer ties to Britain. Columbus's name was given to the newly born Republic of Colombia in the early 19th century, inspired by the political project of "Colombeia" developed by revolutionary Francisco de Mirandawhich was put at the service of the emancipation of continental Hispanic America.

To commemorate the th anniversary of the landing of Columbus, [ ] the World's Fair in Chicago was named the World's Columbian Exposition. Postal Service issued the first U. The policies related to the celebration of the Spanish colonial empire as the vehicle of a nationalist project undertaken in Spain during the Restoration in the late 19th century took form with the commemoration of the 4th centenary on 12 October in which the figure of Columbus was extolled by the Conservative governmenteventually becoming the very same national cristobal columbus biography. For the Columbus Quincentenary ina second Columbian issue was released jointly with Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

The Boal Mansion Museum, founded incontains a collection of materials concerning later descendants of Columbus and collateral branches of the family. The chapel interior was dismantled and moved from Spain in and re-erected on the Boal estate at BoalsburgPennsylvania. Inside it are numerous religious paintings and other objects including a reliquary with fragments cristobal columbus biography wood supposedly from the True Cross.

The museum also holds a collection of documents mostly relating to Columbus descendants of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In many countries of the Americas, as well as Spain and Italy, Columbus Day celebrates the anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas on 12 October The voyages of Columbus are considered a turning point in human history, [ ] marking the beginning of globalization and accompanying demographic, commercial, economic, social, and political changes.

Cristobal columbus biography: Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer

His explorations resulted in permanent contact between the two hemispheres, and the term " pre-Columbian " is used to refer to the cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors. In the first century after his endeavors, Columbus's figure largely languished in the backwaters of history, and his reputation was beset by his failures as a colonial administrator.

His legacy was somewhat rescued from oblivion when he began to appear as a character in Italian and Spanish plays and poems from the late 16th century onward. Columbus was subsumed into the Western narrative of colonization and empire building, which invoked notions of translatio imperii and translatio studii to underline who was considered "civilized" and who was not.

The Americanization of the figure of Columbus began in the latter decades of the 18th century, after the revolutionary period of the United States, [ ] elevating the status of his reputation to a national myth, homo americanus. This representation of Columbus's triumph and the Native's recoil is a demonstration of supposed white superiority over savage, naive Natives.

Capitol building where it remained until its removal in the midth century, the sculpture reflected the contemporary view of whites in the U. President James Buchananwho proposed the sculpture, described it as representing "the great discoverer when he first bounded with ecstasy upon the shore, ail his toils past, presenting a hemisphere to the astonished world, with the name America inscribed upon it.

Whilst he is thus standing upon the shore, a female savage, with awe and wonder depicted in her countenance, is gazing upon him. The American Columbus myth was reconfigured later in the century when he was enlisted as an ethnic hero by immigrants to the United States who were not of Anglo-Saxon stock, such as Jewish, Italian, and Irish people, who claimed Columbus as a sort of ethnic founding father.

From the s onward, a narrative of Columbus being responsible for the genocide of indigenous peoples and environmental destruction began to compete with the then predominant discourse of Columbus as Christ-bearer, scientist, or father of America. Though Christopher Columbus came to be considered the European discoverer of America in Western popular culture, his historical legacy is more nuanced.

In the 19th century, amid a revival of interest in Norse cultureCarl Christian Rafn and Benjamin Franklin DeCosta wrote works establishing that the Norse had preceded Columbus in colonizing the Americas. Europeans devised explanations for the origins of the Native Americans and their geographical distribution with narratives that often served to reinforce their own preconceptions built on ancient intellectual foundations.

O'Gorman argues that to assert Columbus "discovered America" is to shape the facts concerning the events of to make them conform to an interpretation that arose many years later. He suggests that the word "encounter" is more appropriate, being a more universal term which includes Native Americans in the narrative. Historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced until his death that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia as he originally intended [ ] [ ] excluding arguments such as Anderson's.

Washington Irving's biography of Columbus popularized the idea that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because many Catholic theologians insisted that the Earth was flat[ ] but this is a popular misconception which can be traced back to 17th-century Protestants campaigning against Catholicism. As such it contains no sign of the Americas and yet demonstrates the common belief in a spherical Earth.

He accounted for the shift by concluding that Earth's figure is pear-shapedwith the 'stalk' portion comparing this to a woman's breast being nearest Heaven and upon which was centered the Earthly Paradise. Columbus has been criticized cristobal columbus biography for his brutality and for initiating the depopulation of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, whether by imported diseases or intentional violence.

According to scholars of Native American history, George Tinker and Mark Freedman, Columbus was responsible for creating a cycle of "murder, violence, and slavery" to maximize exploitation of the Caribbean islands' resources, and that Native deaths on the scale at which they occurred would not have been caused by new diseases alone. Further, they describe the proposition that disease and not genocide caused these deaths as "American holocaust denial ".

As a result of the protests and riots that followed the murder of George Floyd inmany public monuments of Christopher Columbus have been removed. Some historians have criticized Columbus for initiating the widespread colonization of the Americas and for abusing its native population. CroixColumbus's friend Michele da Cuneo—according to his own account—kept an indigenous woman he captured, whom Columbus "gave to [him]", then brutally raped her.

For example, a study of Spanish archival sources showed that the cascabela quotas were imposed by Guarionexnot Columbus, and that there is no mention, in the primary sources, of punishment by cutting off hands for failing to pay. Even those who loved him had to admit the cristobal columbus biography that had taken place. According to historian Emily Berquist Soule, the immense Portuguese profits from the maritime trade in African slaves along the West African coast served as an inspiration for Columbus to create a counterpart of this apparatus in the New World using indigenous American slaves.

Connell has argued that while Columbus "brought the entrepreneurial form of slavery to the New World", this "was a phenomenon of the times", further arguing that "we have to be very careful about applying 20th-century understandings of morality to the morality of the 15th century. Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates for the pre-Columbian population of Hispaniola ranged betweenand two million, [ ] [ ] [ ] [ t ] but genetic analysis published in late suggests that smaller figures are more likely, perhaps as low as 10,—50, for Hispaniola and Puerto Rico combined.

Mann writes that "It was as if the suffering these diseases had caused in Eurasia over the past millennia were concentrated into the span of decades.

Cristobal columbus biography: Christopher Columbus was a

According to Noble David Cook, "There were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after Old and New World contact. There is also evidence that they had poor diets and were overworked. The diseases that devastated the Native Americans came in multiple waves at different times, sometimes as much as centuries apart, which would mean that survivors of one disease may have been killed by others, preventing the population from recovering.

Biographers and historians have a wide range of opinions about Columbus's expertise and experience navigating and captaining ships. One scholar lists some European works ranging from the s to s that support Columbus's experience and skill as among the best in Genoa, while listing some American works over a similar timeframe that portray the explorer as an untrained entrepreneur, having only minor crew "cristobal columbus biography" passenger experience prior to his noted journeys.

The word rubios can mean "blond", "fair", or "ruddy". A well-known image of Columbus is a portrait by Sebastiano del Piombowhich has been reproduced in many textbooks. It agrees with descriptions of Columbus in that it shows a large man with auburn hair, but the painting dates from so cannot have been painted from life. Furthermore, the inscription identifying the subject as Columbus was probably added later, and the face shown differs from that of other images.

At the World's Columbian Exposition in71 alleged portraits of Columbus were displayed; most of them did not match contemporary descriptions. While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire.

She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Italian navigator and explorer — For other uses, see Christopher Columbus disambiguation and Cristoforo Colombo disambiguation. Posthumous portrait of a cristobal columbus biography, said to be Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo[ a ].

Filipa Moniz Perestrelo. Diego Ferdinand Diego adopted Lucayan. Domenico Colombo father Susanna Fontanarossa mother. Further information: Origin theories of Christopher Columbus. Geographical considerations. Quest for financial support for a voyage. Agreement with the Spanish crown. Main article: Voyages of Christopher Columbus. First voyage — Second voyage — Third voyage — Fourth voyage — Main article: Fourth voyage of Columbus.

Later life, illness, and death. Tomb in Seville Cathedral. The remains in the casket are borne by kings of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. Further information: List of places named for Christopher Columbus and List of monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus. Originality of discovery of America. America as a distinct land.

Further information: Myth of the flat Earth. See also: Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Vespucci seems to have modeled his naming of the "new world" after Columbus's description of this discovery. It contained an account of Columbus's seven-year reign as the first governor of the Indies. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him [Columbus] had to admit the atrocities that had taken place.

Two tiny portions of dust from the same source were placed in separate vials. Most modern historians reject his figures. January Visual Anthropology. In the early s, Christopher Columbus traded extensively between Portugal and the western coast of Africa, managing to visit all major Portuguese ports up to distant Elmina at the Guinea Coast.

As a Portuguese trader, Columbus learned to speak, read, and write many languages, including Latin, Castilian, and Portuguese. This enabled him to better educate himself about naval tactics, navigation, geography, history, and astronomy. While he was not a scholarly manhe was curious about the world, reportedly made countless notations on the works he managed to get a hold of, and often formed ideas about the nature of the world.

He was also a devout Christian and often found inspiration in the Bible for providing reasons for his exploits in exploration and discovery. Records show that he briefly returned home to Portugal in to handle his dead wife's estate and take his son Diego with him. Historians consider the entire period of his life up to to consider the entire period of his life up to as the prelude to his main exploit — the start of the journey across the Atlantic.

But to organize such a feat, Christopher Columbus had spent several years of his life lobbying Portugal and Spanish monarchs, eventually getting permission, assurances, and funds to form his exploratory fleet. As more than five centuries separate us from Christopher Columbus's time, many modern researchers have started cristobal columbus biography lines of questioning that tried to discover his true origin and nationality.

The main point of contention lies in the fact that young Christopher, who is officially believed to be born and raised in northern Italy, most likely never learned to read or write his native langue, or more specifically, a Genoese variety of Ligurian. Instead, all his writings except a few Latin and a few sentences in Italian were done in the Spanish language that he learned later in life.

Officially, many of the historical records pointing to the origin of Christopher Columbus's birth were gathered from documents of his immediate family and records of his contemporaries. However, those records of his Genoese origins are officially recognized, and they even include writings of his son Ferdinand, Genoese and Venetian ambassadors in Spain, other European government officials, contemporary writers and historians, and over 60 Italian testimonies from the 16th century who all clearly describe Christopher Columbus as Genoese.

Modern historians only accept the Genoese origin of Columbus, but that did not stop many contemporary critics from trying to provide insights into alternate origins. However, several modern deliberations have put those records in question, although many of such new claims were found unsubstantiated and without any concrete proof of alternative origin.

Here are some of the modern theories of his origin that appeared in public since the early 19th century:. Catalan hypothesis — Some 20th-century researchers have proposed a theory that Christopher Columbus was, in fact, born and raised in Catalan-speaking areas of Spainwhere he learned to read and write the Spanish language. One of the biggest "proofs" they point is that Christopher Columbus himself, his family, and contemporaries always referred to him by his Spanish name of Christobal Colom.

There are also mild claims that his handwriting style is very much like those who grew up in Catalan areas. Catalan-Jewish hypothesis — Some linguists have found a possible connection between Christopher Columbus's writings to hide Catalan origin and hidden Jewish origin. Other modern historians tried to connect him to Judaism via the origins of his family name, or that he was "converso," Spanish Jew who has publicly converted to Christianity.

Portuguese hypothesis — In the early 19th century, a claim was released to the public that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese. Later expansions of this claim included even unsubstantiated allegations that he was a spy with a concealed namewho used the public name of Christopher Columbus to destabilize the power of the Spanish court intentionally.

Modern historians never found any proof of this. Polish hypothesis — During the midth century, a writer of The Polish Review commented that there are rumors of possible polish origins of Christopher Columbo. Unfortunately, this hypothesis has no basis in any found historical record. Sardinia hypothesis — Modern Spanish historian Marisa Azuara has hypotheses that Christopher Columbus could, in fact, be a Sardinian noble.

During the time of his birth, Sardinia was under the economic and political rule of Genoa.

Cristobal columbus biography: Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the

Corsica hypothesis — Locals of the Corsica town of Calvi claim that one of the historic houses on their land is, in fact, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus. They found a connection in the family name that resembles words of the Nordic language and some similarities between the family coat of arms of the family Columbus and the royal Bonde lineage of Sweden.

Scotland hypothesis — Inone Spanish amateur historian released the claim that Christopher Columbus was baptized under Pedro's name and that his family name was Scotto. Before the rise of the European Renaissance, this continent was essentially cut off from the trade with Asia by various border conflicts, hostile kingdoms, harsh terrain, unsafe and unreliable road networks, and the mere fact any journey had to successfully endure for several months before reaching to rich Asian countries of India and China where exotic goods such as spices, silk, carpets, weapons, precious stones and more could be acquired.

However, the expansion of the Mongol Empire during the 13th century managed to completely change the basic requirements for trade across Asia, enabling merchants to take advantage of the fabled Silk Roadwhich started at Constantinople, went above Arabia and Persia, and finally reached lucrative Asian markets. While sea travel to Asia was possible via Maritime Silk Road that involved the land transfer of cargo between the Red Sea and River Nile, the travel on that route was long and expensive.

As the Mongol Empire fell, so did their control overland Silk Road, which disrupted their unified taxes and general road security. With an increasing percentage of trade convoys being disrupted by road thieves and numerous high taxes, European countries with large naval fleets started a serious investigation into finding new trade routes to India and China.

Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba which he thought was mainland China and Hispaniola now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan and meeting with the leaders of the native population. During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain inColumbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court. InColumbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean.

Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred. Spurning the wishes of the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy upon the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population.

Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China. The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority.

He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages. After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on cristobal columbus biography fourth and final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in This time he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. On February 29,a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola in July, and Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain in November In the two remaining years of his life, Columbus struggled to recover his reputation.

Although he did regain some of his riches in Mayhis titles were never returned. Columbus probably died of severe arthritis following an infection on May 20,in Valladolid, Spain. At the time of his death, he still believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia. There are questions about the location of his burial site. Columbus learnt to sail from an early age and later worked as a business agent, travelling around Europe to England, Ireland and later along the West coast of Africa.

He was not a scholar but was an enthusiastic self-educated man, who read extensively on astronomy, science and navigation. He also became fluent in Latin, Portuguese and Spanish. Christopher Columbus was a believer in the spherical nature of the world some Christians still held the view that the world was flat. An ambitious "cristobal columbus biography," Christopher Columbus hoped to find a Western trade route to the lucrative spice markets in Asia.

Rather than sailing east, he hoped that sailing west would lead to countries like Japan and China. To gain the necessary funding and support for his journeys, he approached the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. The Spanish monarchs agreed to fund Columbus, partly on the Christian missionary efforts, but also hoping to gain an upper hand in the lucrative trade markets.

One advantage of the westward exploration is that it avoided conflict with the growing power of the Ottomans in the east. A map fromwith the perceived geography of the world in yellow superimposed on actual land.