Columbus belongs which country

Christopher Columbus - was a 15th century Italian explorer who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, starting the Spanish colonization of several places in the New World. The history about him is incomplete, and often controversial, resulting in different opinions about Columbus' accomplishments. Christopher Columbus was born in October in Genoa, Italy. He had three brothers - Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo - and a sister named Bianchinetta.

Since Christopher Columbus was born in the port city of Genoa, it is not surprising that he became a navigator. Although he was largely self-taught through reading, he attended Prince Henry's School of Navigation in Portugal. They had one child together: a boy named Diego. His wife died of consumption only six years after they were married. In he took a mistress in Spain named Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

She was a year old orphan. She and Columbus had a son, but never married. In , at the age of 19, he played a prominent role on a Genoese sailing ship that had the goal of conquering Naples. He spent a year on the island and came back to Italy financially independent. After that, he received a lot of experience navigating the Atlantic Ocean sailing out of Lisbon, Portugal. His claim to fame is a series of voyages that made Europeans aware of the Americas, which led to colonization.

Bartholomew, his brother the map maker, inspired him to make the famous voyage to the Americas by sailing west across the Atlantic instead of the more traditional land route to Asia.

The voyages were funded by the Catholic King and Queen of Spain who wanted to colonize the New World and establish profitable trade routes to Asia.

King John II of Portugal refused a request from Columbus to support his journey westward, feeling that the distance involved had been underestimated by Columbus. After two years of negotiations, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile both were kingdoms of Spain agreed to provide half of the financing Columbus needed to search for a route to the East, even though they also felt that he had underestimated the distance. He had already gotten half of what he needed from private Italian investors.

Columbus had miscalculated the distance for the new western passage. He thought that only 2, miles separated the Canary Islands from Japan, which would allow for sufficient provisions to be carried on the ship. The actual distance is closer to 12, miles. Getting a crew together was very difficult, since people thought that the Earth was flat and they were sure they would sail off of the end of the world.

Columbus and about 40 men manned the Santa Maria, with between 20 and 30 men on each of the other two ships. I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.

They did not take soldiers, priests, or settlers because this was primarily a voyage of exploration. After seven days he had sailed to the Canary Islands and stopped for provisions and repairs.

In January , leaving several dozen men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic , he left for Spain. He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions of the local people and his argument for why they should be enslaved. They have no iron …They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. About six months later, in September , Columbus returned to the Americas.

Then he headed west to continue his mostly fruitless search for gold and other goods. His group now included a large number of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu of the material riches he had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some enslaved people to Queen Isabella. In May , Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for the third time.

Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities had to send a new governor to take over. Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for gold and to work on plantations, was decimated within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been , Taino were left on their island. Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains.

In , cleared of the most serious charges but stripped of his noble titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown to pay for one last trip across the Atlantic.

This time, Columbus made it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two of his four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives.

Empty-handed, the explorer returned to Spain, where he died in However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Those who refused to convert were forced to sell their possessions and leave the country entirely — the very same year that Columbus first set sail for the New World.

While the evidence linking Columbus to Genoa, Spain and Portugal seems credible, other theories seem more far-fetched, including those that claim he was the son of a Polish king, who also survived his supposed death before fleeing to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where Columbus was born in secrecy. Or that he was born in Genoa as the son of a Scottish family living in the city, and his real name was Pedro Scotto, which he changed to Columbus after the pirate he worked for in his youth.

Columbus Day churns up a stormy sea of controversy every year: Was Christopher Columbus a gifted navigator or reckless adventurer? The personal contents were placed in a box and weren't revealed until more than years after the president's assassination.

Many believe the Celtic hero was a real person, while others think his origin story is just a legendary tale that has evolved over time. The historic site was a place of solace for the former president and his family in good times and bad.

Ever mine. His voyages launched centuries of European exploration and colonisation of the American continents. His encounters also triggered centuries of exploitation of native American populations. Browse our best selling books, or pick up nautical inspired homewares. Visit us.

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