Christopher Columbus Bio
…(albeit non-authenticated) portrait, painted by Alejo Fernández between 1505 and 1536. Photo by Historian Manuel Rosa
Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón) (c. 1451May 20, 1506) was a Genoese navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages in the service of Spain (in 14921493, 14931496, 14981500, and 15021504) opened the Americas to European exploration and colonization. History places great significance on his discovery of America in 1492, although he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Nor was he the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas the Viking explorer Leif Ericson had already reached America in the 11th century. Despite this, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event, Columbus Day, is celebrated in many parts of America.
Background to voyages
Navigational theories
Europe had long enjoyed safe passage to India and China sources of valued goods such as silk and spices under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or “Mongol peace”). In 1507, the region was blockaded by the Portuguese in an effort to discourage trade along the old route and encourage trade around Africa. The Portuguese also promoted the establishment of trading posts and later colonies along the African coast. Columbus had a different idea. By the 1480s, he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) by sailing directly west across the “Ocean Sea” (the Atlantic).
It is sometimes claimed that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because Europeans believed that the earth was flat. In fact, few people at the time of Columbus´s voyage (and virtually no sailors or navigators) believed this. Most agreed the earth is a sphere….
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