Colombus+-+6C

= Columbus-6C= =__Background__= Cristoforo Columbo, Cristobal Colon, or Christopher Columbus as we know him, was raised in Genoa, Italy, and was born sometime between August 25th and October 31st in 1451. His father, Domenico, was a wool weaver, and also kept the jobs gatekeeper and wine merchant, but the family was still poor, so Columbus had very little education, his schooling probably ended at around fourteen. Columbus learned map making, math, reading, writing, etc. because in his young adulthood his father pushed him into a business career working on a trading ship as an agent for powerful Genoese families such as the Spinolas and the Di Negros. In 1479 he married Felipa Perestrello Moniz. Columbus died while in Spain on May 20, 1506, and is buried in eastern Hispaniola, which is present day Dominican Republic. =__Voyages__ = Columbus had four voyages in his life between 1451 and 1506.

For his first charter he went to King John II of Portugal and presented him with the idea that the world was round and because of this he could reach Asia by sailing west instead of east. He was turned down, but Columbus wouldn't take no for an answer so he went to King Ferdinnand II and Queen Isabella of Spain, and was granted a charter. For the funding of his journey he turned to two wealthy Genoese families, the Ninos and the Pinzons. In payment of a fine they owed to the monarchy, they gave Columbus three ships, the Nina, and the Pinta which were small caravels, and the Santa Maria, which was a much larger ship which Columbus piloted, along with 90 men to staff the ships. They set sail from Palos, a small port in Spain, on August 3rd, 1492. They first hit the Canary Islands where repairs were made and provisions loaded on the ships. They left on September 6th and after a month of sailing the crews began to feel anxious because they had not seen the land that Columbus promised they would and were thinking about mutiny. So Columbus told them that if they didn't see land in three days then they would return home. The next day they saw signs of land, such as seaweed, and birds flying southwest, so they decided to follow the birds. During the evening of October 11th and the morning of October 12th a sailor on the Pinta shouted, "Land, Land!" Queen Isabella had said that she would reward the first person to see land, but Columbus said that he had seen a flickering light earlier and claimed the reward for himself. Thinking they had reached Asia, they arrived on the island called Guanahani by it's inhabitants, most likely the Bahamas. Columbus renamed it San Salvador. They met the local Taino whom Columbus confused with Indians. The Indians were captured by his men and put on the ship to be sold into slavery when Columbus returned to Europe. They explored around this area to places such as Hispaniola, Cuba, and some other smaller islands. On December 24th, a tired Columbus gave the wheel of the Santa Maria to a sailor who gave it to a cabin boy, who accidently crashed the ship on a reef. Columbus left forty men on a nearby island to hunt for gold while he sailed home on the Nina. On the voyage home the Nina and the Pinta were separated in a storm. The Nina came ashore on the island later named Santa Maria, Columbus and the crew were almost arrested by the governor for being falsely accused of trading illegally in Africa, but they were allowed out to sail again. Storms pushed the Nina into Lisbon and they finally reached Palos again on March 15, 1493. Columbus had been concerned that the captain of the Pinta would reach Spain first and claim the glory, but the monarchy had not allowed him to see them without word from Columbus first. Columbus showed the King and Queen his finds: parrots, Taino, and some gold trinkets, which led them to lay claim to this land along with Portugal.

Because of the success of his first voyage, Columbus went out to sea again with 17 ships, a crew of 1200-1500 men, private investors and colonists who came to settle on the islands and friars to convert the Indians(Natives) to Christianity. He set sail from Cadiz, Spain on September 25th, 1493 aboard the Mariagalante, his flag ship. They established a base in Hispaniola called Isabella, which needed many supplies so twelve of the ships were sent home to get them. Columbus left his brother Diego in charge of Isabella, and left to search what he and his crew thought was the Asian mainland. When he returned he and his brothers thought of punishing the Taino who were no longer kind towards them ever since the crew members had treated them badly. Columbus tried to force all Taino men over fourteen to search for gold in the river, if they didn't they were punished by sometimes having their hands cut off. There was not enough gold to match what was ordered at the Taino and so they threatened to rebel, but Columbus decided to use their rebelling as an excuse to attack, and when he returned home on June 11th, 1496 he was charged with misgovernment in the colony.

On May 30, 1498, 5 years after his second voyage, Columbus left with 6 ships from Sanlucar, Spain for his third voyage to the New World. After stopping in the canary Island and Cape Verde, Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of Trinidad on July 31. From August 4 to August 12, he explored the Gulf of Paria which separates Trinidad from Venezuela. He explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River. He also sailed to the islands of Chacachcare and Margarita Island and sighted and named Tobago (Bella Forma) and Grenada (Concepcion). He described the new lands as belonging to a previously unknown new continent, but later he returned to his position that they belonged to Asia. He returned to Hispaniola on August 19 to find that many of the the Spanish settlers of the new colony were discontent, having been misled by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the new world. Columbus repeatedly had to deal with rebellious settlers and Indians. He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returned settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him of mismanagement. The king and queen sent the royal administrator Francisco de Bobadilla in 1500, who upon arrival August 23, imprisoned Columbus and his brothers and had them sent home. Columbus refused to have his shackles removed on the trip to Spain, during which he wrote a long and pleading letter to the Spanish monarchs. He regained his freedom, but he did not regain his prestige and lost his governorship. As an added insult, the Portuguese had won the race to the Indies.

On May 11, 1502 he made his fourth voyage. Mainly in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean, accompanied by his brother Bartholomew and his thirteen-year old son Fernando, Columbus left from Cadiz, Spain.On June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane was coming, so Columbus continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port. Instead, the ships anchored at the Jaina River.After a small stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras on July 30. Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe. On August 14, Columbus landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near Honduras. Columbus spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama on October 16. In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. After much exploration, he established a fort at the mouth of Rio Belen in January 1503. On April 6, one of the ships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the fort was attacked and the other ships were damaged. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April 16, and received more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, on June 25, 1503.Columbus and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year. Two Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by canoe to get help from Hispaniola. In the meantime Columbus had to keep the natives providing food and shelter for him and his crew. He pretended to have great powers and correctly predicted a lunar eclipse using a tool made by the German astronomer Regiomontanus. Help finally arrived on June 29, 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlucar, Spain, on November 7 1503.

== =__Purpose of Journeys__= Columbus' life consisted of four voyages, all with different purposes. The purpose of his first voyage was, because he thought the world was round, to reach the Indies by sailing west across the North Atlantic Ocean, instead of east around the Cape of Good Hope to reach the Orient which the Europeans desired. The purpose of his second voyage was to establish colonies in the name of Spain, to try to reach the riches of what he thought was Asia, to capture the Indians(Natives) for slaves, and to check on the crew members he'd left behind on his first voyage. The purpose of the third voyage was to find out if an Asian mainland lay between Europe and Asia, because the king of Portugal, King John II, had thought of such a possibility existing, and Spain wanted to lay claim to the land if it existed. The last purpose, the fourth voyage, was for Columbus to try to find a passage to the mainland of Asia. Those are the four purposes of Columbus' journeys. = = =__Hardships and Challenges__= Some challenges Columbus had to face on his first voyage was the lack of information of where they were going, fear of large storms and sea monsters and possibly falling of the side of the world if it truly was flat. They also did not know if they had enough food and supplies. His crew thought of mutiny so he said that if land was not sighted in 3 days they would turn around. Another challenge he faced was the Santa Maria was ship wrecked on a reef near Hispaniola because a cabin boy had crashed it. There was also very bad hygiene and lack of nutritional food to prevent diseases such as scurvy. The last challenge Columbus faced was that in Hispaniola the Taino had threatened to rebel against Columbus and his crew, so he attacked and was charged with misgovernment when he arrived home. Those are some hardships and challenges Columbus faced. = = =__Interesting Facts__= Columbus was a very interesting man, here are some interesting facts about Columbus Columbus: He lied to his crew about the distance of his journey so that they wouldn't get nervous about their distance at sea. In 1479 Columbus married Felipa Perestrella e Moniz, daughter of the governor of Puerto Santo, where they moved after they were married. Columbus also had to sons named Diego and Ferdinand. Another interesting fact about Columbus is that even up to his death, he was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia. The last interesting fact is that most people in the 15th Century knew the earth was round, it was the size (circumference) that was unknown. Columbus underestimated the size of the earth by one-fourth which made his journey to find a route to Asia seem easier. = = =__Historical Contributions__= Columbus is most famous for discovering the Americas in 1492. Columbus was not necessarily the first European to discover the Americas, but his voyage in 1492 marked the beginning of European exploration of the Americas. He was also the first European since Leif Ericsson to step foot on the mainland of the Americas. Colmbus also reintroduced horses in the Americas on his second voyage, and tried to convert Natives to Christianity in every place he sailed.

__Bibliography:__
Books: Clarke, Fiona .__Columbus and the New World__. Italy: Simon and Schuster young books, 1993 Neufeld, David .__Great Explorations__. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2002 Fritz, Jean .__Around The World In 100 Years: Henry the Navigator to Magellan__. New York: Putnam's, 1994

Websites: [|www.mariner.org/educationalad/ageofex/columbus_2nd.php] [|www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/c/columbus.shtml] [|www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Search?x=0&y=08st1=Columbus]