He made his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around His wife died soon after, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.
After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Columbus gained knowledge of the Atlantic currents flowing east and west from the Canary Islands.
The Asian islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans — but Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel eastward difficult.
Columbus devised a route to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would be quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2, miles. Many of Columbus' contemporary nautical experts disagreed. They adhered to the now known to be accurate second-century B. Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.
Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus.
The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, for they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition. On October 12, , after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.
There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors, exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment. 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. With the help of some islanders, Columbus' men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad "Christmas Town" with lumber from the ship.
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 in , Columbus gave a glowing, somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court. In , Columbus 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, who found slavery offensive, Columbus established a forced labor policy over the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would prove to 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 Diego 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.
It wasn't until his third voyage that Columbus actually reached the mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. Unfortunately, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus' claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of his brothers. 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 what would be his last voyage in , traveling 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. During this time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards' poor treatment and obsession with gold, refused to give them food.
In a spark of inspiration, Columbus consulted an almanac and devised a plan to "punish" the islanders by taking away the moon. Dessuten ble han tildelt en rekke andre privilegier. Den 2. Christofer Columbus ankommer Amerika Tegning av Theodore de Bry Med sine tre skip seilte Columbus 3. I januar begynte han hjemreisen, og Han drog til Barcelona hvor hoffet var. Alle hans rettigheter ble stadfestet, og han ble adlet.
Med Columbus' andre reise begynte koloniseringen av Amerika. Omtrent halvparten av kolonistene hadde fulgt ham. Ojeda seilte fra Spania Under prosessen mot ham ble Columbus funnet skyldig, hans eiendeler konfiskert, og han ble sendt tilbake til Spania i lenker. Denne audiensen fikk en underlig vending i og med at Ferdinand og Isabella bedyret at de overhodet ikke hadde beordret ham arrestert.
Disse titlene har etterkommerne senere beholdt. Som Columbus-biografen Laurence Bergreen uttrykker det: I Columbus verdensbilde fantes paradiset, men ikke Stillehavet. Kommentaren din publiseres her. Kristoffer Columbus ankommer Amerika. Falt i det fri Public domain. Faktaboks Kristoffer Columbus. Av Sebastiano del Piombo. Lisens: Falt i det fri Public domain. Av Bartolomeo og Kristoffer Coloumbus. Verdenskart laget av Paolo Toscanelli i Columbus tok utgangspunkt i Toscanellis beregninger.
Av Paolo Toscanelli. Columbus' reiser. Columbus foran dronningen. Av Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze.
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