Pedja mijatovic biography of christopher columbus
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On October 12 land was sighted. One advantage of the westward exploration is that it avoided conflict with the growing power of the Ottomans in the east.
“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.” Journal of the First Voyage – 3 August 1492 diary entry
Voyages to the Americas
A map from 1474, with the perceived geography of the world in yellow (superimposed on actual land)
Columbus’ first voyage was completed in 1492.
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 250,000 Taino were left on their island). (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)
Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, along with a noble title and the governorship of any lands he should encounter.
Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?
On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.
He was not a scholar but was an enthusiastic self-educated man, who read extensively on astronomy, science and navigation. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys.5 Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America.
Previous successful voyages included a Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself.
He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani.4 Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. He was not in good health. His discoveries and travels laid the framework for the later European colonisation of Latin and North America.
“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
– Christopher Columbus
Short bio Christopher Columbus (1451–1506)
Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today Northwestern Italy.
Updated 22 January 2020.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
Who was Christopher Columbus? Yet, whilst he was pious in some regards, he also shared the view, common at the time, that European Christians had a moral superiority due to their following the one true faith. In 1503, he wrote a letter to the monarchs laying out his sense of unappreciated sacrifice
“I came to serve you at the age of 28 and now I have not a hair on me that is not white, and my body is infirm and exhausted.
He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through.2 This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia.
All that was left to me and my brothers has been taken away and sold, even to the cloak that I wore, without hearing or trial, to my great dishonor.” – Lettera Rarissima to the Sovereigns, Fourth Voyage (7 July 1503)
Columbus died in 1506, aged 54 from a heart attack related to reactive arthritis.
His “re-discovery,” however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans.