A Man Named Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is an internationally celebrated explorer, due to his voyages to Central America during the Age of Discovery, a period between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when explorers were sponsored by eastern countries to claim land. Columbus was an Italian explorer, on a conquest for gold and riches, who was sponsored by the monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, to travel to Southern Asia. Columbus proposed the idea of traveling from East to West, rather than traveling along the borders of countries and continents, such as Africa and Asia, to eastern countries for gold, spices, and other riches for the monarchs. When Columbus succeeded in landing in the New World, he believed he landed in Southern Asia, but rather he landed in Hispaniola, modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic. The “New World” was a term used for the area Columbus landed in, on October 12, 1492. When Columbus landed in the New World, it was inhabited by native people, who were used by the Spaniards to help navigate and understand the landscape of the islands and as workers to find gold. Columbus has a mixed legacy because he had positive and negative attributes; he made the Columbian Exchange, which increased biodiversity in the New World, and is an important explorer in American history, but also began the African slave trade and caused population devastation due to slavery and diseases in the native populations. The legacy of Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain because he was greedy for wealth and power, he introduced diseases to the New World, and enslaved and used violence against the natives.

Columbus sailed the Atlantic not knowing where he was going; only knowing that he had to find a faster route for Spain to trade their goods and money. When he landed in the New World he had no idea what so ever where he was nor in which direction to go. The New World was filled with Native Americans back then so Columbus was a bit nervous because they were a whole different race to him. He didn’t know if they were friendly or dangerous. Some of the natives were friendly but the ones that weren’t, his men and he had to kill them because they would cause great conflict back in Spain. Columbus was a very tall man with red hair and was 22 years old when he sailed off to the New World. Christopher also came from a very poor family just as Cortes. He had many voyages, and took over large amounts of land. Not all the land he claimed was in the New World some of them were in South

Christopher Columbus was a well-known traveler who originated from Italy. Christopher Columbus had a legacy that was troubled with disagreements for reason of his treatment towards the native population. His journeys encouraged mass amount of Europeans to obtain interest in taking over the Americas. Throughout his letter written to Sant’ Angel, Columbus explains his emotion in being very satisfied with the results he has revised throughout his first voyage. Christopher Columbus then goes into detail concerning his appreciation to the royal King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella as he mentions, “I passed over the Indies with the fleet which the most illustrious King and Queen, our lords, gave to me” (Columbus 8). Christopher Columbus creates a powerful image for the King and Queen because he trusts that the maintenance of Ferdinand and Isabella throughout his journey was an incredible aspect that resulted in his spectacular accomplishment.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian-born man that managed to win the favor and funding of the Spanish monarchy. With this funding, Columbus led the most well-known voyage in human history: the voyage to the New World in 1492. This voyage laid the foundation for future colonies and, eventually, many nations in the world. However, this voyage would not have gone past conceptualization if Columbus had not been supported by the Spanish monarchy. While a variety of factors affected the monarchy’s decision, the primary factors were Columbus’ experience in navigation, assistance Columbus received from Jewish supporters, and the capitulations laid out by Columbus himself.

The full measure of Columbus's failure as a colonizer was not yet apparent when he returned to Castile in 1496. Yet by the end of six or seven years of his governorship, with his own, the monarchs', and the settlers' objectives all still unachieved, and Hispaniola suffering an apparently interminable series of rebellions not only by the Indians but by the colonists too, Columbus was to be superseded and disgraced, and shipped home to Spain in chains.1 Overall, Fernandez-Armesto depicted Columbus as an annoyingly eccentric person incapable of succeeding. Although, he discovered the Americas, he failed to be a leader to his crew and the natives. Instead, he was on the lookout for ways of manipulating the motives for profit.

Christopher Columbus is known for being an explorer and is said to have made one of the most important voyages in world history without even wanting to. Something else that is also believed is that he “opened up” the Americas to European nations, which changed the course of American history. Before he went on his voyage though, he was in need of resources. So he asked Portugal, France, Italy among many other countries but they all denied Columbus and thought his statement was incorrect. Columbus’ statement was that he had found a faster way to get to Asia than the Portuguese had, which was going around the continent of Africa. Columbus lived a majority of his life in Spain, so when it came to setting sail for the west, Spain was one of the first nations he asked for funding. Though it took Columbus a little more than a few years to convince a nation to fund his voyage, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand from Spain subsequently granted to endow him in 1492. He would then leave for “Asia” on August 3, 1492. There are many unanswered questions and thoughts on why Spain decided to finally fund Columbus’ voyage, especially since he was an explorer that was born in Italy.

Entry 1: Columbus was most likely not the first to travel across the Atlantic Ocean and he probably never even set foot on the North American mainland. He also did not set out to explore to prove if the Earth was round or not. His calculations of getting to Asia were wrong and the countries Portugal, France, and England knew that and told him no when he asked for money to help him on his quest. The names of the three ships he took were actually called other names. He left 40 crewmembers to start the first European establishment in the New World because the Santa Maria crashed during the voyage.

As Columbus tried to get people to finance his voyage nobody would, they all refused, until his third attempt with queen and king of Spain. Of course navigation became a problem which caused him to go off course and while he was on his voyage a problem occured between the crew, mutiny, his crew began to get angry and impatient and were going to kill Columbus until he negotiated with them and resolved the problem. Due to him going off course on accident it resulted in him landing on what is believed to be the Bahamas. As he claimed the land for Spain he also took natives as slaves and begun to return to Spain. On the way back he then crashed his ship Santa Maria.

When you hear the name Christopher Columbus, what do you think? The world credits this man with discovering the new world, as if there weren’t already an indigenous people inhabiting the land he “discovered”. In fact, he never set foot in North America, but was believed to only have explored various Caribbean islands. Not only did he completely brutalize a group of Native people, he took credit for one of the biggest “discoveries” in history (Strauss). This is one of the earliest and most primary

Although early explorers and pilgrims made important achievements and discoveries that set the stage for early society, Christopher Columbus spent numerous years conquering new lands by using violence enslavement, and ethnocentric beliefs. The colonial period was built upon by greed, slavery, disease, and the destruction of the indigenous people in the Americas. We, as historians all believe that this claim is important because many people have the wrong impression or belief as to what really happened with Christopher Columbus. This also explains to people how he conquered the Americas and took the Natives land in search for riches and a new world. Christopher Columbus was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but

The accidental and unexpected voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought the age of colonization, exploration, and development to Western European, African, and American societies. This voyage proved to be a momentous turning point in history by connecting the previously isolated Americas to the rest of the world and their advancements. The transformations that followed demonstrated the benefits that some societies gained, as well as, show other societies that were profoundly weakened, damaged, or destroyed in the process.

The year Columbus set out to sail was the historical beginning of a bad ending. This ending should be acknowledged by all as the choices and decisions of the Spanish King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella. Without the royal’s greediness, there would have been a different ending to this story that wouldn’t have resulted in the complete obliteration of foreign human beings--genocide.

Imagine being an explorer with Christopher Columbus in the late 1490’s. You would sail across the seas, and the oceans. You would go into an unknown world where you didn’t know what was across that lake you just hoped it was something good. People would pray that they came to China. And hope that they maybe, just maybe landed somewhere with rich resources. With things like gold, salt, slaves, and a good area for your people, the people of Europe to live and build their homes. But it wasn't always that easy, some times there were wars over the land. When the Spanish took over some areas the natives to the land would fight back. There are many historical wars that were started over a piece of land, one of which is the Spanish American war.

Christopher Columbus’s life was filled with adventures and new beginnings that would leave a remarkable impression throughout history. Born in 1451 in Genoa, Columbus from an early age would become well acclimated to sailing as he began his career aboard a merchant ship and later study mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and navigation. Growing up and experiencing new thing Columbus began to come up with a plan different from all others to set sail across the Atlantic instead of going around the African continent. With his ideas being turned away from both Portugal and England it was Ferdinand and Isabella who took sympathy upon him and financial back his voyage as they both had hopes of gaining fame and fortune. In 1942, Columbus began his voyages and would carefully document each experience in the form of letters that would have a lasting impact on the world. I believe with the dramatic change in tones we see between the first and fourth letters it gives us the reader a true insight into Columbus’s mental and physical emotions over the years. Furthermore, these letters allow us to explore a part of history that is considered monumental while gaining information of what took place over a ten-year journey.

Rather than the King and Queen of Spain see him as a failure, he thought it would be wise to enslave the foreigners he found on the island to compensate for his mistake. This is demonstrated in his journal, The Voyage of Christopher Columbus, restored and translated by John Cummins. In his journal, Columbus writes, “I thought, and still think, that people from the mainland come here to take them prisoner. They must be good servants, and intelligent, for I can see that they quickly repeat everything said to them. I believe they would readily become Christians; it appeared to me that they have no religion” (94). Christopher Columbus was ultimately known for stumbling on islands already discovered by previous explorers, killing the indigenous people, and for attempting to enslave them and bring them back to Spain as slaves to make a profit. To this day, he is known as an explorer wanting all the glory, prestige, and respect from everyone, but in reality, he was a cold-hearted man who did not mind taking credit where credit was not due.