Christopher Columbus is a medieval navigator who discovered the Sargasso and Caribbean seas, the Antilles, the Bahamas and the American continent for Europeans, the first famous traveler to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
According to various sources, Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, in what is now Corsica. Six Italian and Spanish cities claim the right to be called his homeland. Almost nothing is reliably known about the childhood and youth of the navigator, and the origin of the Columbus family is just as vague.
Some researchers call Columbus an Italian, others believe that his parents were baptized Jews, Marranos. This assumption explains the incredible level of education at that time that Christopher, who came from a family of an ordinary weaver and a housewife, received.
According to some historians and biographers, Columbus studied at home until the age of 14, while he had brilliant knowledge in mathematics, knew several languages, including Latin. The boy had three younger brothers and a sister, all of whom were taught by visiting teachers. One of the brothers, Giovanni, died in childhood, sister Bianchella grew up and married, and Bartolomeo and Giacomo accompanied Columbus on his wanderings.
Most likely, Columbus was given all possible assistance by fellow believers, rich Genoese financiers from the Marranos. With their help, a young man from a poor family got into the University of Padua.
Being an educated person, Columbus was familiar with the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers and thinkers who depicted the Earth as a ball, and not a flat pancake, as was believed in the Middle Ages. However, such thoughts, like the Jewish origin during the Inquisition, which raged in Europe, had to be carefully hidden.
At the university, Columbus became friends with students and teachers. One of his close friends was the astronomer Toscanelli. According to his calculations, it turned out that to the cherished India, full of untold riches, it was much closer to sail in a westerly direction, and not in an eastern one, skirting Africa. Later, Christopher made his own calculations, which, being incorrect, confirmed Toscanelli's hypothesis. Thus was born the dream of a western journey, and Columbus devoted his whole life to it.
Even before entering the university, at the age of fourteen, Christopher Columbus experienced the hardships of sea travel. The father arranged for his son to work on one of the trading schooners to learn the art of navigation, trade skills, and from that moment the biography of Columbus the navigator started.
Columbus made his first voyages as a cabin boy in the Mediterranean Sea, where trade and economic routes between Europe and Asia intersected. At the same time, European merchants knew about the riches and gold placers of Asia and India from the words of the Arabs, who resold them wonderful silks and spices from these countries.
The young man listened to extraordinary stories from the mouths of eastern merchants and was inflamed with a dream to reach the shores of India in order to find her treasures and get rich.
Expeditions
In the 70s of the 15th century, Columbus married Felipe Moniz from a wealthy Italo-Portuguese family. The father-in-law of Christopher, who settled in Lisbon and sailed under the Portuguese flag, was also a navigator. After his death, he left sea charts, diaries and other documents that were inherited by Columbus. According to them, the traveler continued to study geography, at the same time studying the works of Piccolomini, Pierre de Ailly,.
Christopher Columbus took part in the so-called northern expedition, in which his path passed through the British Isles and Iceland. Presumably, there the navigator heard the Scandinavian sagas and stories about the Vikings, Erik the Red and Leyve Eriksson, who reached the coast of the "Great Land" by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
The route that made it possible to get to India by the western route was compiled by Columbus in 1475. He presented an ambitious plan to conquer the new land to the court of the Genoese merchants, but did not meet with support.
A few years later, in 1483, Christopher made a similar proposal to the Portuguese king João II. The king assembled a scientific council, which reviewed the Genoese project and found his calculations incorrect. Frustrated, but resilient, Columbus left Portugal and moved to Castile.
In 1485, the navigator requested an audience with the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile. The couple received him favorably, listened to Columbus, who tempted them with the treasures of India, and, just like the Portuguese ruler, convened scientists for advice. The commission did not support the navigator, since the possibility of a western path implied the sphericity of the Earth, which was contrary to the teachings of the church. Columbus was almost declared a heretic, but the king and queen had mercy and decided to postpone the final decision until the end of the war with the Moors.
Columbus, who was driven not so much by a thirst for discovery as by a desire to get rich, carefully hiding the details of the planned trip, sent messages to the English and French monarchs. Charles and Henry did not answer the letters, being too busy with domestic politics, but the Portuguese king sent an invitation to the navigator to continue discussing the expedition.
When Christopher announced this in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to equip a squadron of ships to search for a western route to India, although the impoverished Spanish treasury had no funds for this enterprise. The monarchs promised Columbus a title of nobility, the title of admiral and viceroy of all the lands that he had to discover, and he had to borrow money from Andalusian bankers and merchants.
Four Expeditions of Columbus
- The first expedition of Christopher Columbus took place in 1492-1493. On three ships, the Pinta caravels (owned by Martin Alonso Pinson) and Nina and the four-masted Santa Maria sailboat, the navigator passed through the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea along the way, and reached the Bahamas. On October 12, 1492, Columbus set foot on the island of Saman, which he named San Salvador. This date is considered the day of the discovery of America.
- The second expedition of Columbus took place in 1493-1496. In this campaign, the Lesser Antilles, Dominica, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica were discovered.
- The third expedition refers to the period from 1498 to 1500. A flotilla of six ships reached the islands of Trinidad and Margarita, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America, and ended in Haiti.
- During the fourth expedition, Christopher Columbus sailed to Martinique, visited the Gulf of Honduras and explored the coast of Central America along the Caribbean Sea.
Discovery of America
The process of discovering the New World dragged on for many years. The most amazing thing is that Columbus, being a convinced discoverer and an experienced navigator, believed until the end of his days that he had opened the way to Asia. He considered the Bahamas, discovered in the first expedition, to be part of Japan, after which wonderful China was to open, and after it, the cherished India.
What did Columbus discover and why did the new continent get the name of another traveler? The list of discoveries made by the great traveler and navigator includes San Salvador, Cuba and Haiti, belonging to the Bahamas, the Sargasso Sea.
Seventeen ships, led by the flagship Maria Galante, went on the second expedition. This type of ship with a displacement of two hundred tons and other ships carried not only sailors, but also colonialists, livestock, and supplies. All this time, Columbus was convinced that he had discovered the Western Indies. At the same time, the Antilles, Dominica and Guadeloupe were discovered.
The third expedition brought the ships of Columbus to the continent, but the navigator was disappointed: he never found India with its gold placers. From this journey, Columbus returned in shackles, accused of a false denunciation. Before entering the port, the fetters were removed from him, but the navigator lost the promised titles and titles.
The last journey of Christopher Columbus ended with a crash off the coast of Jamaica and a serious illness of the leader of the campaign. He returned home sick, unhappy and broken by failures. Amerigo Vespucci was a close associate and follower of Columbus, who undertook four voyages to the New World. A whole continent is named after him, and one country in South America is named after Columbus, who never reached India.
Personal life
According to the biographers of Christopher Columbus, the first of whom was his own son, the navigator was married twice. The first marriage with Felipe Moniz was legal. The wife gave birth to a son, Diego. In 1488 Columbus had a second son, Fernando, from a relationship with a woman named Beatriz Henriques de Arana.
The navigator equally took care of both sons, and even took the youngest with him on an expedition when the boy was thirteen years old. Fernando was the first to write a biography of the famous traveler.
Christopher Columbus with his wife Felipe Moniz Subsequently, both sons of Columbus became influential people and took high positions. Diego was the fourth Viceroy of New Spain and Admiral of the Indies, and his descendants were titled Marquesses of Jamaica and Dukes of Veragua.
Fernando Columbus, who became a writer and scientist, enjoyed the favor of the Spanish emperor, lived in a marble palace and had an annual income of up to 200,000 francs. These titles and wealth went to the descendants of Columbus in recognition of his services to the crown by the Spanish monarchs.
Death
After the discovery of America from the last expedition, Columbus returned to Spain a terminally ill, aged man. In 1506, the discoverer of the New World died in poverty in a small house in Valladolid. Columbus used his savings to pay the debts of the members of the last expedition.
Tomb of Christopher Columbus Soon after the death of Christopher Columbus, the first ships began to arrive from America, loaded with gold, which the navigator so dreamed of. Many historians agree that Columbus knew that he had discovered not Asia or India, but a new, unexplored continent, but did not want to share glory and treasures with anyone, to which there was one step left.
The appearance of the enterprising discoverer of America is known from photos in history books. Several films have been made about Columbus, the last film being co-produced by France, England, Spain and the USA “1492: The Conquest of Paradise”. Monuments to this great man were erected in Barcelona and Granada, and his ashes were transported from Seville to Haiti.
Christopher Columbus is the most famous person from the Age of Discovery.
He became famous for giving the world a whole uncharted continent.
Despite a certain breakthrough in research and navigation, Columbus's achievements were realized only after a while. After the conquistadors conquered the states in the north of the Andes, including Mexico and Peru, when the Spanish crown began to fill with gold and silver, only then Spain realized how important the discovery made by Columbus was. His legacy is enormous. In honor of the great navigator, the District of Columbia in the USA, the river, the Columbian Plateau and many cities are named.
From the biography of Christopher Columbus:
Historians and modern researchers argue that there are many gaps and unknowns in the biography of Christopher Columbus than reliable facts.
Much information about Columbus is still in question, because the discoverer lived more than 500 years ago, but there are still quite interesting historical facts about him.
The exact date of birth of the navigator remains unknown, as well as where his remains went after burial. Columbus is believed to have been born in 1451. The question of where the famous navigator Christopher Columbus was born still remains open to this day. The right to be called the birthplace of Columbus is claimed by 4 Spanish cities, as well as 2 Portuguese and 2 Italian.
The question of the origin of Columbus remains controversial. He is reckoned with the Portuguese, and the Spaniards (mostly), and the Greeks, and sometimes the Jews. Regarding the latter, there are only guesses, except for the presence of Jews on the expedition and the transfer of the voyage from the day of the Jewish holiday, there is no other reliable evidence.
Most sources refer to him as the "Spanish navigator". However, judging by the surviving family documents, he was born and grew up in Genoa - a town on the Italian coast in Liguria. The names of his parents are known for sure: his father is Domenico Colombo, and his mother is Susanna Fontanarossa. Most often, Genoa is called the birthplace of Columbus, but it is only known for certain that he lived there from the age of 12, but there are no exact facts that he was born there.
The house where Christopher's father, Dominico Colombo, lived and worked, remained in Genoa. He was a cloth weaver, the keeper of the city gates, so historians know enough about him. It follows that, most likely, the traveler was Italian.
It is known that Christopher Columbus was born into a poor family. Indeed, his family was not rich, but this did not prevent Columbus from getting a good education - according to some sources, he graduated from the University of Pavia.
In Spanish, Columbus spoke and wrote, but had a dialect characteristic of the Portuguese. He studied Latin and Greek, in which he kept diaries. But all this indicates, most likely, his versatile hobbies, and does not reveal the mysteries of his origin.
In the images of Christopher Columbus, we see a serious face with large eyes and an elongated hairstyle, but all the portraits were painted after the navigator passed away. The portraits of Columbus were created from the descriptions of friends and the rest of the expedition team: huge blue eyes, a hooked nose, red hair that turned gray early due to frequent movements and stress.
It is known that the names of Christopher's father are Colombo. In fact, this is an Italian variation of the familiar "Columbus". Colón in Spain, Colom in Portugal, all of which mean "dove" and come from the name Columbus in Latin. Practically, his surname in the Russian version is Golubev.
He stepped on board the ship for the first time when he was barely 14, and since then he has not parted with the sea until his death.
According to historians, Christopher Columbus died quite young, he was only 54 years old, it happened in 1506. Columbus was first buried in the Spanish city of Seville. In 1540, the Spanish king Charles V decided to fulfill the will of the deceased, and the sailor's ashes were sent overseas and reburied in Santo Domingo. After part of the island of Haiti went to France, the coffin was transported to Havana. In 1898 he was returned to Haiti, and then again sent to Seville.
There were suggestions that the remains of not Columbus, but a completely different person, were transported to Seville. But these rumors were refuted only at the beginning of the XXI century. Spanish geneticists compared the DNA of the alleged remains of Columbus and his brother Diego. Scientists said that the examination showed "absolute similarity."
Travels and sea expeditions of Christopher Columbus:
In fact, the discovery of a new continent was never the goal of Columbus' voyages. Since the theories that the Earth was not flat had already been confirmed, the geographer drafted the fastest road to southern Asia. More specifically, India.
After the work received in 1474 from the astronomer and geographer Paolo Toscanelli, Christopher Columbus first thought about a sea expedition. Toscanelli's writings indicated that eastern countries such as Japan, China, and India could be reached much faster by sea if one sailed west. According to Paolo Toscanelli's map, there were no more than 5,000 kilometers from the Canary Islands to Japan.
Christopher Columbus, based on ancient knowledge about the sphericity of the earth and geographical maps of the 15th century, began his own calculations. The first country that Columbus planned to sail to was Japan, not India, as many believe.
The advanced calculations for that time turned out to be incorrect, no one suggested that an immense piece of land would interfere with ships on their way across the Atlantic.
Columbus was not at all going to discover a new continent: he only wanted to find a new, shorter route to India, from where spices were supplied to Europe, which were very expensive. In 1485, he tried to convey his idea to the Spanish king, but he managed to realize his dream only after 7 years: court scientists could not figure out how to reach India, which is located in the east, if you sail west?
It was possible to go on an expedition only in 1492. There is reliable information that among the sailors of Columbus there were many prisoners who wanted to voluntarily go into the unknown. These "gentlemen of fortune" were already ready to revolt: the voyage continued for several weeks before the sailors saw the land. They were already in a panic and did not believe in the successful outcome of the expedition.
Columbus himself had no doubt that he reached the shores of India, therefore, the indigenous population of America is called the Indians. Columbus and his companions did not manage to find here the spices that so attracted European merchants. Then the navigator concluded that he was in the poorest part of India.
The admiral did not limit himself to one of his most famous expeditions. In search of India, 4 large-scale voyages were made. It was planned to create a permanent colony, they brought cattle and seeds of cultivated plants with them. They even tried to enslave the Indians to work for the Spanish treasury, but their work did not bring much income.
In total, Columbus made 4 trips to the shores of the New World, but never realized that this was not India. After the second expedition, the navigator invited the Spanish monarch to populate new lands with criminals serving time in prisons. On the one hand, this reduced the cost of the treasury for their maintenance, and on the other hand, it made it possible to increase the number of Europeans in the colony. On the new mainland, along with artisans and priests, colonists-criminals poured in thousands. Subsequently, this did not play the best role, since in the occupied lands, after a while, uprisings of former prisoners broke out one after another.
Coming off the ship, Christopher Columbus was still sure that he had reached Asia. The new territory was recognized as part of China, Japan or India. These countries, formerly referred to as Eastern, became Western for quite a long time. The fact is that Columbus did not set foot on the mainland known to us. The maximum that he managed to explore is the current Bahamas. The first island he discovered was named: San Salvador, it was discovered on October 12, 1492, which is recognized as the date of the arrival of Europeans in America. Several other Bahamas were explored on the same expedition.
Despite the fact that Columbus could not find spices, it was on his ships that potatoes, tobacco, corn, and tomatoes were delivered to Europe. And the Indians first saw grapes, as well as outlandish animals - horses.
His first return was triumphant: ships full of rubber, tobacco, potatoes and corn met with honors in Europe. Only gold and spices were not found in "pseudo-India", so later the admiral was deprived of the rights to his discoveries, he was even considered a charlatan. Spain needed colonies and jewels, which she nevertheless received after the death of Columbus. His work was recognized when silver and gold were brought from the open territories.
Columbus was not in India. This statement was made by the Portuguese Vasco da Gama, who really sailed to India and brought spices and Indian fabrics as proof. The Spanish authorities recognized that the lands reached by Columbus were not “Western India” at all, which means that the honors for these lands for Columbus were canceled. And this is after three expeditions! However, he was able to get permission for a fourth. The confidence in the calculations and hypotheses was too strong. When he returned, he admitted that between the Atlantic and India there was an "insurmountable barrier" that could not be crossed.
The new discovered continent was not named after Columbus, it got its name from another navigator, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. After all, it was Vespucci who proved that Columbus discovered not a short way to India, but a new continent.
15 interesting facts from the life of Christopher Columbus:
1. Christopher Columbus never found out that he had discovered America. Only after his death did it become known that this was not East Asia. The breakthrough was made by Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the mainland is named.
2. It took Columbus 7 years to convince the king and queen of Spain and their scientific advisers to help him organize an expedition across the ocean.
3. After the second expedition, Christopher Columbus informed the Spanish king that he had reached the Asian mainland. To develop new lands, he insisted on attracting not free settlers, but criminals from prisons.
4. After the first expedition, when the Columbus team was returning home, it got into a storm. Columbus's ship washed up on the shores of Portugal, he had the audacity to ridicule the stupidity of King Juan II for the fact that the king refused to support his sea expedition 15 years ago. Only the fear of getting involved in a war with Spain prevented Juan II from hanging the impudent one.
5. The team of Columbus ships consisted of prisoners serving sentences - no one else agreed to voluntarily participate in a dangerous voyage. After all, it was impossible to predict in advance how long this journey would last, and what dangers might be encountered along the way.
6. During the fourth expedition, the Spaniards landed on the island, which they called Costa Rica (“rich coast”). They believed that there were large deposits of gold on the island, but they were mistaken: Costa Rica is extremely scarce for anything of value.
7. Christopher Columbus had two sons - legal, Diego, and illegal, Fernando, settled in Spain, from a connection with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana. Soon after the death of their father, they became very wealthy people and received huge incomes for their time.
8. Christopher Columbus, in addition to vegetables and tobacco, brought to our dacha such a convenient attribute of country rest as a hammock. During their stay on the island of San Salvador, sailors saw an ingenious invention of local residents - a hammock. It was from that moment that ships began to be equipped with comfortable berths made of mesh and sails.
9. Columbus called the population of the lands he discovered Indians, being sure that he sailed to the shores of India.
10. The future discoverer set excessive conditions for expeditions: appoint him viceroy of the open lands, and also assign the title of "Chief Admiral of the Sea-Ocean". King Ferdinand called him impudent.
11. When, during the last expedition, the Columbus team stumbled upon aggressive Indians who vowed not to give their resources and natural wealth to the Europeans anymore, the admiral resorted to cunning. By simple calculations, a lunar eclipse was predicted for February 29, 1504, which for the natives was a terrible heavenly sign. When Columbus warned the natives and said that he would pray for them only if the food supply continued. The plan worked - the expedition was saved.
12. In the last years of his life, Columbus was very ill, and the complete refusal of the authorities to give him travel privileges was a blow to him.
13. Despite his love for gold, the traveler died almost a beggar. He gave everything he had acquired to help the team, which was stuck at sea for a year after the shipwreck.
14. Columbus died in 1506, in poverty and disgrace, being seriously ill. Only years later the significance of his discoveries was recognized by right.
15. The film company Columbia pictures is named after Columbus.
Christopher Columbus. Statue of a navigator in New York
photo from internet
In biography Christopher Columbus more white spots than hard facts. His name is surrounded by legends and he remains one of the most enigmatic figures in history. Until recently, he was written about exclusively as a great discoverer, but recently there are more and more studies in which scientists offer to look at him from the other side. Thus, the American historian Howard Zinn is sure that the appearance of European settlers in the New World marked the beginning of mass colonization, the slave trade and the extermination of indigenous peoples.
Information about what Columbus was doing before the start of the great journeys is not recorded. Some researchers are sure that the navigator carefully concealed some facts of his biography, since in the past he was a robber and a slave trader. He really sailed to the shores of West Africa, where the slave trade was actively conducted, but there is no exact evidence of what he actually did there. There is also a version that the future discoverer was born in the family of a commoner who earned a living by trade and weaving, and therefore did not like to mention his humble origin.
The first European settlement in the New World (which Columbus called either India, or China, or Japan) was La Navidad ("Christmas") on the island of Haiti. In 1492, one of the ships of the Spanish squadron was wrecked, the team reached the shore, and Columbus decided to leave the Spaniards on the island, founding the first settlement. Food supplies were small, but Columbus was confident that the sailors would easily subjugate the local population. When the navigator returned to the island a year later, he learned that the natives had killed all the settlers for their mistreatment.
The most famous mistake of Columbus was the belief that he had reached the shores of Asia. However, the navigator made a mistake in his calculations - Asia was at least 3 times further than he expected, and a new continent appeared on his way. Long before Columbus, there were Normans in South America, but the colonization of the continent began precisely with his expeditions. At the same time, in the Spanish colony in Haiti, he established harsh rules: any uprisings were brutally suppressed, while he did not spare either the local population or the Spanish settlers. The colonists even complained about Columbus to the Spanish king. The Royal Commissioner arrested the navigator and brought him to Spain in shackles. However, King Ferdinand not only freed Columbus, but also financed his fourth expedition to the New World.
Columbus did not just appreciate his merits - he demanded that he be appointed viceroy of the new lands. King Ferdinand considered these ambitions excessive, although the navigator made many lucrative offers. So, for example, he proposed sending not free citizens, but criminals, to the settlement of new lands, which reduced the cost of their maintenance in prisons. However, this coin also had a downside: criminals often raised riots against the authorities of the settlements.
Columbus's main argument was the assumption that there was a lot of gold in Asia that Spain needed. And the navigator undertook to get it for the state treasury, in exchange for a tenth of the profits, the transfer of open lands to management and the glory of the discoverer. He also promised to bring to Spain "as many slaves as you like."
In his account of the first expedition, he claimed to have reached the shores of Asia (actually Cuba) and an island off the coast of "China" (Haiti). He failed to find rich gold deposits, but the locals were taken to Spain as slaves: 500 of the strongest Arawak men and women were selected, 200 of whom died on the way. The attitude towards the local residents who remained in the colony was extremely cruel: men died in the mines, and women died on plantations.
The death of Columbus in 1506 was almost unnoticed - by that time his fame had faded. About 20 years after his death, the exaltation of the merits of the navigator began. In America, the attitude towards him is still ambiguous: Columbus Day is celebrated not only with parades, but also with mass protest demonstrations, during which the discoverer is called a colonialist and his portraits are carried with the inscription "killer".
The indigenous inhabitants of the occupied territories often not only became slaves, but also served as a means of entertainment for Europeans:
The Lord made me the messenger of a new heaven and a new earth,
created by him, the very ones about which St.
John... and there the Lord showed me the way.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (born around August 26 and October 31, 1451 - death May 20, 1506) - Italian navigator who discovered America in 1492.
Columbus is eternal. Even schoolchildren in our time, who find it difficult to answer who Stalin is and why Lenin is lying on Red Square, can connect such a concept as Columbus and America. And some, perhaps, will be able to tell the sad story of his life - the life of a discoverer without discoveries, a great, fearless, erring one ... For, as Jules Verne argued, if Columbus had not had these three qualities, he might not have dared to overcome the endless expanse of the sea and go in search of lands previously mentioned only in myths and sagas.
The story of Columbus is an ongoing story of mystery. Absolutely everything is questioned - the date of his birth, his origin and the city where he was born. 7 Greek cities argued for the right to consider themselves the birthplace of Homer. Columbus was "lucky" more. At different times and in different places, 26 claimants (14 Italian cities and 12 nations) put forward such claims, entering into a lawsuit with Genoa.
More than 40 years ago, Genoa seems to have finally won this centuries-old process. But to this day, the voices of advocates of false versions about the homeland and nationality of Columbus do not stop. Until 1571, no one doubted the origin of Columbus. He himself called himself a Genoese more than once. The first to question the Genoese origin of Columbus was Ferdinando Colon. He was guided by "noble" intentions to introduce noble ancestors into the genealogy of the great navigator. Genoa was not suitable for such experiments: this name did not appear on the lists even of plebeian families. Therefore, the author took the grandfathers of Columbus to the Italian city of Piacenza, where noble people from the local family of Columbus lived in the XIV and XV centuries. The example of Ferdinand Colon inspired this kind of search for historians of subsequent centuries.
Childhood. Adolescence. Youth
Christopher Columbus was born into the family of a weaver who also traded in cheese and wine. The embarrassment that occurred at the wedding of Christoforo Bianchinetta's sister speaks about the financial situation of the family and the not entirely honest father of the navigator Domenico Colombo. The son-in-law, a cheese merchant, accused Domenico of not giving the dowry promised for his daughter. Notarial deeds of those times confirm that the situation of the family was actually deplorable. In particular, major disagreements with creditors arose because of the house where they settled 4 years after the birth of Christoforo.
Although Christoforo spent his childhood at his father's loom, the boy's interests were directed in a different direction. The greatest impression on the child was made by the harbor, where people with different skin colors, in burnous, caftans, and European dress, jostled and called to one another. Christoforo did not remain an outside observer for long. Already at the age of 14, he sailed as a cabin boy in Portofino, and later on to Corsica. In those days, on the Ligurian coast, the most common form of trade was barter. Domenico Colombo also took part in it, and his son helped: he accompanied a small vessel loaded with fabrics with Latin equipment to nearby shopping centers, and from there delivered cheese and wine.
In Lisbon, he met the girl Felipa Moniz da Perestrello and soon married her. For Christopher Columbus, this marriage was a happy lot. He entered a noble Portuguese house and intermarried with people who took the most direct part in the overseas campaigns organized by Prince Henry the Navigator and his successors.
Felipa's father in his youth was included in the retinue of Henry the Navigator. Columbus gained access to various documents that recorded the history of the Portuguese voyages in the Atlantic. In the winter of 1476-1477, Columbus left his wife and went to England and Ireland, in 1478 he ended up in Madeira. Columbus went through the elementary school of practical navigation in Porto Santo and Madeira, traveling to the Azores, and then completed a course in marine science in Guinean expeditions. During his leisure hours he studied geography, mathematics, Latin, but only to the extent necessary for his purely practical purposes. And more than once, Columbus admitted that he was not very versed in the sciences.
But in particular, the book of Marco Polo struck the young sailor's imagination, which spoke of the gold-roofed palaces of Sipangu (Japan), the splendor and splendor of the court of the great khan, and the birthplace of spices - India. Columbus had no doubt that the Earth had the shape of a ball, but it seemed to him that this ball was much smaller than in reality. That is why he believed that Japan was relatively close to the Azores.
Stay in Portugal
Landing of Columbus in America
Columbus decided to make his way to India by the western route and in 1484 presented his plan to the king of Portugal. Columbus' idea was simple. It was based on two premises: one completely true and one false. The first (true) one is that the Earth is a sphere; and the second (false) - that most of the earth's surface is occupied by land - a single array of three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa; the smaller one - by sea, because of this, the distance between the western shores of Europe and the eastern tip of Asia is small, and in a short period of time it is possible, following the western route, to reach India, Japan and China - this corresponded to the geographical ideas of the Columbus era.
The idea of the possibility of such a voyage was expressed by Aristotle and Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Plutarch, and in the Middle Ages the theory of the One Ocean was consecrated by the church. It was recognized by the Arab world and its great geographers: Masudi, al-Biruni, Idrisi.
While living in Portugal, Columbus offered his project to King João II. It happened at the end of 1483 or at the beginning of 1484. The time for awarding the project was not chosen very well. In 1483-1484, João II thought least of all about long-distance expeditions. The king extinguished the revolts of the Portuguese magnates and dealt with the conspirators. He attached more importance to further discoveries in Africa, but much less interested in Atlantic voyages to the west.
The history of the negotiations between Columbus and King João II is not entirely clear. It is known that Columbus asked for a lot in return for his services. Lots of embarrassing. As much as no mortal had asked the crowned bearers before. He demanded the title of Chief Admiral of the Ocean and a noble rank, the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, a tenth of the income from these territories, an eighth of the profits from future trade with new countries and golden spurs.
All these conditions, except for the golden spurs, he subsequently included in his contract. King Juan never made rash decisions. He passed on Columbus's proposal to the "Mathematical Junta" - a small Lisbon academy, in which outstanding scientists and mathematicians met. It is not known exactly what decision the council made. At least it was unfavorable - it happened in 1485. In the same year, Columbus's wife died, and his financial situation deteriorated sharply.
Stay in Spain
1485, summer - he decided to leave Portugal for Castile. Columbus took his seven-year-old son Diego with him and sent his brother Bartolomeo to England in the hope that he would be interested in Henry VII's western route project. From Lisbon, Christopher Columbus went to Palois in order to attach Diego to his wife's relatives in the neighboring city of Huelva. Exhausted by long wanderings, with a small child in his arms, Columbus decided to seek refuge in a monastery, near which the forces finally left him.
So Columbus ended up in the monastery of Rabidu and, in a fit of revelation, poured out his soul to the abbot Antonio de Marchena, a powerful man at the Spanish court. The Columbus project delighted Antonio. He gave Columbus letters of recommendation to those close to the royal family - he had connections at court.
Inspired by a warm welcome in the monastery, Columbus went to Cordoba. The court of their highnesses temporarily stayed there (the Castilian and Aragonese kings until 1519 bore the title of highnesses) - Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon.
However, in Spain, Cristobal Colon (as Columbus was called in Spain) was expected for many years of need, humiliation and disappointment. Royal advisers believed that the project of Columbus was impossible.
In addition, all the forces and attention of the Spanish rulers were absorbed in the fight against the remnant of Moorish domination in Spain - a small Moorish state in Grenada. Columbus was refused. Then he proposed his plan to England, and then again to Portugal, but nowhere was it taken seriously.
Only after the Spaniards had taken Grenada was Columbus, after much trouble, able to obtain three small ships from Spain for his voyage.
First expedition (1492 - 1493)
With incredible difficulty, he managed to assemble a team, and, in the end, on August 3, 1492, a small squadron left the Spanish port of Paloe and went west to look for India.
The sea was calm and deserted, a fair wind was blowing. So the ships went for more than a month. On September 15, Columbus and his companions saw a green strip in the distance. However, their joy was soon replaced by chagrin. It was not a long-awaited land, so began the Sargasso Sea - a giant accumulation of algae. On September 18–20, sailors saw flocks of birds flying west. “Finally,” the sailors thought, “the land is close!” But this time, too, the travelers were disappointed. The crew began to worry. In order not to frighten people with the range of the distance traveled, Columbus began to underestimate the distance traveled in the ship's log.
On October 11, at 10 pm, Columbus, eagerly peering into the darkness of the night, saw a light flickering in the distance, and on the morning of October 12, 1492, the sailor Rodrigo de Triana shouted: “Earth!” The sails were removed from the ships.
In front of the travelers was a small island overgrown with palm trees. Naked people ran along the sand along the shore. Columbus put on a scarlet dress on the armor and, with the royal flag in his hands, went down to the shores of the New World. It was Watling Island from the Bahamas. The natives called it Guanagani, and Columbus called it San Salvador. This is how America was discovered.
Expeditions of Christopher Columbus
True, Columbus was sure until the end of his days that he did not discover any "New World", but only found a way to India. And with his light hand, the natives of the New World began to be called Indians. The natives of the newly discovered island were tall, handsome people. They did not wear clothes, their bodies were colorfully painted. Some natives had shiny sticks in their noses, which delighted Columbus: after all, it was gold! This means that the country of golden palaces, Sipangu, was not far away.
In search of the golden Sipangu, Columbus left Guanagani and traveled further, discovering island after island. Everywhere the Spaniards were amazed by the lush tropical vegetation, the beauty of the islands scattered in the blue ocean, the friendliness and meekness of the natives, who gave the Spaniards gold, colorful birds and hammocks never seen before by the Spaniards for trinkets, molasses and beautiful rags. On October 20, Columbus reached Cuba.
The Cuban population was more cultured than the inhabitants of the Bahamas. In Cuba, Columbus found statues, large buildings, bales of cotton and for the first time saw cultivated plants - tobacco and potatoes, products of the New World, which later conquered the whole world. All this further strengthened Columbus's confidence that Sipangu and India were somewhere nearby.
1492, December 4 - Columbus discovered the island of Haiti (the Spaniards then called it Hispaniola). On this island, Columbus built Fort La Navidad (“Christmas”), left 40 garrison men there, and on January 16, 1493, headed for Europe on two ships: his largest ship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked on December 24.
On the way back, a terrible storm broke out, and the ships lost sight of each other. Only on February 18, 1493, the exhausted sailors saw the Azores, and on February 25 they reached Lisbon. On March 15, after an 8-month absence, Columbus returned to the port of Paloe. Thus ended the first expedition of Christopher Columbus.
The traveler was received in Spain with enthusiasm. He was granted a coat of arms with a map of the newly discovered islands and with the motto:
"For Castile and León, Colón opened the New World."
Second expedition (1493 - 1496)
They quickly organized a new expedition, and already on September 25, 1493, Christopher Columbus set off on a second expedition. This time he led 17 ships. With him went 1,500 men, seduced by tales of easy money in the newly discovered lands.
On the morning of November 2, after a rather exhausting voyage, the sailors saw a high mountain in the distance. It was the island of Dominica. It was covered with forest, the wind brought spicy aromas from the shore. The next day, another mountainous island, Guadeloupe, was discovered. There, the Spaniards, instead of the peaceful and affectionate inhabitants of the Bahamas, met warlike and cruel cannibals, Indians from the Carib tribe. There was a fight between the Spaniards and the Caribs.
Having discovered the island of Puerto Rico, on November 22, 1493, Columbus sailed to Hispaniola. At night, the ships approached the place where the fort they laid on their first voyage stood.
Everything was quiet. There were no lights on the beach. The arrivals fired a volley of bombards, but only the echo rolled in the distance. In the morning, Columbus learned that the Spaniards, with their cruelty and greed, so revolted the Indians against themselves that one night they suddenly attacked the fortress and burned it, killing the rapists. So America met Columbus during his second voyage!
The second expedition of Columbus was unsuccessful: the discoveries were insignificant; despite careful searches, little gold was found; disease was rampant in the newly built Isabella colony.
When Columbus went in search of new lands (during this voyage he discovered the island of Jamaica), the Indians in Hispaniola, outraged by the oppression of the Spaniards, rebelled again. The Spaniards were able to suppress the uprising and brutally cracked down on the rebels. Hundreds of them were enslaved, sent to Spain or forced to do backbreaking work in plantations and mines.
1496, March 10 - Columbus set off on his return journey, and on June 11, 1496, his ships entered the harbor of Cadiz.
The American writer Washington Irving spoke of the return of Columbus from the second expedition:
“These unfortunates crawled out, exhausted by illnesses in the colony and severe hardships of travel. Their yellow faces, in the words of an ancient writer, were a parody of the gold that was the subject of their aspirations, and all their stories about the New World were reduced to complaints of illness, poverty and disappointment.
Third expedition (1498 - 1500)
Return of Christopher Columbus
In Spain, Columbus was not only received very coldly, but also deprived of many privileges. Only after long and humiliating troubles was he able in the summer of 1498 to equip ships for the third expedition.
This time, Columbus and his crew had to endure a long calm and terrible heat. On July 31, the ships approached the large island of Trinidad, and soon a grass-covered shore appeared in front of Columbus.
Christopher Columbus took it for an island, in fact it was the mainland - South America. Even when Columbus got to the mouth of the Orinoco, he did not realize that he had a huge mainland in front of him.
In Hispaniola at that time there was a tense situation: the colonists quarreled among themselves; relations with the natives were damaged; the Indians responded to oppression with uprisings, and the Spaniards sent one punitive expedition after another to them.
The intrigues that had long been waged against Columbus at the Spanish court finally had their effect: in August 1500, a new government representative, Babadilla, arrived on the island of Hispaniola. He demoted Columbus and, having chained him and his brother Bartolomeo, sent him to Spain.
The appearance of a well-known traveler in shackles caused such indignation among the Spaniards that the government was forced to immediately release him. The shackles were removed, but the mortally offended admiral did not part with them until the end of his days and ordered to put them in his coffin.
Almost all privileges were taken away from Columbus, and expeditions to America began to be equipped without his participation.
Fourth expedition (1502 - 1504)
Only in 1502 was Columbus able to set off on four ships on his fourth and last expedition. This time he went along the coast of Central America, from Honduras to Panama. It was his most unfortunate journey. The travelers endured all sorts of hardships, and in 1504 the admiral returned to Spain on the same ship.
Columbus ended his life in a struggle. The admiral began to dream about the deliverance of Jerusalem and Mount Zion. At the end of November 1504, he sent a lengthy letter to the royal couple, in which he outlined his "crusading" creed.
Death of Columbus and posthumous journey
Columbus was often sick.
“Exhausted by gout, mourning the loss of his property, tormented by other sorrows, he gave his soul with the king for the rights and privileges promised to him. Before his death, he still considered himself the king of India and gave advice to the king on how best to rule the overseas lands. He gave his soul to God on the day of the Ascension, May 20, 1506 in Valladolid, accepting the holy gifts with great humility.
The admiral was buried in the church of the Valladolid Franciscan monastery. And in 1507 or 1509, the admiral set off on his longest journey. It lasted 390 years. Initially, his ashes were transported to Seville. In the middle of the 16th century, his remains were brought from Seville to Santo Domingo (Haiti). Columbus' brother Bartolomeo, his son Diego and grandson Luis were also buried there.
1792 - Spain cedes the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola to France. The commander of the Spanish flotilla ordered the ashes of the admiral to be delivered to Havana. The fourth funeral took place there. 1898 - Spain lost Cuba. The Spanish government decided to move the ashes of the admiral back to Seville. Now he rests in the Seville Cathedral.
What was Christopher Columbus looking for? What hopes drew him west? The treaty that Columbus made with Ferdinand and Isabella does not clarify this.
“Since you, Christopher Columbus, are sent by our order on our ships and with our subjects to discover and conquer certain islands and the mainland in the ocean ... it is fair and reasonable ... that you be rewarded for this.”
What islands? What mainland? Columbus took his secret with him to the grave.
Perhaps soon I will ripen to create a series of posts about dubious portraits of famous people, dubious in the sense that it is not clear whether they really depict the same person. For this person lived in a rather distant era, and her lifetime portraits either did not survive, or did not exist at all. Well, of course, we are not talking about Pythagoras and not about Vladimir the Red Sun, but about people who lived at a time when portraiture had already become more or less commonplace.
This time - Christopher Columbus, aka Cristobal Colon, aka Cristoforo Colombo.
No lifetime portraits of Columbus have been preserved, but there is a description of his appearance made by Bartolome de Las Casas:
He was tall, above average, his face was long and commanding respect, his nose was aquiline, his eyes were bluish-gray, his skin was white, with redness, his beard and mustache were reddish in his youth, but turned gray in his works.
Bartolome himself in 1493, when he saw Columbus, was only 9 years old, the description was made many decades later, so its reliability should not be absolute. However, at least there's a catch.
Let me remind you that the exact date of Columbus's birth is unknown (it is usually believed that he was born in 1451), and he died in 1506.
Chronologically, the earliest is this portrait, presumably depicting Columbus:
Lorenzo Lotto, 1512
Unfortunately, I did not find a color reproduction. Who and when identified Columbus in this portrait - I do not know. Perhaps this happened already in the 19th century.
Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519.
The inscription on the portrait indicates that this is indeed Christopher Columbus, but whether this inscription is authentic is not known for certain. It can be assumed that Sebastiano del Piombo really created this portrait as an image of the discoverer of America, but was guided by his ideas about his appearance. The dress and hairstyle are consistent with the time of the portrait, not the late 15th century, when Columbus was about the same age as the man depicted by del Piombo.
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, c. 1520-1525
The portrait does not indicate that this is Christopher Columbus, but such an inscription is on copies from this portrait created in the 16th century. For example, here:
Portraits by Sebastiano del Piombo and Ridolfo Ghirlandaio became the canonical portraits of Columbus. The third version of the canon, and perhaps the most famous:
Unknown artist, 16th century
The inscription testifies that it is Christopher Columbus. There is a version that this is a portrait of Paolo Toscanelli, who gave Columbus the idea to get to the Indies by the western route. But there were no reliable portraits of Toscanelli either, and he lived even earlier than Columbus. And the news of the correspondence between Columbus and Toscanelli is apocryphal.
Christofano del Altissimo, 1556
Cristofano del Altissimo became famous as the author of portraits of various famous people, both reliable and apocryphal. I will assume that the portrait of Columbus painted by him is rather a copy from the previous portrait than vice versa, or both of them go back to one source.
The man depicted in these portraits is very reminiscent of the scientist Giovanni Agostino della Torre, whom Lorenzo Lotto depicted with his son Niccolò in 1515:
The headdress of della Torre is the same as that of the man from the portrait of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, and there is an outward resemblance between them. I do not presume to claim that it was Giovanni della Torre who served as the prototype for Columbus, but I will put forward the hypothesis that initially a person was identified with Columbus from portraits by an unknown artist and Cristofano del Altissimo (probably they were already created as portraits of Columbus), and then the name navigator was assigned to the man from the portrait of Ghirlandaio, perhaps due to the similarity with the previous ones. This man is dressed and cut more in the fashion of the early 16th century than the end of the 15th.
I note that all the mentioned portraits taken together cannot depict the same person in any way, but the portraits of Lorenzo Lotto, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Cristofano del Altissimo and a portrait similar to the last one by an unknown artist can, but with a big stretch.
And here is a non-canonical image of Columbus:
Alejo Fernandez. Fragment of the central part of the altar, known as the Madonna of a Fair Wind, or the Patroness of Navigators (About him), c. 1531-1536
Whole altar:
The person depicted in profile most closely matches the description of Bartolome de Las Casas, more precisely, less than other portraits contradict him. In particular, he has a beard and long hair, in the fashion of the late 15th century. It is important that the portrait was created by a Spanish, artist, and not Italian, like all the previous ones, and it cannot be completely ruled out that Fernandez used a lifetime profile portrait of Columbus. However, this version is somewhat contradicted by the too rich attire of "Columbus"
There are many more images of Columbus that do not fit into the canon given by the three portraits mentioned here, but their claims to authenticity are even more doubtful.
See also:
