What are some Facts about Christopher Columbus?

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in about 1451. When he was only a teenager he got a job on merchant ship, this ship was on sea until 1470 when French privateers attacked his ship. The French privateers were sailing the north along the Portuguese Coast. Christopher Columbus’ boat then sank and he had to float until he ended up on the shore of Lisbon. This was the moment that he figured out that he wanted to change the world.

Christopher’s first voyage was at the 15th century and he wanted to reach Asia.

Usually to reach Asia, they sailed along the West African coast around the Cape of Good Hope, but Columbus wanted to go about it a different way. He wanted to sail across the Atlantic, he had good logic when he was thinking about his plan, but the way he did the math was not the right way. After that, he wanted to presented the plan to the officials in Portugal and England. In 1491 he went to the Spanish monarchs, they agreed on his trip and Columbus got 10% of the riches he found. On August 3rd, 1492 the voyages started. There were three ships that were named “Nina”, “The Pinta”, and “The Santa Maria”. All the ships made it to land and Columbus thought they were in Asia but what he didn’t know was that he was on one of the Bahamian Islands. When he came back in March of 1493 he didn’t have all the riches that the Spanish officials wanted, he returned to Spain anyways.

On September 1493, Columbus wanted to discover more so he went on another voyages except this time he took seventeen boats instead of just three, another difference was he sailed towards the lands in the far eastern part of Spain. In November of 1493 him and his crew discovered Guadalupe, the Dominica, and Jamaica. He then set sail back towards the Americas where he took hundreds of enslaved natives. Columbus sent the Spanish officials back over 500 slaves and they returned his gift back to him.

In May of 1498, for the third time he sailed across the Atlantic, this time he went to Trinidad and South America. He then returned to Hispaniola, but he came back to a surprise that he didn’t expect. The colonists staged a rebellion against the Columbus brothers’, but this rebellion was bloody and brutal. The rebellion got so bad that Hispaniola that the Spanish had to send a new governor, this also resulted in Columbus getting arrested and he had to return to Spain. In 1502, he had gotten the charges dropped and he went for another voyages. On this Voyage he made it to Panama, he still did not find any riches. Columbus then went back to Spain and on May 20th, 1506 Christopher Columbus passed away.

I have learned so much about Christopher Columbus since I wrote this paper. I honestly thought that Christopher Columbus was the man who discovered the Americas but when I read more about him I realized that he didn’t discover the Americas but he did discover a lot of other places around the world. I also did not know that he enslaved natives, and got arrested for it. Even though I did this paper for extra credit I am very glad that I did it because now I know more about the history of the world.

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