Christopher Columbus Biography

 

      Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. His father was named Dominico and was a master weaver. His mother was named Susanna Columbo and was the daughter of a master weaver. Christopher was tall, thin-faced and had freckles. He worked in his father’s shop but dreamed of going to sea. When he was young, he took short trips sailing the sea. He became a sailor as an adult. At age twenty-five, he sailed to England. French pirates attacked and sank Christopher’s ship. He was injured and thrown into the sea. He grabbed a piece of wood and swam to the nearest shore. Eventually he washed up in Lagos, Portugal. He stayed in Lagos until he regained his strength. Christopher’s brother Bartholowmew lived in Lisbon, Portugal. He moved there to live with his brother. He made a living by making maps with his brother and selling them to sailors. While in Lisbon, he married Dona Felipa Moniz de Perestrello, a daughter of an important family. They had a son named Diego.

 

      The people of Lisbon wanted to go sailing to Africa, China, Japan, the East Indies, India and the Indies in order to obtain valuable jewels and spices. Christopher knew that the earth was round, but he didn’t know how large it was. People in Portugal had always sailed east to get to the Indies. Christopher believed that if he sailed west, he could get to his destination in a shorter amount of time. He decided to ask King John II of Portugal for three ships to test his theory, but the king refused him. His brother Bartholowmew went to ask the Kings of England and France for the ships his brother needed. They also would not give him the ships. After this, his wife died so he moved to Spain. There Christopher met Beatriz Enriquez de Harana and had a son named Ferdinand. In Spain he tried again to get his ships and asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his journey. At first, even they did not help.

 

      In 1492, after years of waiting, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finally agreed to give Columbus the ships he needed. They gave him three ships and ninety men. The ships were named the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Christopher began his journey on August 3, 1492. Nine days after he began sailing he reached the Canary Islands. On September 9, his ships entered the unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Some sailors were scared but Christopher told them to “Sail On!”  On October 12, they saw land, an island southeast of Florida. Christopher got out of his boat, put a flag in the ground and claimed it for Spain. He named it San Salvador. Christopher gave the natives that lived there red caps and bead necklaces. He named the natives “Indians” since he believed he had reached the Indies but in fact, he had actually landed in America.

 

      In March 1493, Christopher sailed back to Spain with a few Indians, gold trinkets and parrots. Some of his sailors though, had stayed in America to search for gold. Christopher was a hero when he arrived back in Spain and was named Admiral of the Ocean Sea by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In 1493 he sailed west again. This time he led seventeen ships and over one-thousand men. When he landed in San Salvador, he found that the people he had left behind were cruel to the Indians so the Indians had killed them. On this trip, he found even more islands. He set up a colony on Hispaniola, a very large island, and named it Isabella after the queen. Christopher sailed to America again in 1498 and in 1502. On these journeys he found very little gold and was no longer a hero. He always insisted that he had reached the Indies, but really he reached America, the new world.

 

      Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain May 20, 1506.