Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was born in the Italian seaport of Genoa in 1451. His father was a wool merchant and a weaver. Christopher’s education was limited due to the family’s financial conditions. From early childhood Christopher Columbus had to help his father.
First time he went in to the sea when he was about ten years old. The boy found it very exciting and later became an experienced sailor. Once he docked in Bristol, England, Galway, Ireland and was possibly in Iceland in 1477. Between 1482 and 1485 Columbus traded along the coasts of West Africa.
Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage, the so-called “Silk Road”, to China and India, which were sources of valuable goods such as silk and spices. With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the land route to Asia became much more difficult and dangerous. Portuguese navigators, under the leadership of King John II, sought to reach Asia by sailing around Africa, but still it took a long time and resources to reach India this way. So, in 1480 Columbus had developed a different plan to reach the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) by sailing west across the “Ocean Sea”, i.e., the Atlantic.
He tried for many years to persuade kings and queens of different countries to give him money for food and ships. Finally, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain gave him money. In return he promised to give them new lands, spices, money and new people to become Christian.
In 1492 Columbus set sail from Palos in Spain with three ships. The Nina and the Pinta were caravels, small ships with triangular sails. The third, the Santa Maria was a larger square-rigged ship. The ships were small, between 15 and 36 metres long. Between them they carried about 90 men.
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean for 10 weeks, on 12th October 1492, Columbus landed on a small island in the Bahamas which Columbus named San Salvador. He claimed the island for the King and Queen of Spain. The people living on the islands that Columbus went to, were called the Arawaks and the Caribs. Although the Arawaks were peaceful people, the Caribs were more war-like. Columbus called all the people he met in the islands Indians because he was sure that he had reached the Indies. When Columbus reached Cuba, he thought it was the mainland of Japan.
Christopher Columbus statue in Barcelona
Columbus came back to Spain in March 1493, and claimed his reward in riches. He was also given new titles. He was made Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Governor of the Indies. Columbus made three more journeys across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Lately he became very ill and other people pushed him down from his powers and fame. On 20 May 1506, at about age 55, Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain as a lonely and disappointed man. At his death, he was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia.
