Learn about Christopher Columbus, his life, and his impact. See facts about Christopher Columbus, learn who discovered America, and read about where Columbus landed.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Christopher Columbus Biography | Discoveries & Contributions
Table of Contents
- Who Was Christopher Columbus?
- Christopher Columbus: Facts Biography
- Where Did Christopher Columbus Land?
- Significance and Legacy: What Did Christopher Columbus Do?
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
Who actually discovered America?
Since native peoples already lived all over the New World, no one during the time of the Age of Exploration could have discovered it. It was already inhabited. The first European encounter with the New World was 500 years before Columbus when the Vikings traveled the Atlantic.
What did Christopher Columbus accomplish?
Columbus accomplished setting up a European settlement in the New World. He was the first European to do so. His voyages also opened up the New World to the Old.
Who is Christopher Columbus and why is he important?
Columbus is one of the most famous explorers of the Age of Exploration. He is heralded as the first explorer to establish a settlement in the New World, which opened up the Americas to European exploration. His voyages would also bring about the Columbian Exchange, which was an exchange of animals, plants, people, items and ideas across the ocean.
Table of Contents
- Who Was Christopher Columbus?
- Christopher Columbus: Facts Biography
- Where Did Christopher Columbus Land?
- Significance and Legacy: What Did Christopher Columbus Do?
- Lesson Summary
Christopher Columbus was an explorer during the Age of Exploration in the 1400s. He was one of the earliest Europeans to land in the New World and was the first to establish a settlement for a European country there. Through his voyages, Europe would see a new land to settle and tame and the native people already living there would be affected forever.
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During the time of Christopher Columbus's early life, Europe was in turmoil. Wars were being fought between countries, between "houses" and Christianity was in conflict with Islam. At the same time, science was flourishing following the Renaissance. Scientific advancements contributed greatly to what became known as the Age of Exploration, which was when Columbus was born.
Columbus was born on October 31, 1451, in the Republic of Genoa to Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. Domenico was a Genoese wool worker and merchant. Together Domenico and Susanna would have four other children: Bartholomew, Giovanni, Giacomo, and Bianchinetta. As a young boy, Christopher would be found in the workplaces of his father learning bits of the trade here and there. For example, he worked as an apprentice in his father's wool-making business. But he found his passion on the seas as he went on trading routes in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.
Christopher Columbus's Experiences and Personal Life
Columbus's only recorded education was in a monastery where he learned mathematics and Latin. Later in life, he would teach himself Spanish and Portuguese. Most of his education would be obtained on the ships he worked on. For example, he learned how to be a chart maker and a cartographer.
His first experience out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean ended in disaster. In 1476, he found himself on a ship off the southern tip of Portugal as it was being attacked by Portuguese privateers. His ship caught fire and he had to abandon it. He jumped ship and swam to the Portugal coast, which, luckily for him, was not too far.
This event did not deter him from getting back out to sea. In 1477 he sailed to Ireland and Iceland and in 1478 he bought sugar in Madeira as an agent for a Genoese firm.
In his late 20s, Columbus moved to Lisbon, Portugal where he met his wife Filipa Perestrelo. They married in 1479 and had a son, Diego, in 1480. Unfortunately, Filipa died in 1485. He then moved to Spain where he met Beatriz Enriquez de Arana. Though not married, they had a son whom they named Fernando in 1488.
Christopher Columbus's Career
Columbus, intrigued by the idea of exploring and finding better trade routes, would eventually be one of the early Europeans to land in the New World. He would take four voyages there in his lifetime. Though they were not as successful as he hoped, he spent the majority of his later life trying to prove that he had discovered a quicker way to Asia.
Christopher Columbus's Later Life
With having mapmaking as a skill, Columbus believed that he could find a quicker way to Asia by sailing west instead of traveling east. After a lot of petitioning, he finally found a financier in the king and queen of Spain. They would give him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea in April 1492. Later that year, Columbus would make his first voyage of four to the New World.
While his first voyage was so successful that the king and queen of Spain sent him back immediately, the subsequent voyages did not prove to be as successful. Columbus found himself in prison, many of his men died, he enslaved the native populations to search for gold, and was the frontrunner to the rest of the Age of Exploration.
He died of severe arthritis after an infection on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain.
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While Columbus would eventually land on the islands of the Caribbean, many events happened previously to get him there. The Renaissance truly opened the eyes of the people of the day. It led them to ask questions and search for the answers. One of those questions was what more was out there. This sparked an Age of Exploration in Europe.
Secondly, trading with eastern countries, such as China and India, had been important to the European economy for a while. Unfortunately, disagreements between Christians and Muslims forced Europe to find different trade routes, since explorers on land would have to travel through the Muslim dominant Middle East to continue to trade. The route they discovered, especially Portugal, was to sail down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and then sail north. Along the coast of Africa, Portugal would land and build forts. These forts allowed Portugal to make connections with the peoples and, more importantly, leaders of Africa.
Planning and Fundraising
Columbus joined in the fervor of finding a shorter trade route. Between 1482-1485 he had participated in many journeys to Africa where he learned of sea currents flowing east and west of the Canary Islands. After learning about these routes, he thought that he could sail to the west from Africa and reach Japan, which he estimated to be only about 2,300 miles away. Columbus also wanted victory over the infidel for Christianity, as Christians at the time believed that it was their responsibility to convert as many people as they could.
The problem became getting the funding for his journey. He went to the Portuguese king in 1484 and then Genoa, but was rejected. Finally, he went to Spain where, in 1486, he laid out his plan to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. They rejected his proposal at first because they were busy with a war with the Muslims, but they kept him on retainer. After defeating the Muslims in January 1492, they agreed to fund Columbus's voyage. A part of their deal was known as an encomienda, a grant by the Spanish crown to a settler of a specified number of natives living in a particular area for forced labor.
Christopher Columbus's First Voyage
In late August 1492, Columbus and his crew of 87 left Spain. Columbus sailed in the Santa Maria with the Pinta and the Nina sailing alongside. Instead of going to the Azores off the coast of Africa as many previous explorers had done, Columbus went south to the Canary Islands. He spent a month there then headed west on September 6, being picked up by the northeasterly winds. On October 12, 1492, he landed on an island in the present-day Bahamas. It took 36 days of traveling, but he was able to claim land in the New World for Spain.
While in the Bahamas, Columbus interacted with friendly native peoples who traded with him. Doubting that the Bahamas was China, India, or Japan, he set sail again. On October 28, he landed in present-day Cuba, which he believed was China. In December, he landed on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), which he thought could have been Japan. Each time he landed somewhere new he met with the native people's leaders to establish trade and create a relationship.
Columbus decided to create a settlement for Spain in Haiti. He established Villa de la Navidad or Christmas Town. Leaving 39 men, Columbus sailed back to Spain on January 16, 1493, believing that he had found Asia.
It is said that Columbus's town Villa de la Navidad was the first European settlement in the Americas. This allowed Columbus to have a base of operations that he could return to and continue developing. The interaction with the native peoples would have a great impact on their lives. Not only did Columbus kidnap 1,500 native peoples and take them back to Europe (50% of which died on the journey), but he would also continue to come back and forever change their lives. He also brought back gold, spices, and parrots giving Spain hope that they would find more. This first voyage opened the door for more European exploration.
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Christopher Columbus's Second Voyage
With Columbus's first voyage being such a success, the Spanish monarchy sent him out again in September 1493. This time he set sail with 17 ships. Friars also joined him on this journey with the goal of establishing Christianity. When he arrived in Villa de la Navidad in November 1493, he found it completely destroyed and all of the men he left behind were massacred. In response, Columbus took the native population captive and forced them to rebuild the settlement and search for gold. Little gold was found, but a great hatred grew in the native population. Leaving his two brothers, Bartholomew and Giacomo, to govern the settlement, Columbus decided to explore the Caribbean more where he explored present-day Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Jamaica.
Christopher Columbus's Later Activities
While his first two voyages are the most famous, he did voyage to the New World two more times. In 1498, he set sail on his third voyage where he made it to mainland Venezuela. Traveling back to his settlement in Cuba, he found it near mutiny because he promised gold, and there was not much, and his brothers were not governing well. Because of his brother's inability to govern, the Spanish crown also thought that Columbus was not fulfilling his governorship duties. As a result, he was arrested and stripped of the title of governor of the Indies. In the process, he lost most of the riches he had acquired from his voyages. Eventually, the charges were dropped.
His last voyage took place in 1502. He decided to travel down the east coast of South America in search of a river to India and hoping to find the gold he promised the king. He did not find the river. He returned to Spain in November 1504 disheartened.
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Columbus's voyages have had a great impact on history, especially that of the Americas and Europe. While Europeans had been exploring the Americas before Columbus arrived, it was Columbus that opened up the Americas to Europe by establishing a settlement there. His voyages also set in motion the Columbian Exchange which became an exchange of people, plants, animals, items, diseases, and ideas between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The greatest significance he had in his voyages was on the native peoples he himself encountered as well as all of the native peoples European settlers would encounter. The majority of those groups would have their land taken away and some of them would nearly be destroyed.
Who Discovered America?
Oftentimes Columbus is credited with "discovering" America, but while he did establish a settlement there, he was not the first European to arrive on the American continent. The Vikings had been voyagers for over 500 years before Columbus headed out. Though the Vikings established a route previously, Columbus's voyages did establish permanent and continued movement between Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
More importantly, America could not have been "discovered" at all by anyone outside of America because people had already lived there for thousands of years. There were numerous native people in America already when Europeans started exploring. So America could not have been discovered because people already lived there.
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Christopher Columbus was an explorer during the Age of Exploration in the 1400s. He struggled to find funding for his voyage but was able to convince the Spanish monarchy to fund him. In return, they established an encomienda or a grant to a settler of a specified number of natives living in a particular area for forced labor. In all, he went on four voyages in total all of which took him to present-day Caribbean Islands, such as Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic located in Hispaniola), Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. He landed on October 12, 1492. After his first voyage, he returned to Spain with many items he acquired in the New World, including 1,500 native peoples (of which 50% died on the journey). His subsequent journeys would not be as successful as his first.
Though he is credited with discovering America, he was not the first European to have landed in the Americas. More importantly, when Columbus landed in the New World, he thought he had arrived in Asia which explains why native peoples were on the islands. Because these islands already had inhabitants, Columbus could not have discovered the New World. He did change the world and not just the new one. Because Columbus reached the New World, he opened it up to European traders and settlers. Animals, plants, people, items, and ideas would begin to travel back and forth across the ocean, introducing each side to something new. Perhaps the biggest impact of Columbus' voyages was the devastating effect they would have on the native peoples. He forced them to work for economic gain, brought diseases that would devastate whole peoples and many would lose their ancestral lands. Whether Columbus discovered America or not, his effect on landing there would forever change history.
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Video Transcript
'Discovery' of the Americas
Although Columbus was not even the first European to 'discover' or even explore the Americas, having been preceded by the Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson, he was the first to create extended interest in the New World and make it a centerpiece of colonization efforts by the Spanish, French, English, and others.
If there actually had been other Europeans who traveled to the Americas earlier, why, then, do we say Christopher Columbus 'discovered' America? Well, Benjamin Franklin didn't really 'discover' electricity, nor did Henry Ford 'discover' the internal combustion engine or the automobile. But these men's names are associated with each of these achievements. So, perhaps a better way to phrase it would be 'encounter'; this emphasizes how the 'discovery' was mutual.
Columbus not only encountered America, but he did so in an 'official' capacity, on behalf of Queen Isabella of Spain. Columbus was not sailing just for adventure or to prove the world was round, as many of us learned in 4th grade, but to get a share of the tremendous profits that were to be made by reaching the Indies.
The First Voyage of Christopher Columbus, 1492-1493
As most of us can remember from the childhood ditty, Columbus set sail from Spain in 1492, with his fleet of three ships - the Niña, the Pinta, and the flagship, the Santa Maria. About five weeks later, Columbus and his crew arrived at an island in the Bahamas that he named San Salvador, believing he had reached the Indies, as the lands of China, Japan and India were then known in Europe.
They proceeded onward and landed in Cuba. When Columbus heard the native word Cubanocan, which means 'middle of Cuba,' he mistook it for El Gran Can, which was Marco Polo's title for the Mongol Ghengis Khan. Finally, they continued onward, arriving at the island of Hispaniola, which is modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
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Columbus was dealt a blow when the Santa Maria was shipwrecked, forcing him into establishing a colony on Hispaniola, where he left men behind while he returned to Spain. This alone meant that Columbus already had made a major impact on global history because he created the first European outpost in the New World since the Viking explorers.
The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus, 1493-1496
Columbus' second voyage was the longest of his four, and the most ambitious. It included 17 ships, 1,500 potential colonists and even a huge array of livestock. Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he found the fort he left behind in ruins and with no survivors. A new community was established at a nearby location, and Columbus went on to explore many more islands, such as modern-day Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. During his voyages he captured as many as 1,500 indigenous people and sent them back to Europe, though half of them died along the way, and those who survived were sold as slaves in Spain.
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The Later Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1498-1502
Although Columbus built more forts and even brought women from Spain to ensure the permanence of the settlements, he realized that these lands lacked the spices and precious metals of the East that he sought, so he needed to find an alternate form of riches to bring home.
As noted earlier, on his second voyage, Columbus had enslaved natives, but this was not particularly lucrative, and Queen Isabella rejected the idea because she considered the native peoples her subjects.
However, while the natives had initially seemed friendly, sustained European settlement, and the imposition of European laws led to an increasingly resistant indigenous population. As a result, Columbus declared that every native person over 14 years of age had to supply an ounce of gold dust every three months, and the local leaders were responsible for seeing that the tribute was paid.
Creation of the Encomienda and Repartimiento Systems
Eventually, the Spanish settlers wanted a share of the land and its people, so in 1499, Columbus was forced to turn over both land and native people to individual Spanish colonists. This was the beginning of the encomienda, a grant by the Spanish crown to a settler of a specified number of natives living in a particular area for forced labor, and repartimiento systems which provided the colonists with forced labor. For the Spanish, this arrangement yielded untold wealth. For the indigenous people, it meant almost total annihilation.
The conquest, the forced labor of the economy of exploitation, and the introduction of European diseases had devastating demographic consequences. Although historians have disagreed about the exact number of lives lost in the Spanish conquest of Central and South America, by all accounts, it was shocking. For example, on the island of Hispaniola, historians estimate that an original population of about 100,000 native people, in 1492, was to reduced to one of about only 32,000 in 1514. In 1542, the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, who spent many years among the indigenous people of the Caribbean, said there were only 200 indigenous people left on Hispaniola by this time.
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Consequences of Christopher Columbus' Voyages
As Jared Diamond argues in his book Guns, Germs and Steel, even if Christopher Columbus had never lived, the Old and New Worlds were still destined to collide, at some point, and the collision was going to be cataclysmic for the native peoples of the Americas.
Columbus never realized that he had discovered a world unknown by virtually all Europeans. In fact, it was left to another intrepid Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, to give his name to America, and to popularize the phrase 'the New World.'
Nonetheless, we remember Columbus as the man who first established a permanent link between the two worlds, and, for that reason alone, he is a figure of immense historical importance.
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As Charles Mann writes in his bestseller 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, before Columbus, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were almost impassable barriers. America might as well have been on another planet, from Europe and Asia. Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean the following year changed everything. Plants, animals, microbes and cultures began washing around the world, taking tomatoes to Massachusetts, corn to the Philippines and slaves, markets and malaria, almost everywhere. It was one world, ready or not.
Lesson Summary
Although Christopher Columbus was not the first European to 'discover' or even explore the Americas, he was the first to create extended interest in the New World and make it a centerpiece of colonization efforts by the European powers of his day. Columbus' 'discovery' and subsequent voyages to the Americas was done in an official capacity on behalf of Queen Isabella of Spain. As such, he set sail on his first voyage from Spain in 1492 with a fleet of three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. His second voyage was the longest and the most ambitious and included 17 ships, 1,500 potential colonists, and a large assortment of livestock. In addition to Hispaniola, Columbus explored many islands including modern-day Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Although Columbus eventually built forts and even brought women from Spain to ensure the permanence of his new settlements, he realized that these lands lacked the spices and precious metals of the East that he sought. So he needed to find an alternate form of riches to bring home. As a result, Columbus declared that every native person over 14 years of age had to supply an ounce of gold dust every three months. Eventually, the Spanish settlers wanted a share of the land and its people, and in 1499, Columbus turned over the newly discovered land and peoples to individual Spanish colonists.
Which is how the encomienda, a grant by the Spanish crown to a settler of a specified number of natives living in a particular area for forced labor, and repartimiento systems got started, and how native peoples found themselves giving gold to the Spanish and working as forced laborers. For the Spanish, this arrangement yielded untold wealth. For the indigenous people, it meant almost total annihilation. The island conquests, the forced labor for economic exploitation, and the introduction of European diseases ultimately had devastating consequences for the native peoples of the Americas.
Learning Outcomes
The outcome at the end of this video should be for you to be able to:
- Understand the reasoning behind Columbus's expeditions
- Recall what occurred on Columbus's first, second, and later voyages
- Describe the encomienda and repartimiento systems
- Discuss the consequences of Columbus's voyages
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