FACTS
- Christopher Columbus is an Anglicization of his real name, given to him in Genoa where he was born: Cristoforo Colombo
- Columbus became convinced of the possibility of reaching Asia by traveling west, but getting the funding to go was hard sell in Europe.
- He tried to get support from many sources, including the King of Portugal, but most European rulers thought he was a crackpot and didn’t pay much attention to him.
- Columbus had promised a reward of gold to whoever saw land first. A sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see land on October 12, 1492. Rodrigo never got the reward because Columbus kept it for himself, telling everyone he had seen a light the night before.
- Columbus was a very religious man who believed that God had singled him out for his voyages of discovery
- Many of the names he gave his islands were religious
SHIPS
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/9/4/22944990/3824025.jpg?387)
One of his ships was called the " Santa Maria"
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/9/4/22944990/8789800.jpg?394)
His second ship was called the " Niña "
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/9/4/22944990/7996029.jpg?432)
The last ship was called the " Pinta ".
VOYAGES
- In the first voyage, Columbus explored five islands in the modern-day Bahamas before he made it to Cuba. He reached Cuba on October 28, making landfall at Bariay, a harbor near the eastern tip of the island. Thinking he had found China, he sent two men to investigate. They were Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, a converted Jew who spoke Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic in addition to Spanish. Columbus had brought him as an interpreter. The two men failed in their mission to find the Emperor of China, but did visit a native Taíno village. There they were the first to observe the smoking of tobacco, a habit which they promptly picked up.
- The second voyage was to be a large scale colonization and exploration project. Columbus was given 17 ships and over 1,000 men. Included on this voyage, for the first time, were European domesticated animals such as pigs, horses and cattle. Columbus’ orders were to expand the settlement on Hispaniola, convert the natives to Christianity, establish a trading post and continue his explorations in search of China or Japan. The fleet set sail on October 13th, 1493 and made excellent time, first sighting land on November 3rd
- For the third voyage, Columbus reported to the crown upon his return from the New World. He was dismayed to learn that his patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella, would not allow the taking of slaves in the newly discovered lands. As he had found little gold or precious commodities for which to trade, he had been counting on selling native slaves to make his voyages lucrative. The King and Queen of Spain allowed Columbus to organize a third trip to the New World with the goal of resupplying the colonists and continuing the search for a new trade route to the Orient.
- The fourth voyage with royal backing, Columbus soon found four seaworthy vessels: Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos. His brothers Diego and Bartholomew and his son Fernando signed on, as did some veterans of his earlier trips. Columbus himself was fifty-one and was beginning to become known around court for being eccentric: he believed that when the Spanish united the world under Christianity (which they would do quickly with gold and wealth from the New World) that the world would end. He also tended to dress like a simple barefoot friar, not like the wealthy man he had become.