'Christopher Columbus' (
1451 –
May 20,
1506) was a
navigator and
colonialist who is one of the first Europeans to discover the Americas, after the Vikings discovered it. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Europe, it was Columbus' voyages that led to general European awareness of the hemisphere and the successful establishment of European cultures in the
New World. It is generally believed that he was born in
Genoa, although other theories and possibilities exist. The name ''Christopher Columbus'' is the Anglicization of the
Latin 'Christophorus Columbus'. Also well known are his name's rendering in modern
Italian as 'Cristoforo Colombo' and in
Spanish as 'Cristóbal Colón'.
Columbus' voyages across the
Atlantic Ocean began a
European effort at
exploration and
colonization of the
Western Hemisphere. While history places great significance on his first voyage of
1492, he did not actually reach the
mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of
European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. Nevertheless, Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing
national imperialism and
economic competition between
developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of
trade routes and
colonies. Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as
Pre-Columbian.
The anniversary of the 1492 voyage (''vd''.
Columbus Day) is observed throughout the Americas and in
Spain. Columbus had noted that the Indian people were friendly. Controversy came later, since first person accounts depict the
genocide of the
indigenous people by the Spanish
conquistadors.
Life
Nationality
Main articles: Origin theories of Christopher Columbus
It is most widely accepted that Columbus was born in the
Republic of Genoa, located in modern-day
Italy.
[1] 188 official documents, notarial, judicial, administrative about Columbus and his family, exist in the "Archivio di Stato" (national record office) of Genoa, Italy.
[2]
Other theories exist that he may have been Spanish, Portuguese or Greek, but no proof has ever been determined. Clues to Columbus' origin such as learned languages and
DNA samples have been
studied, but to date, DNA tests show that Columbus was caucasian and probably not a
Sephardic Jew (Spanish/Portuguese).
Early life
According to the most widely acknowledged biographies, Columbus was born between August and October 1451 in
Genoa. His father was
Domenico Colombo, a middle-class wool weaver working between Genoa and
Savona. His mother was
Susanna Fontanarossa. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo were his brothers. Bartolomeo worked in a
cartography workshop in
Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood.
1
While information about Columbus' early years is scarce, he probably received an incomplete education. He spoke a Genoese dialect. In one of his writings, Columbus claims to have gone to the sea at the age of 10. In 1470 the Columbus Family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, he was in the service of
René I of Anjou in a Genoese ship hired to support his unfortunate attempt to conquer the
Kingdom of Naples.
In 1473 he began his apprenticeship as business agent for three important families of Genoa(Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola).
Later he allegedly made a trip to '' to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his landing in the Americas. In 2003, Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez urged Native American Latin Americans to not celebrate the Columbus Day holiday. Chavez blamed Columbus for leading the way in the mass genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish.
[19]
Notes
1. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, ''Christopher Columbus'', 1955 ed., pp. 14ff
2. http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/ASGE/asge.htm (In Italian)
3. [1]
4. Russell, Jeffrey Burton 1991. ''Inventing the Flat Earth. Columbus and modern historians'', Praeger, New York, Westport, London 1991;
Zinn, Howard 1980. ''A People's History of the United States'', HarperCollins 2001. p.2
5. Sagan, Carl. ''Cosmos''
6. Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus'' Boston, 1942
7. Durant, Will ''"The Story of Civilization"'' vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, page 260.
8. Mark McDonald, "Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector (1488-1539)", 2005, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714126449
9. Morison, Samuel Eliot, Editor, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1963, p. 212
10. Morison, Samuel Eliot,''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', Boston, 1942, page 617.
11. Samuel Eliot Morison, ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', 1955, pp. 184-92.
12. Bobadilla's 48-page report—derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers—had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It contained an account of Columbus' seven-year reign as the first Governor of the Indies.
13. Morison, Samuel Eliot ''"Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus"'' page 576, Boston, 1942
14. Cause of the death of Colombus (in Spanish)
15. DNA Suggests Columbus Remains in Spain Rossella Lorenzi
16. Round Earth and Christopher Columbus
17. Aristotle and the round Earth
18. Churchill, 1994
19. Columbus 'sparked a genocide'
References
★ Churchill, Ward (1994). “Bringing the Law Back Home: Application of the Genocide Convention in the United States”, in ''Indians Are Us? Culture and Genocide in Native North America''. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. ISBN 9781567510218.
★ Cohen, J.M. (1969) ''The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Others''. London UK: Penguin Classics.
★ Cook, Sherburn and Woodrow Borah (1971) ''Essays in Population History, Volume I''. Berkeley CA: University of California Press
★ Crosby, A. W. (1987) ''The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.'' Washington, DC: American Historical Association.
★
Friedman, Thomas (2005) ''The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century''. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
★
Hart, Michael H. (1992) ''
The 100''. Seacaucus NJ: Carol Publishing Group.
★ Keen, Benjamin (1978) ''The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand,'' Westport CT: Greenwood Press.
★ Lowen, James. "Lies My Teacher Told Me".
★ Nelson, Diane M. (1999) ''A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala''. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
★
Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1942.
★
Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1955.
★ Phillips, W. D. and C. R. Phillips (1992) ''The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.'' Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
★ Turner, Jack (2004) ''Spice: The History of a Temptation''. New York: Random House.
★ Wilford, John Noble (1991) ''The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
See also
★ '', a 1992
biopic film by
Ridley Scott
★
Bartolomeo Columbus
★
Columbus Day
★
Colombia,
South American country named in honor of ''Christopher Columbus''
★
Fernando Colón
★
Guanahani (a discussion of candidates for site of first landing)
★
Knights of Columbus
★
List of places named for Christopher Columbus
★
Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli
★
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
★
Salvador Fernandes Zarco - Possible true identity of Columbus.
★
Spanish colonization of the Americas
External links
★
Columbus Navigation
★ Reconstructed
portrait of Christopher Columbus in a contemporary style.
★
Unmasking Columbus
★
★
The Eclipse That Saved Columbus Science News
7 October 2006
★
Christopher Columbus and the Indians By Howard Zinn, from ''A People's History of the United States''
★
Colombo Revelado A new biography showing the lack of proof and invented facts about a Genoese turning the known history upside down.
★
The Catalan Columbus — Theory of the Catalan origin of (Joan) Cristòfor Colom (i Bertran)
★
Christopher Columbus 1911 Britannica article
★
Fox News: Desperate New World Settlers Stole Christopher Columbus' Silver
;IMDB
★
★
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