Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in either Genoa or in the territory of Genoese. He was born to Domenico Columbus and Suzanna Fontanarossa. Columbus’ father was a wool weaver and his mother father was a wool weaver, so traditionally Columbus should have also become a wool weaver. Except that he had other dreams. The era in which Columbus grew up in was a popular time for sea exploration, and it was natural that Columbus gain a love for the sea by listening to the story of sailors. With living in a port city he had an unlimited access to story telling sailors. Columbus came from a respectable family that also had limited means, but coming from an Italian craftsman he would have been able to attend school of the Italian craft guilds. This would have offered Columbus some rudimentary reading and writing, but his education level is unknown. As a boy Columbus worked with his father in wool processing and selling, and at the age of fourteen Columbus would began his seagoing career. He probably served in various ships in various jobs including messenger, common sailor, and perhaps even as a twenty one year old privateer. In 1474 Columbus was hired as a sailor on a ship bound for the island of khíos in the Aegean Sea, which is

In the waters off the coast of Africa and the nearby Canary Islands Columbus first observed the ocean phenomenon known as the Canaries Current. His landfall this time was made in the Lesser Antilles, and his new discoveries included the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. A court official was dispatched on horseback to bring Columbus back. For revisionist historians, however, his voyages symbolize the more brutal aspects of European colonization and represent the beginning of the destruction of Native American peoples and culture. The committee raised numerous objections, asked many questions, and in the end, rejected his proposal. On Christmas Eve the Santa MarA-a was wrecked on the north coast of Hispaniola, and Columbus, leaving men there to found a colony, hurried back to Spain on the NiAa. Columbus was one of the unlucky ones whose ship was burned, and had no escape except to swim the six miles to the shore of Portugal"tms coast by cling to wreckage. With few interruptions, the Portuguese crown had encouraged and supported exploration for over a century, and nearly all new discoveries in the Atlantic were Portuguese. According to tradition, in 1484 the king listened to Columbus"tms proposal to sail to the east by going west and summarily passed it on to his Council of Geographical Affairs. Later that year Columbus set sail with a convoy with goods to be sold in northern Atlantic ports. If he could sail past the islands and far enough west, he hoped he might still find lands answering to the description of Asia or Japan. After his rescue, he was forced to abandon his hopes and return to Spain.