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Christopher Columbus.
Biography, travel, discovery of America
Category: 15th century
Until 1492, Spain's possessions extended only to the Canary Islands, but by the middle of the sixteenth century, its colonies and subordinate territories existed in the Caribbean Sea, most of North and South America, as well as in the regions of Africa.
At the same time, Spain did not wage aggressive wars.
Instead, the Spanish monarchs used two methods: marriages with representatives of other dynasties and sponsoring their travelers.
The biography of Christopher Columbus, an outstanding traveler, is still full of mysteries.
Some consider him a great navigator and a national hero, others an unsuccessful manager and a ruthless invader.
He was born in 1451 in Genoa.
His father was a weaver Domenico Colombo, who did not have a large fortune.
The story is silent about the details of his childhood, but apparently he studied well, since, as an adult, he spoke several languages and was very well read.
He first went to sea when he was 14 years old.
The passion for the ocean remained with Columbus for the rest of his life: he took part in trading campaigns in the Aegean Sea and to the shores of Northern Europe.
In 1479, he married a resident of Lisbon and settled in Portugal.
Here, in the biography of Christopher Columbus, an accident occurred - in 1485, his wife died.
Then he and his 6 year old son Diego moved to Spain.
Columbus ' journey in search of a western route to Asia was conceived during numerous sea voyages and reading books on geography and theology.
For four years, the navigator tried to get support from the Portuguese, then from the Spanish court,but failed.
In the end, Columbus received the support of the Spanish kings Ferdinand and Isabella.
His conditions, in case of success of the expedition, were: the assignment of the knighthood and the title of Admiral of the sea of the ocean, the appointment of the viceroy of the open lands and ten percent of all the found wealth.
In return, the expedition was to return with gold, silk and spices, spread Christianity among Asians and better explore China.
On August 3, 1492, three ships, "Pinta", " Santa Clara "(also known as" Ninya", which means" baby "because of its small size) and" Santa Maria " left the coast of Spain and headed west.
The journey of Christopher Columbus and 104 other people took five weeks much longer than expected, since at that time geographers did not guess the true size of the globe.
The crew members were dying of hunger, thirst and disease.
Finally, on October 12, 1492, one of the sailors, Rodrigo de Triana, noticed land on the horizon (the area of the modern Bahamas).
In fact, this moment was the historical discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, but the latter was sure that this was an Asian island and named it San Salvador.
Not finding any riches on the island, the navigator decided to sail further.
However, instead of China, Cuba was on his way.
During the trip, the Santa Maria was wrecked.
"Pint" at this time disappeared without a trace.
There was not enough room for everyone on the Ninya, so Columbus left 40 people on an unfamiliar land, and he himself went back to Spain.
During the voyage, they discovered the "Pinta" and both ships sailed together.
On March 15, 1493, they returned to Spain.
Columbus brought with him only a little gold, strange tobacco and other plants, as well as a few captured natives, whom the Europeans called Indians (believing that Columbus brought them from India).
The account of his journey in 1492 literally blew up Europe.
But this was not the end of Columbus ' travels to America - he visited there three more times.
During the second trip, he explored Cuba, believing that he was already on the mainland.
Only during the third campaign he reached the shores of South America, and during the fourth – Central America.
The fact that Christopher Columbus discovered America is of great importance.
He discovered two new continents (although he believed to death that he had paved the way to China) and many islands, including the Antilles, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands.
As a result of his expeditions, Europeans became addicted to tobacco, in addition, the Spaniards cut out most of the indigenous population of the open islands and America itself.
Christopher Columbus also discovered America for Europe in terms of a new source of gold, territories and free labor, but he was not the first European to visit there.
500 years before him, Scandinavians visited the area of Canada, but only a small number of people knew about their travels.
And six centuries later, the route of the great traveler was repeated by the famous modern traveler Fyodor Konyukhov on the giant yacht "Scarlet Sails".
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