Lands discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Christopher Columbus

Essay on discipline Geography

Completed by: student of the BDA-2 group Aleschik Andrey

Grodno State Polytechnic College

2007/2008 academic year G.

Great navigator.

Columbus, Christopher (Colon, Cristobal; Cristoforo Colombo) (1451-1506), the great Spanish navigator of Italian origin, who led four transatlantic expeditions to America.

Early years in Genoa and Portugal. Columbus was born in the Italian Republic of Genoa, in the port city itself or in its vicinity. Despite the presence of a significant number of documents, many facts of the biography of Columbus are difficult to establish accurately. Columbus used the Portuguese version of his name, Cristovan Colon, while living in Portugal, and the Spanish, Cristobal Colon, after moving to Spain in 1485.

The navigator's grandfather, Giovanni Colombo, moved to Genoa from a mountain village located to the east of this city. Columbus's father, Domenico, born around 1418, married Susanna Fontanarossa and, in order to support his family, worked as a weaver, wool merchant, innkeeper, and even acted as politician. Christopher had three younger brothers (Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo) and younger sister(Biancinetta). Bartolomeo and Giacomo participated in the expeditions of Columbus after 1492 New World and were called in the Spanish manner - Bartolome and Diego.

Judging by the letters, Columbus became a sailor in an unusual early age and sailed in the Mediterranean Sea on merchant ships to the east up to the island of Chios, which then belonged to Genoa. He may have been a merchant and at least once commanded a ship. In the mid-1470s, Columbus settled in Portugal and joined a small colony of Italian merchants in Lisbon. Under the Portuguese flag, commercial or naval, he sailed north to England and Ireland, and possibly Iceland. He also visited Madeira and the Canary Islands and traveled along the western coast of Africa to the Portuguese trading post of San Jorge da Mina (modern Ghana).

In Portugal, Columbus married, becoming a member of a mixed Italo-Portuguese family, whose Italian ancestors settled in this country at the end of the 14th century. and reached there high position. The youngest member of this family, Bartolomeu Perestrelu, was taken to the royal palace as a companion of the princes João and Henry (Henry the Navigator). Bartolomeu was widowed early and inherited the rank of captain on the island of Porto Santo near Madeira. This gave him a good income, but he never amassed much wealth. The second wife of Bartolomeu, Isabel Moniz, belonged to a family of noble landowners, their estates were located in the south of Portugal and the island of Madeira. They had a daughter, Felipa Moniz ( full name Felipa Perestrelu e Moniz), whom Columbus married in 1478 or 1479. Isabel Moniz gave her son-in-law maps and documents that were kept by her husband, who died in 1457. Perhaps Columbus learned extensive information on geography from them.

Travel plan for India.

For centuries, lucrative Asian goods such as spices attracted the attention of European merchants. However, at the end of the 15th c. merchants from Europe still could not penetrate the countries of Asia by land and were forced to purchase Asian goods from Arab merchants in Alexandria or other ports. Therefore, the Europeans became interested in finding a sea route to Asia, which would allow them to acquire Asian goods, bypassing intermediaries. In the 1480s, the Portuguese tried to sail around Africa to penetrate the Indian Ocean into India. Columbus suggested that Asia could be reached by moving west. Probably, Columbus' ideas about the world and the western route to Asia evolved gradually. His assumptions were based on the discovery of islands in the Atlantic (Canaries, Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira), on rumors about other islands, various finds, as well as on reading numerous scientific books in geography, including the Picture of the World (Imago mundi) by the French theologian Pierre d'Ailly and Geography by the Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy.

Columbus's theory was based on two misconceptions: first, that the Asian continent stretched about 30° farther east than it actually did, and second, that Japan was 2,400 km east of that continent. Columbus also miscalculated the circumference of the earth. Although he divided the globe into 360°, his equatorial circumference was an underestimate. Columbus believed that the Canary Islands were about 4,440 km from Japan, when in fact this distance is 19,615 km. Similar misconceptions were shared by other educated people of the era, including the Florentine humanist and geographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, with whom Columbus may have corresponded.

Around 1483, Columbus tried to interest the Portuguese king João II with his plan for an expedition to Asia by a western route. A committee of scientists was convened to evaluate the project. Then, for unknown reasons, the king refused Columbus. Perhaps the Portuguese experts doubted his estimates of the size of the globe and the distance between Europe and Asia. It should be noted that at the same time, João II had already sent an expedition to search for a sea route to India around Africa. It is possible that Columbus demanded too much for himself. Subsequently, the king found seafarers who were ready to go west at their own expense, without requiring royal subsidies or large benefits. However, one way or another in Portugal, the Columbus project did not receive approval.

Spain supports Columbus. In 1485 Columbus left Portugal to try his luck in Spain. At the beginning of 1486, when the court was in Alcala de Henares, Columbus was introduced to the royal court and received an audience with the king and queen. Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, showed interest in the Columbus project. The royal couple appointed a commission under the leadership of Talavera to clarify the question of the advisability of traveling to the west. The commission issued an unfavorable opinion, but the king and queen encouraged Columbus, assuring him that they could support him after the end of the long war to free Granada from the Moors.

While waiting for the end of the war for Granada, Columbus met a young woman from Córdoba, Beatriz Henriques de Arana. Although they never married, their son Hernando (also known as Fernando) was born in 1488. Hernando accompanied Columbus on his fourth voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and later wrote a biography of his father - still one of the most important sources of information about the life of Columbus.

In January 1492, during the siege of Granada, Queen Isabella invited Columbus to court. After lengthy negotiations and deliberations, the royal courtiers realized that supporting Columbus was worth the small financial risk and overruled the objections of their advisers. The monarchs agreed to subsidize the expedition and promised to give Columbus the noble rank and titles of admiral, viceroy and governor-general of all the islands and continents that he would discover. The position of admiral gave Columbus the right to decide in disputes arising from trade matters, the position of viceroy made him the personal representative of the monarch, and the position of governor general provided him with the highest civil and military power.

Map showing the proposed route of Columbus

First expedition, 1492–1493.

Since the sailors from Palos de la Fontera violated royal law by engaging in illegal trade in African waters, the monarchs decided that this city would provide Columbus's expedition with two ships. These were two caravels named "Pinta" and "Nina". In addition, Columbus chartered a four-masted sailboat (nao) called the Santa Maria. All three ships were small and were typical merchant ships of that era. The Santa Maria had a width of 5.8 m and a length of 18.3 m, while other ships were even smaller. Columbus had difficulty recruiting men for his crew, as the sailors feared they would not find land and be unable to return home. Finally, with the help of renowned sailor Martin Alonso Pinzón, Columbus recruited a crew of 90 men. Monthly wage for the team was 2000 maravedi for captains and pilots, 1000 for sailors and 666 for cabin boys.

Three ships left Palos early in the morning on August 3, 1492. A small flotilla first headed for the Canary Islands, where Columbus decided to wait for a fair wind. After repairing the ships and replenishing provisions, the flotilla left about. Homer in the Canaries on September 6, 1492, heading west. Columbus and other pilots used a navigation system based on taking into account the direction, time and speed of movement when laying the course of the vessel and establishing its position. They determined the direction with a compass, time with an hourglass that marked every half hour, and speed with an eye. Columbus kept two systems for calculating the distance in the logbook, one for himself and the other for the crew. Contrary to legend, he did not try to trick the team. On the contrary, he probably calculated the course first in the measures he had learned in Italy and Portugal, and then translated these figures into the measures taken by the Spanish navigators.

The journey was uneventful with fair winds and almost no complaints from the crew. On October 12, at 2 pm, the watchman on the Pinta, Juan Rodriguez Bermejo, saw a light ahead. And at dawn, the ships anchored off an island in the archipelago of the Bahamas, which the inhabitants of the local tribe called Guanahani, and Columbus renamed San Salvador. Although the discussion about the first landing site is still ongoing, most likely it was a modern about. San Salvador. Assuming that he is in Asia, Columbus called the natives Indians.

With the help of guides from the Taino tribe, the flotilla continued to sail in the waters of the Bahamas and visited Cuba. All this time, Columbus searched in vain for the rich ports of Asia. Pinzón left Cuba without permission from Columbus and went on the Pinta to search for other lands in order to establish trade with the natives. Columbus on the two remaining ships sailed to the island, which he called Hispaniola (translated as "Spanish island", now Haiti), and explored its northern coast. Early in the morning near Christmas, through the fault of a young sailor on duty, the Santa Maria ran aground and crashed. On the only ship "Nina" Columbus reached the coast and founded the first settlement of Navidad (Spanish for "Christmas City"), in which he left 39 people. On January 4, 1493, he prepared to return to Spain on the Nina and sailed east along the northern coast of Hispaniola. Pinzón soon joined him, and on January 16, Nina and Pinta set off on their return journey. Columbus took with him seven captive Indians as proof that he had reached a part of the world previously unknown to Europeans.

The first appeal of Columbus with a proposal to sail to India to the west was in 1475-1480 ( exact time unknown). He addressed it to the government and merchants of his native Genoa. There was no response.

Here, Queen Isabella took a step forward. The idea of ​​the coming liberation of the Holy Sepulcher captured her heart so much that she decided not to give this chance to either Portugal or France. Although the Kingdom of Spain was formed as a result of the dynastic marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, their monarchies retained, however, separate independent administrations, cortes and finances. "I'll pawn my jewels," she said.

Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria on the 1 sucre note

Second expedition

Second expedition

The second flotilla of Columbus already consisted of 17 ships. Flagship - "Maria Galante" (displacement 200 tons). According to various sources, the expedition consisted of 1500-2500 people. There were already not only sailors, but also monks, priests, officials, service nobles, courtiers. They brought horses and donkeys, cattle and pigs, vines, seeds of agricultural crops with them to organize a permanent colony.

During the expedition, the complete conquest of Hispaniola was carried out, and the mass extermination of the local population began. City of Santo Domingo laid down. The most convenient sea route to the West Indies was laid. The Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica have been discovered, and the southern coast of Cuba has been explored almost completely. At the same time, Columbus continues to claim that he is in Western India.

Chronology

• September 25 - Expedition left Cadiz. In the Canary Islands they took sugar cane and dogs specially trained to hunt people. The course ran about 10° southerly than the first time. Later, all ships from Europe to the "Western Indies" began to use this route.
• With a good tailwind (in the equatorial region of the Atlantic Ocean the winds constantly blow to the west), the journey took only 20 days, and already on November 3, 1493 (on Sunday), an island from the ridge of the Lesser Antilles, called Dominica, was discovered.
• November 4 - the expedition arrived at the largest of the local islands, called Guadeloupe. The open islands were inhabited by the Caribs, who made raids on the islands of peaceful Arawaks on large canoes. Their weapons were bows and arrows tipped with fragments of tortoiseshell or serrated fish bones.
• November 11 – Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis islands are opened.
• November 13 - the first armed clash with the Caribs took place off the island of Santa Cruz.
• November 15 - An archipelago is discovered north of Santa Cruz, which Columbus called the "Islands of Eleven Thousand Maidens" - now they are called the Virgin Islands. Having bypassed the archipelago on both sides, the ships of the flotilla united three days later at the western end of the ridge.
• November 19 - The Spaniards land on the west coast of a large island that Columbus named San Juan Bautista. It has been called Puerto Rico since the 16th century.
• November 27 - the flotilla approached the Fort Navidad built during the first expedition, but on the shore the Spaniards found only traces of a fire and corpses.
• January - A city is built to the east of the burned fort, named Isabella. Many Spaniards were struck by the yellow fever epidemic. A detachment sent to reconnaissance inland found gold in the river sand in the mountainous region of the Cordillera Central.
• March 1494 - Columbus made a trip to the interior of the island. Meanwhile, in Isabella, due to the heat, most of the food has deteriorated, and Columbus decided to leave only 5 ships and about 500 people on the island, and send the rest to Spain. With them, he conveyed to the king and queen that he had found rich deposits of gold, and asked to send cattle, food supplies and agricultural implements, offering to pay for them with slaves from among local residents.
• April 24, 1494 - Leaving a garrison at Isabella under the command of his younger brother Diego, Columbus led three small ships west along the southeast coast of Cuba.
• May 1 - a narrow and deep bay (a modern city with Guantanamo Bay) was discovered. Further to the west are the Sierra Maestra mountains. From here, Columbus turned south.
• May 5 - The island of Jamaica is discovered (Columbus named it Santiago).
• May 14 - Having passed along the northern coast of Jamaica and not finding gold, Columbus returned to Cuba. 25 next days ships moved through small islands along the southern coast of the island.
• June 12 - after passing almost 1700 km along the southern coast of Cuba and not reaching only 100 km to the western tip of the island, Columbus decided to turn around, because the sea was very shallow, the sailors were dissatisfied, and provisions were running out. Before that, in order to protect himself from accusations of cowardice that could follow in Spain, he demanded that the entire team swear that Cuba is part of the continent, and therefore there is no point in sailing further. Turning back, the flotilla discovered the island of Evangelista (later called Pinos, and since 1979 - Juventud).
• June 25 - September 29 - on the way back they rounded Jamaica from the west and south, passed along the southern coast of Hispaniola and returned to Isabella. By this time, Columbus was already quite seriously ill.
• In the past five months, Columbus's second brother, Bartolome, has brought three ships from Spain with troops and supplies. A group of Spaniards captured them and fled home. The rest scattered around the island, robbing and raping the natives. They resisted and killed part of the Spaniards. After returning, Christopher was ill for five months, and when he recovered, in March 1495 he organized the conquest of Hispaniola by a detachment of 200 soldiers. The natives were almost unarmed, and Columbus used against them cavalry and specially trained dogs brought with him. After 9 months of this persecution, the island was conquered. The Indians were taxed, enslaved in the gold mines and plantations. The Indians fled from the villages to the mountains, dying from unknown diseases brought by colonists from Europe. Meanwhile, the colonists moved to the southern coast of the island, where in 1496 Bartolome Columbus founded the city of Santo Domingo - the future center of Hispaniola, and later - the capital of the Dominican Republic.
• Meanwhile, the Spanish royal couple, having discovered that the income from Hispaniola (some gold, copper, valuable wood and several hundred slaves sent to Spain by Columbus) was insignificant, allowed all Castilian subjects to move to new lands, paying off the treasury in gold.
• On June 11, 1496, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain to defend the rights granted to him earlier. He provided a document according to which he actually reached the Asian mainland (see above, although in fact it was the island of Cuba), stated that in the center of Hispaniola he discovered the wonderful country of Ophir, where gold was once mined for the biblical King Solomon. And finally, Columbus proposed sending not free settlers, but criminals, to new lands, reducing their sentence by half. The last proposal could not fail to find a response from the ruling elite, since, on the one hand, it freed Spain from undesirable elements, reducing the cost of restricting their freedom, and on the other hand, it ensured the development of newly discovered lands with “human material” of a rather desperate nature.

Third expedition

Third expedition

Little money was found for the third expedition, and only six small ships and about 300 crew members went with Columbus, and criminals from Spanish prisons were accepted into the crew.

A representative of the Florentine bankers who financed the enterprise, Amerigo Vespucci, also went on an expedition with Alonso Ojeda in 1499. Approaching the South American mainland at a latitude of approximately 5 ° N, Ojeda headed northwest, walked 1200 km along the coast of Guiana and Venezuela to the Orinoco Delta, then through the straits to the Caribbean Sea and to the Pearl Coast.

Meanwhile, Amerigo Vespucci, moving southeast, opened the mouths of the Amazon and Para rivers. Having risen in boats 100 km upstream, he was never able to land on the shore because of the dense forest. Movement further to the southeast was extremely hampered by a strong oncoming current. This is how the Guiana Current was discovered. In total, Vespucci discovered about 1200 km of the northeast coast of South America. Returning back to the north and northwest, Vespucci landed on Trinidad, and later connected with the ships of Ojeda. Together they explored the coast west of the Pearl Coast, discovered eastern part Caribbean Andes, participated in armed skirmishes with unfriendly Indians, discovered the islands of Curacao and Aruba - the westernmost of the Lesser Antilles. The bay to the west was named Ojeda Venezuela ("little Venice"). Later this name spread to the entire southern coast. caribbean to the Orinoco Delta. In total, Ojeda explored more than 3,000 km of the northern coast of unknown land and never found an end to it, which meant that such a land must be a mainland.

last years of life

The seriously ill Columbus was transported to Seville. He could not achieve the restoration of the rights and privileges granted to him, and spent all the money on travel comrades.

Events after death

origin mystery

Another mystery is related to the origin of Columbus. It is generally accepted that he was born in Genoa to a family of weavers. The Italian Encyclopedia also reports on the Genoese and Jewish origin of Columbus as a well-known fact. There are, however, several other versions.

Monuments

Tsereteli's works

Subsequently, the developments of the Columbus monument were used by Zurab Tsereteli in 1997 when erecting in the capital of Russia by order of the Government of Moscow on the arrow of the island of the Moscow River and the Obvodny Canal a huge statue of Peter the Great in medieval clothes of a Spanish grandee for

For the first time, the idea to cross the Atlantic Ocean to find a direct and fast route to India was allegedly visited by Columbus as early as 1474 as a result of correspondence with the Italian geographer Toscanelli. The navigator made the necessary calculations and decided that the easiest way would be to sail through the Canary Islands. He believed that from them to Japan there were only about five thousand kilometers, and from the Country rising sun finding a way to India is not difficult.

But Columbus was able to fulfill his dream only after a few years, he repeatedly tried to interest the Spanish monarchs in this event, but his demands were recognized as excessive and expensive. And only in 1492, Queen Isabella gave a trip and promised to make Columbus an admiral and viceroy of all open lands, although she did not donate money. The navigator himself was poor, but his colleague, the shipowner Pinson gave his ships to Christopher.

Discovery of America

The first expedition, which began in August 1492, was attended by three ships - the famous "Nina", "Santa Maria" and "Pinta". In October, Columbus reached the land and ashore, it was an island that he named San Salvador. Confident that this is a poor part of China or some other undeveloped land, Columbus, however, was surprised by many things unknown to him - he first saw tobacco, cotton clothes, hammocks.

Local Indians told about the existence of the island of Cuba in the south, and Columbus went in search of it. During the expedition, Haiti and Tortuga were discovered. These lands were declared the property of the Spanish monarchs, and Fort La Navidad was established in Haiti. The navigator went back together with plants and animals, gold and a group of natives, whom the Europeans called the Indians, since no one yet suspected the discovery of the New World. All found lands were considered part of Asia.

During the second expedition, Haiti, the archipelago of Jardines de la Reina, the island of Pinos, Cuba were examined. For the third time, Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad, found the mouth of the Orinoco River and Margarita Island. The fourth voyage made it possible to explore the shores of Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. The path to India was never found, but South America was discovered. Columbus finally realized that south of Cuba lies a whole - a barrier to rich Asia. The Spanish navigator initiated the exploration of the New World.

Christopher Columbus or Cristobal Colon(Italian Cristoforo Colombo, Spanish Cristobal Colon; between August 25 and October 31, 1451 - May 10, 1506) - the famous navigator and cartographer of Italian origin, who wrote his name in history as the man who discovered America for Europeans.

Columbus was the first of the reliably known navigators to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone of the northern hemisphere, the first European to sail in, discovered the Central and South America, initiating the study of the continents and their nearby archipelagos:

• Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico);
• Lesser Antilles (from Dominica to the Virgin Islands and the island of Trinidad);
• Bahamas.

Although calling him the "Discoverer of America" ​​is not entirely historically correct, since even in the Middle Ages the coast of continental America and the nearby islands were visited by the Icelandic Vikings. Since the data on those voyages did not go beyond Scandinavia, it was the expeditions of Columbus that first made information about the western lands known to the world. The fact that a new part of the world was discovered was finally proved by the expedition. Discoveries of Columbus marked the beginning of the colonization of the territories of America by Europeans, the foundation of Spanish settlements, the enslavement and mass extermination of the indigenous population, erroneously called "Indians".

Bio pages

The legendary Christopher Columbus - the greatest of medieval navigators - can quite reasonably be called one of the biggest losers of the Age of Discovery. To understand this, it is enough to familiarize yourself with his biography, which, unfortunately, is replete with "white" spots.

It is believed that Christopher Columbus was born in the maritime Italian Republic of Genoa (Italian: Genova), on the island of Corsica in August-October 1451, although the exact date of his birth is still in question. In general, not much is known about childhood and adolescence.

So, Christoforo was the firstborn in a poor Genoese family. The father of the future navigator, Domenico Colombo, worked in pastures, vineyards, worked as a wool weaver, traded in wine and cheese. Christopher's mother, Susanna Fontanarossa, was the daughter of a weaver. Christopher had 3 younger brothers - Bartolome (circa 1460), Giacomo (circa 1468), Giovanni Pellegrino, who died very early - and sister Bianchinetta.

Documentary evidence from that time shows that the financial situation of the family was deplorable. Especially large financial problems arose because of the house to which the family moved when Christopher was 4 years old. Much later, on the foundations of the house in Santo Domingo, where Christoforo spent his childhood, a building called "Casa di Colombo" (Spanish: Casa di Colombo - "House of Columbus") was erected, on the facade of which in 1887 an inscription appeared : " No one parental home cannot be honored more than this».

Since Colombo Sr. was a respected artisan in the city, in 1470 he was sent on an important mission to Savona (Italian: Savona) to discuss with the weavers the issue of introducing uniform prices for textile products. Apparently, therefore, Dominico moved with his family to Savona, where, after the death of his wife and youngest son, as well as after the departure of his eldest sons and the marriage of Bianchi, he increasingly began to seek solace in a glass of wine.

Since the future discoverer of America grew up near the sea, from childhood he was attracted by the sea. From his youth, Christopher was distinguished by faith in omens and divine providence, morbid pride and a passion for gold. He possessed remarkable mind, versatile knowledge, the talent of eloquence and the gift of persuasion. It is known that after studying a little at the University of Pavia, around 1465 the young man entered the service of the Genoese fleet and at a fairly early age began to sail as a sailor in the Mediterranean Sea on merchant ships. After some time, he was seriously wounded and temporarily left the service.

He may have become a merchant and in the mid-1470s settled in Portugal, joined the community of Italian merchants in Lisbon and sailed north under the Portuguese flag to England, Ireland and Iceland. He visited Madeira, the Canary Islands, walked along the western coast of Africa to modern Ghana.

In Portugal, around 1478, Christopher Columbus married the daughter of a prominent navigator of the time, Doña Felipe Moniz de Palestrello, becoming a member of a wealthy Italo-Portuguese family in Lisbon. Soon the young couple had a son, Diego. Until 1485, Columbus "walked" on Portuguese ships, was engaged in trade and self-education, and became interested in mapping. In 1483 he already had ready new project sea ​​trade route to India and Japan, which the navigator presented to the king of Portugal. But, apparently, his time has not yet come, or he failed to reasonably convince the monarch of the need to equip the expedition, but after 2 years of reflection, the king rejected this enterprise, and the impudent sailor fell into disgrace. Then Columbus moved to the Spanish service, where a few years later he still managed to persuade the king to finance a sea expedition.

Already in 1486 H.K. managed to intrigue with his project the influential Duke of Medina Seli, who introduced the poor but obsessed navigator into the circle of the royal entourage, bankers and merchants.

In 1488, he received an invitation from the Portuguese king to return to Portugal, the Spaniards also wanted to organize an expedition, but the country was in a state of protracted war and was unable to allocate funds for sailing.

First Expedition of Columbus

In January 1492, the war ended, and soon Christopher Columbus obtained permission to organize an expedition, but once again his bad temper let him down! The requirements of the navigator were excessive: the appointment of all new lands as viceroy, the title of "chief admiral of the ocean" and a large amount of money. The king refused him, however, Queen Isabella promised her help and assistance. As a result, on April 30, 1492, the king officially made Columbus a nobleman, conferring on him the title of “don” and approving all the demands put forward.

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus

In total, Columbus made 4 voyages to the coast of America:

• August 2, 1492 – March 15, 1493

aim first Spanish expedition, led by Christopher Columbus, was the search for the shortest sea route to India. This small expedition, consisting of 90 people "Santa Maria" (Spanish Santa María), "Pinta" (Spanish Pinta) and "Nina" (Spanish La Niña). "Santa Maria" - August 3, 1492 set off from Palos (Spanish: Cabo de Palos) on 3 caravels. Having reached the Canary Islands and turning west, she crossed the Atlantic and discovered the Sargasso Sea (eng. Sargasso Sea). The first land seen among the waves was one of the islands of the Bahamas, called San Salvador Island, on which Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 - this day is considered official date discoveries of America. Further, a number of Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti were discovered.

In March 1493, the ships returned to Castile, carrying in their holds some gold, strange plants, bright bird feathers, and several natives. Christopher Columbus announced that he had discovered western India.

• September 25, 1493 – June 11, 1496

In 1493 she set off and second expedition who was already in the rank
admiral. 17 ships and more than 2 thousand people participated in this grandiose enterprise. In November 1493
islands were discovered: Dominica (English Dominica), Guadeloupe (English Guadeloupe) and the Antilles (Spanish Antilias). In 1494, the expedition explored the islands of Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and Huventud.

This expedition, which ended on June 11, 1496, opened the way for colonization. Priests, settlers and criminals began to be sent to open lands to populate new colonies.

• May 30, 1498 – November 25, 1500

Third exploratory expedition, consisting of only 6 ships, started in 1498. On July 31, the islands of Trinidad (Spanish: Trinidad), then the Gulf of Paria (Spanish: Golfo de Paria), the peninsula of Paria and the mouth (Spanish: Río Orinoco) were discovered. On August 15, the crew discovered (Spanish Isla Margarita). In 1500, Columbus, arrested on a denunciation, was sent to Castile. In prison, he did not stay long, but, having received freedom, he lost many privileges and most of his wealth - this was the biggest disappointment in the life of a navigator.

• 9 May 1502 – November 1504

Fourth expedition launched in 1502. Having obtained permission to continue searching for a western route to India, on 4 ships Columbus reached the island of Martinique (Fr. Martinique) on June 15, and on July 30 entered the Gulf of Honduras (Spanish: Golfo de Honduras), where he first had contact with representatives of the Maya civilization.

In 1502-1503. Columbus, who dreamed of getting to the fabulous treasures of India, thoroughly explored the coast of Central America and discovered more than 2 thousand km of Caribbean coasts. On June 25, 1503, off the coast of Jamaica, Columbus was wrecked and was rescued only a year later. On November 7, 1504, he returned to Castile seriously ill and broken by the failures that had befallen him.

The tragic end of life

This is where the epic of the famous navigator ended. Not finding the coveted passage to India, finding himself ill, without money and privileges, after painful negotiations with the king to restore his rights, Christopher Columbus died in the Spanish city of Valladolid (Spanish: Valladolid) on May 21, 1506. His remains in 1513 were transported to a monastery near Seville. Then, at the behest of his son Diego, who was then the governor of Hispaniola (Spanish La Espaсola, Haiti), the remains of Columbus were reburied in Santo Domingo (Spanish Santo Domingo de Guzman) in 1542, in 1795 they were transported to Cuba, and in 1898 was again returned to Spanish Seville (to the Cathedral of Santa Maria). DNA studies of the remains have shown that with a high degree of probability they belong to Columbus.

If you think about it, Columbus was dying an unfortunate man: he failed to reach the shores of fabulously rich India, and this was precisely the navigator's secret dream. He did not even understand what he had discovered, and the continents that he saw for the first time received the name of another person - (Italian: Amerigo Vespucci), who simply extended the paths blazed by the great Genoese. In fact, Columbus achieved a lot, and at the same time achieved nothing - this is his life tragedy.

Curious facts

• Almost ³⁄4 of Christopher Columbus' life was spent on voyages;
• The last words spoken by the navigator before his death were the following: In your hands, Lord, I entrust my spirit ...;
• After all these discoveries, the world entered the Age of Discovery. Poor, hungry, constantly fighting for resources in Europe, the discoveries of the famous discoverer gave an influx of a huge amount of gold and silver - the center of civilization moved there from the East and Europe began to develop rapidly;
• How difficult it was for Columbus to organize the first expedition, so easily subsequently all countries rushed to send their ships on long voyages - this is the main historical merit of the great navigator, who gave a powerful impetus to studying and changing the world!
• The name of Christopher Columbus has forever remained inscribed in the history and geography of all continents and most countries of the world. In addition to cities, streets, squares, numerous monuments and even an asteroid, the highest mountain in, a federal district and a river in the USA, provinces in Canada and Panama, one of the departments in Honduras, countless mountains, rivers, waterfalls are named after the famous navigator , parks and many other geographical objects.

Columbus discovered America October 12, 1492

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October 13, 1492 Columbus first set foot on the shore of the new land

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On behalf of and on behalf of the king and queen, Christopher Columbus took possession of the land he had discovered. About this, a notarial deed was drawn up on the spot with all the required formalities. Actually, it was at this moment that Columbus became the Viceroy, because he had his own territory! Having hoisted the Castilian banner on the shore, the delegation went to see the local sights. And after a short time, "guides" appeared - local residents.

Columbus named the first island he discovered "San Salvador"

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I wonder what's left detailed descriptions the exact landing site of Columbus, from which it would be possible to confidently say which of the Bahamas was the first to feel the pleasant weight of the Castilian shoes. Therefore, several pieces of land from the Bahama garland are fighting for the right to take the lead. For himself, the island of Columbus named San-Salvador (Salvation).

After spending a few days exploring the island and making contact with the locals Arawaks, as they called themselves, Columbus began to suspect that he had not found exactly what he was looking for. According to the level of development, the islanders were in the Stone Age - they did not know metals. Didn't know the wheels. Pack and riding animals were not used. Their language was not like any of the Oriental languages ​​in which the interpreter of the expedition tried to communicate with them. Luis de Torres. However, at first Columbus was not embarrassed. It could be assumed that his ships went to some island remote from the mainland. More embarrassing was that no spices grew on the island. And most importantly, there was no gold.

However, according to sources, local residents had some pieces of gold, and Columbus began to ask where it came from and where, they say, they took it? What the savages pointed to in the direction of the southwest - there, they say, there is a large land, other people live there, and here they have ... ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> All this nonsense, wandering from book to book, from site to site, with the addition of fictitious details, is not worth a penny eaten banana. If the natives San-Salvadora and there was gold, why would they need it? What is its value to them? Is it processed or in the form of nuggets? Columbus, of course, could show the natives their gold products. But what could the natives compare them to? Some questions...

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After looking for gold in the ground on the island and not finding it, the freight forwarders decided to continue looking - as lucky. Stumbling for two weeks among the Bahamas, the Admiral's expedition on October 28, 1492 landed on the northeast coast of Cuba. They equipped the troops, scoured the coast for a long time, sent reconnaissance deep into the territory. But even here it was not what he was looking for. No gold. No spices. No palaces. No Great Khan.

I think that the Admiral is not accidentally unlucky with all this. After all, he came to the new land to take, take away, grab, and not to do something good on it. And the ending of his fate in this regard is quite natural. Columbus' team were the usual invaders, bandits, slave traders and assassins. And Christian morality did not condemn all this. However, there are other places on the Internet for philosophical reasoning, and we will return to our travelers.

", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> Believing that he is in the poorest part of China, Columbus decides to turn east, where, according to one version, the rich country of Sipangu / Japan / could be located, according to another (at the prompt of local residents) - it was located to the east of Cuba big Island, on which there were a lot of heaps of gold. The ships went east along the northern coast of Cuba.

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It is impossible to say exactly how and when exactly the members of the expedition first tried tobacco, but an entry about this historical event appears in Columbus' logbook on November 15th. There is a version that tobacco it was not the plant itself that was called, but the tube through which the Indians inhaled smoke. But it was it that became a household name for the potion itself.

Where did the Pint go?

On November 20, 1492, the Pint suddenly disappeared. She just disappeared from sight, apparently, left at night. The most current version is that its captain, Martin Alonso Pinzon, the second person on the expedition, who seems to have been burned by megalomania and greed, broke away from his comrades to be the first to find gold. Or other values. And be the first to rush back, because he also knew something about navigation. Most likely, it was so.

On December 6, 1492, Columbus discovered the island of Haiti - Hispaniola

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The remaining two ships continued their journey east and two weeks later, on December 6, 1492, travelers discovered the current island of Haiti, which Columbus called Hispaniola / little Spain /, although the island was three times larger than Sicily!

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Near the north coast of Hispaniola, Columbus discovered an island, which he named Tortuga/Turtle/. This island later became the most famous nest in the Caribbean, is repeatedly described in novels and has retained the name given by Columbus to this day.

For another two weeks, the Niña and the Santa Maria slowly moved along the winding coast of Haiti, all the while trying to establish contact with the local population for the presence of precious metals.", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">In one of the bays where the ships stopped, they managed to find out from the local population that further east is the territory of a powerful leader Guacanagari, and in the depths of the island lies a territory called Cibao, where there is a lot of this gold like shoe polish at the shoe polish factory. The admiral, of course, immediately thought that Cibao That's what it is Sipango, decided to reach the territory of the leader by sea and then penetrate deep into the country. But then the unexpected happened. On the night of December 25, 1492, the Santa Maria landed on the reefs.

The secret of death ""

The collapse of the Santa Maria still causes ambiguous assessment among Columbologists, because the circumstances of the disaster inspired and continue to inspire suspicion. Why did they walk along the coast at night, where there could always be pitfalls? Why was the cabin boy at the helm?Maybe it was beneficial for someone to run the flagship of the expedition aground? But to whom?

1. To the owner of the ship Juan de la Cosa? Perhaps he expected to get insurance for him? So he really received later from the kings compensation for the lost property, which indirectly confirms this conjecture.

2. To the Admiral himself. It is possible that he did too. Let's try to reason. Realizing that he did not discover what he was looking for, Columbus felt the futility of further searches for Japan and China. If they were somewhere close, there would be indirect signs of their proximity - exchange goods from local tribes, possibly a wheel, metal products. But none of this happened. But Columbus has already become the Viceroy of all these lands. And the land turned out to be considerable! It was necessary to return here with exploration expeditions. Leaving some people here is an additional argument for equipping the next expedition. In addition, Columbus may well have suspected that Martin A. Pinzon on the Pint did not disappear by accident. He could rush back to be the first to report to the kings about the new lands and get all the preferences. "Santa Maria" in this race for Columbus would be a burden. And there was a reason for refusing to further search for Japan and the Great Khan - they say, with one ship where ... This, of course, is all speculation ...

The third and most likely version is that the team just got drunk on Christmas. Valiant Conquistadors began to fill the throats the night before and were simply unable to get behind the wheel to take the helm. Catholic Christmas is celebrated on the night of December 24-25. It gets dark early in the southern latitudes. And breaking the fast after fasting is allowed with the appearance of the first star in the sky. That's the whole truth about the crash of the Santa Maria.

Fort "Navidad" - pfirst Spanish settlement in the Americas

From the wreckage of the flagship, it was decided to build a fortified settlement on the shore and leave a significant part of the team in it - only 39 souls. This colonists willy-nilly The admiral promised to definitely return next year. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">
On the third day of Christmas, the travelers began to build a fortress. It was decided to name it " Navidad" (Navidad in Spanish - Christmas), and the remains of the "Santa Maria" were used to build this stronghold. The colonists were left with a significant supply of provisions, wine, firearms and a boat. The admiral touchingly said goodbye to those who remained to spend the winter on the new land, ordered them not to commemorate him dashingly live in harmony with each other and with their neighbors. Alas, he saw them alive for the last time. January 2, 1493 the last remaining caravel of the first expedition of Christopher Columbus "Nina" set off on the return journey.

The return of the prodigal Pint. Back in full swing!

On Sunday, January 6, 1493 year, from the main mast of the Nina, the Pinta was seen. A very strange accident… Soon the Admiral met with the captain of the missing caravel, M. A. Pinson, who declared that he had separated from the flotilla against his will (?!?). What really happened there, no one will be able to establish, but both commanders understood that in their position bad world better than a good quarrel and did not begin to sort things out to the end. The ships "rummaged around" a little more in Haiti in last resort find something, replenish stocks andJanuary 16, 1493 in full sail, taking a steep north coursenor-nor-east(or in our opinion to the north-northeast). The return passage of Columbus to Castile began.

Travelers of the Age of Discovery

Russian travelers and pioneers