Students All Over The World Have Heard About or Learned About Christopher Columbus

Students all over the world have heard about or learned about Christopher Columbus. All of the students know him for finding the “New World.” Not many people have really taken a deeper look into Columbus’ life. Christopher Columbus is actually very interesting when you get to know him. Christopher Columbus’ voyages made a big impact on the world. Before you learn about his voyages you will learn about his basic information and family, his childhood and adult life, and his studies.

The first thing you need to know about Christopher Columbus before reading the rest of this paper is his basic information and family. People didn’t know much about the world in Christopher Columbus’ time(2004). All they knew about was Asia, Europe, and Africa. Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy (Funk). Genoa, Italy is located near the sea (2004). His father was a merchant and a weaver. His father was apart of the wool trade. According to “It is believed that Columbus entered this trade as a young man.” Christopher went on his first trading voyage to the island of Khios that is found in the Aegean sea. Christopher sailed with a convoy, a group of ships or vehicles traveling together, typically accompanied by armed troops, warships, or other vehicles for protection (Funk). A group of unfriendly Muslims sat along the shore to the route to Asia and controlled the spice trade route on the land(1994). According to (Funk) “Legend has it that the fleet was attacked by pirates off the coast of Portugal.” Columbus’ ship was sunk and he swam to shore where he found shelter in Lisbon(Funk). Columbus ended up being a good sailor and eventually became a captain. A captain is a person in charge of the ships and the sailors (2004). Christopher Columbus died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain (2003).

The second thing you need to know about Columbus is his childhood and adult life. After Christopher was finished working for his father every day, he would go down to the harbor to see the ships and the sea(2003). Columbus loved to watch the ships sail in and out of the harbor (2004). He often talked with the captains of all of the ships. He would normally go out on the boats with the fisherman in his free time If he didn’t have to work for his father. According to “At age fourteen Columbus went on a ship to bring back wool for his father.” On that ship, he learned how to maintain the sails, masts, and ropes of the ship. He also learned how to use a compass while on that trip. When the wind blew the sails Columbus knew what to do. He had studied maps and charts for years to become a sailor(2003). Christopher had married a noblewoman from Portugal after the ship accident. They had a baby boy who they named Diego. Even after Columbus married the noblewoman he still sailed the seas. Columbus transported many goods such as cloth and metal to a lot of countries(2004). Christopher’s dream was to sail the sea eventually, and one day he did just that(2003).

The last thing you need to know about Columbus is his studies. Christopher Columbus was often right and often wrong when it came to his ideas. Columbus was a scientist, a dreamer, and a poor politician. Christopher Columbus only knew about Asia, Africa, and Europe along with everyone else(1994). According to “Christopher concluded based on his research that the Earth was 25% smaller than was previously thought.” Columbus’ problem was that he overestimated the size of Asia and underestimated the size of the oceans. From these faulty beliefs, Columbus thought that Asia could be reached more quickly by sailing across the Atlantic(Funk). Other people in Columbus’ time sailed down and around Africa to get to Japan and China and even India. Back in Columbus’ time Japan was called Cipangu and China was Cathy and India, well it was just called India(1994).

Now that you know everything about Columbus, you need to learn about his expeditions or voyages as they are called now. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was the Age of Discovery(2018). Spain, Portugal, and Italy had the ships, navigation, and education to venture out into the unknown. However, no one went too far from shore because of their lack of courage(1994). According to (2008)“Columbus sailed the most famous route in history, the route to the New World.” Columbus learned a variety of thing on his expeditions(2004). It took Columbus ten years to find some supporters for his expeditions. August 3, 1492, was when Columbus sailed to the “New World(2008).” King Ferdinand the fifth and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to sponsor the trip that Columbus had presented to them(Funk). He sailed out of the port of Palos, Spain.

He tried to sail to the Canary Islands, the last land known to the west(1994). Columbus and his crew sailed on three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria was actually Columbus’ own flagship. Christopher’s’ plan was to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to find the far east known as Japan, India, and China(1994). Along the journey, he kept track of the distance traveled but Columbus lied to the crew of how far they really had traveled over the course of the trip(1994). 69 days after Columbus sailed out of the port of Palos, Spain, he landed at the present-day island San Salvador(2008). That is more than two months and each month also had to include 31 days! On October 12 the ships made it to the New World(2018). Columbus had thought he made it to India and China. He even called the island that he landed on the Indies(2008). When Columbus found the New World it was exposed to lots of diseases that the people in Asia, Europe, and Africa had grown immune to and killed hundreds of native Americans. He stayed in the New World for a while looking for pearls, gold, silver, and spices. He sailed from island to island looking for the pearls, gold, silver, and spices. When Columbus was about to leave the Santa Maria went aground.

They salvaged the wood and made a makeshift fort. He even left 40 of his men on the island of present-day Haiti/ Dominican Republic in the makeshift fort that they made. Columbus actually wasn’t the first person to discover the New World, the Vikings did. The Vikings had found the New World in the eleventh century(2018). He sailed four expeditions and the last three expeditions were better equipped and ready for colonization(1994). The first voyage was in 1492 and that is the voyage that everyone knows about. Columbus’ second voyage was in 1493(2018). On his second voyage, he made landfall in the Virgin Islands(2008). The third voyage in 1498(2018). This voyage was from May 1498 to October 1500. Also on the third voyage, he sailed to Trinidad and then to Venezuela and finally went home(1994). The fourth and final voyage was in 1502 (2018). On that last voyage, he sailed from Honduras to Costa Rica to Nicaragua and then to Panama(1994). Columbus didn’t even mean to find America’s but when he did the colonization of them was very beneficial for a lot of countries within Europe, Asia, and Africa(2018). Columbus had changed the world’s maps just by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean(1994). Even though Columbus’ ideas and studies were wrong he never stopped believing in another route to Asia(1994). Columbus is remembered as a very daring explorer for that(2018).

You have read about Christopher Columbus’ basic information and family, his childhood and adult life, his studies, and his voyages. Ways of looking into a person’s life require their basic information and family, childhood and adult life, their studies, and whatever they did that made them who they are today are all ways. Now you know about the person who found the land that you might live in. You can now live life knowing how and who discovered the land that you might live in.

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