Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an <a href="/facts/Italians/dsdUeJ1n">Italian</a> explorer and navigator from the <a href="/facts/Republic_of_Genoa/WUngElFp">Republic of Genoa</a> who completed <a href="/facts/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus/aaGJJPbG">four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean</a> sponsored by the <a href="/facts/Catholic_Monarchs/ge8uXJ5T">Catholic Monarchs</a>, opening the way for the widespread European <a href="/facts/Age_of_Discovery/Hy29CbgV">exploration</a> and <a href="/facts/Colonization_of_the_Americas/1HImQual">colonization of the Americas</a>. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The name Christopher Columbus is the <a href="/facts/Anglicisation_(linguistics)/C0q36KQ4">anglicization</a> of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. Growing up on the coast of <a href="/facts/Liguria/S5xt46pN">Liguria</a>, he went to sea at a young age and traveled widely, as far north as the <a href="/facts/British_Isles/4fBquvMU">British Isles</a> and as far south as what is now <a href="/facts/Ghana/IkUw32Ya">Ghana</a>. He married Portuguese noblewoman <a href="/facts/Filipa_Moniz_Perestrelo/5xwdaUve">Filipa Moniz Perestrelo</a>, who bore a son, <a href="/facts/Diego_Columbus/tqJpNKbD">Diego</a>, and was based in Lisbon for several years. He later took a Castilian mistress, <a href="/facts/Beatriz_Enr%25C3%25ADquez_de_Arana/aHL31R5B">Beatriz Enríquez de Arana</a>, who bore a son, <a href="/facts/Ferdinand_Columbus/36PIwwQW">Ferdinand</a>.
Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable in geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the <a href="/facts/East_Indies/yG3DlwsE">East Indies</a>, hoping to profit from the lucrative <a href="/facts/Spice_trade/Al4oz2x4">spice trade</a>. After the <a href="/facts/Granada_War/NeVVaBG0">Granada War</a>, and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen <a href="/facts/Isabella_I/R3wN94z3">Isabella I</a> and King <a href="/facts/Ferdinand_II_of_Aragon/lt1dHN67">Ferdinand II</a>, agreed to sponsor a journey west. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 October, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas now referred to as the <a href="/facts/Pre-Columbian_era/0Ntjleee">pre-Columbian era</a>. His landing place was an island in <a href="/facts/The_Bahamas/x6VKsUhj">the Bahamas</a>, known by its native inhabitants as <a href="/facts/Guanahani/vIazc0GP">Guanahani</a>. He then visited the islands now known as Cuba and <a href="/facts/Hispaniola/fPKbRTcD">Hispaniola</a>, establishing <a href="/facts/La_Navidad/YEJvIr4T">a colony</a> in what is now <a href="/facts/Haiti/yjgyeK9w">Haiti</a>. Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493, with captured natives. <a href="/facts/Columbus%2527s_letter_on_the_first_voyage/9F3XlBvJ">Word of his voyage</a> soon spread throughout Europe.
Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the <a href="/facts/Lesser_Antilles/e3kYAgTY">Lesser Antilles</a> in 1493, <a href="/facts/Trinidad/gJQ350S6">Trinidad</a> and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the east coast of Central America in 1502. Many of the names given to geographical features by Columbus, particularly the names of islands, are still in use. He gave the name indios ('Indians') to the <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas/LG2r6wXm">indigenous peoples</a> he encountered. The extent to which he was aware that the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he had reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality and removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the <a href="/facts/Crown_of_Castile/T1JrdPkx">Crown of Castile</a> and its colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to <a href="/facts/Pleitos_colombinos/9vW4rw7g">protracted litigation</a> over the privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the Crown.
Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European sphere of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the <a href="/facts/Old_World/jt02swyQ">Old World</a> and <a href="/facts/New_World/CxsS0QVd">New World</a> that followed his first voyage are known as the <a href="/facts/Columbian_exchange/xaYrED8p">Columbian exchange</a>, named after him. These events and the effects which persist to the present are often cited as the beginning of the <a href="/facts/Modern_era/uB3yXt4H">modern era</a>. Diseases introduced from the Old World contributed to the <a href="/facts/Ta%25C3%25ADno_genocide/mpUQYh20">depopulation</a> of Hispaniola's indigenous <a href="/facts/Ta%25C3%25ADno/mpUQYh20">Taíno</a> people, who were also subject to <a href="/facts/Enslavement/IXX2S92u">enslavement</a> and other mistreatments by Columbus's government. Increased public awareness of these interactions has led to Columbus being less celebrated in <a href="/facts/Western_culture/rPbgAhzI">Western culture</a>, which has historically idealized him as a heroic discoverer. Numerous <a href="/facts/List_of_places_named_for_Christopher_Columbus/xcngbxzI">places have been named</a> for him, as has <a href="/facts/Columbia_(personification)/e6uyMHcD">Columbia</a>, a personification commonly used to represent the United States.

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Christopher Columbus