What islands Columbus discovered in South America. What year and where was Christopher Columbus born

Despite the fact that the famous navigator was able to discover America with the help of the Spanish king, he himself was from Italy. The young years of his life fell on a stay on the Apennine Peninsula. He was born in Genoa in 1451 and received his education at the University of Pavia. From birth he lived near the sea and decided to devote himself to travel. The point is that the years of Christopher Columbus's life fell on the era geographical discoveries when the Europeans left the Mediterranean Sea and started looking for a way to India.

The beginning of navigation

Christian governments funded seafarers in order to gain access to expensive resources. Even before Columbus, Portuguese explorers traveled east along the coast of Africa. In the 70s, Christopher decided to find a way to a distant country in the western way. According to his calculations, one should go in this direction along the latitude of the Canary Islands, after which it would be possible to reach the shores of Japan.

During this time he lived in Portugal, which was the center of all European navigation. He participated in an expedition to Guinea, where the Elmina fortress was built in 1481. At the same time, the ambitious explorer visited England, Iceland and Ireland, where he learned about local legends about Vinland. So in the old days the Vikings called the land they discovered. These were the shores North America... Due to the fact that in the Middle Ages there were no strong ties between pagan Scandinavia and Christian Europe, this discovery went unnoticed.

Organization of travel to the west

Many years of Christopher Columbus's life were spent trying to persuade various governments or merchants to finance the expedition to the west he was planning. At first he tried to find mutual language with merchants from their native Genoa, but they refused to risk their money. In 1483, the project was put on the table of João II. He also rejected the risky venture.

After this failure, Christopher left for Spain. There he managed to enlist the support of the local dukes, who introduced him to the king and queen. Spain did not formally exist yet. Instead, there were two states - Castile and Aragon. The marriage of their rulers (Ferdinand and Isabella) allowed the two crowns to be combined into one. The couple gave an audience to the navigator. A commission was appointed to assess the costs and how justified it was for the treasury. The first results were disappointing for Columbus. He was refused and offered to revise the project. Then he tried to negotiate with the king of England and Portugal (again).

Treaty with Spain

In 1492, Spain captured Granada and completed the Reconquista - the expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. The king and queen again freed themselves from political issues and took up the Columbus expedition. The decisive word was given by Isabella, who even agreed to pawn all her personal treasures and jewelry in order to provide ships and provisions. The navigator was promised that he would become the viceroy of all those lands that he would discover. He was also immediately given the title of nobleman and Admiral of the Sea-Ocean.

In addition to the authorities, Columbus was helped by the ship owner Martin Alonso Pinson, who offered one of his ships ("Pinta"). The first expedition also involved the Santa Maria karakka and the Niña ship. In total, a team of one hundred people was involved.

First expedition

The years of Christopher Columbus's life were well spent. He could finally realize his old dream... Many details of his first voyage to the west are known to us from the ship's log he kept every day. These invaluable records have been preserved thanks to the fact that the priest Bartolomé de las Casas made a copy of the papers a few years later.

On August 3, 1492, the ships left the Spanish harbor. The Sargasso Sea was discovered on September 16. On October 13, an unknown land was on the way of the ships. Columbus entered the island and planted the flag of Castile on it. It was named San Salvador. Here the Spaniards first saw tobacco, cotton, maize and potatoes.

With the help of the natives, Columbus learned about the existence of a large island, which was located slightly to the south. It was Cuba. Then the expedition still believed that she was somewhere in East Asia. Pieces of gold were found on some of the natives, which inspired the team to continue their treasure hunt.

Further discoveries

Second expedition

Even before that, Christopher Columbus's second journey began. This time, there were already 17 ships under his command. This is not surprising, because the admiral now enjoyed the great favor of the king, queen and numerous Spanish feudal lords, who willingly began to give him money for travel.

The second journey of Christopher Columbus differed from the first also in the composition of the team. This time, the ships were not only sailors. Monks and missionaries were added to them in order to baptize the local peoples. Officials and nobles also took their place, who were supposed to organize the life of a permanent colony in the west.

After 20 days of travel, Dominica and Guadeloupe were discovered, where the Caribbean lived, who were distinguished by their aggressive attitude towards peaceful neighbors. The first encounter with them occurred on the shores of the island of Santa Cruz. At the same time, the Virginia Archipelago and Puerto Rico were discovered.

Colonization of the islands

The team wanted to get to the sailors left in Haiti during the first expedition. At the site of the fort, only corpses and remains were found. At the same time, the forts of La Isabella and Santo Domingo were founded. Meanwhile, in Spain, the government decided to transfer the exclusive rights of Columbus to another sailor - Amerigo Vespucci. Christopher, having learned about this, went to Europe to prove his case. At the royal court, he declared that he had already reached Asia (in fact, it was Cuba). Also, Christopher Columbus briefly talked about the fact that there is definitely gold there and now, in new expeditions, the labor of prisoners can be used for great economic benefits.

Third expedition

Thus began the third expedition of Christopher Columbus. In 1498, his ships circled Haiti and sailed south, where, according to the captain, there should have been gold mines. This is how the estuary was opened in present-day Venezuela. Having made this voyage, the expedition returned to Haiti (Hispaniola), where the local colonists had already made a riot. They did not like that they were given little land. Then it was decided to allow the taking of local Indians into slavery and to increase personal allotments.

However, this did not solve the main task that the discoveries of Christopher Columbus set themselves. Spain still has not received gold. Meanwhile, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama was able to reach the real India. In accordance with the treaty with Castile, he circled Africa and found himself in a long-awaited country. From there he brought to Portugal expensive spices that were not available in Europe. They were worth their weight in gold.

The Spanish authorities, realizing that they were losing the ocean race to their neighbor, decided to revoke Columbus's monopoly on research. He himself was returned to Europe in chains.

Fourth expedition

The story of Christopher Columbus could have ended very badly if, during his successful expeditions, he had not acquired many influential friends - magnates and nobles. They persuaded King Ferdinand to give the navigator another chance and go on a fourth voyage.

This time Columbus decided to go strictly to the west, bypassing the numerous islands. So he discovered the coast of modern Central America- Honduras and Panama. It became clear that Atlantic Ocean is closed by a certain huge territory. On September 12, 1503, Columbus left the islands he discovered for good and returned to Spain. There he fell seriously ill.

Death and the meaning of discoveries

From that moment on, other navigators, and not Christopher Columbus, were engaged in the discoveries. America has become a magnet for numerous adventure seekers and those looking to get rich. The life of Christopher Columbus, meanwhile, was complicated by an illness. He died on May 20, 1506 at the age of 54. This loss went almost unnoticed in Spain. The value of Columbus's discoveries became clear only a few decades later, when the conquistadors discovered gold in America. This allowed Spain to enrich itself and become the most influential European monarchy for several centuries.

America's Discovery - 1492

The first discovery of America by the Normans

The sailing of the Normans to the shores of North America was unthinkable without their justification in Iceland. But the first Europeans to visit Iceland were Irish monks. Their acquaintance with the island took place approximately in the second half of the 8th century.

“30 years ago (that is, no later than 795), several clerics who were on this island from February 1 to August 1, informed me that there, not only during the summer solstice, but also in the preceding and subsequent days, the setting sun seemed to be only hides behind a small hill, so that it is not dark there even for the shortest time ... and you can do whatever work you want ... If the clerics lived on the high mountains of this island, the sun might not have hidden from them at all ... lived, days always gave way to nights, except for the summer solstice; however, at a distance of one day's journey further north, they found a frozen sea. "

About 100 years later, a Viking ship accidentally hit the shores of Iceland

“They say that people from Norway were going to sail to the Faroe Islands…. However, they were carried west into the sea, and there they found mainland... Entering the eastern fjords, they climbed high mountain and looked around to see if they could see smoke somewhere or any other signs that this land was inhabited, but they did not notice anything. In the fall, they returned to the Faroe Islands. When they left for the sea, there was already a lot of snow on the mountains. Therefore, they called this country the Snow Land "

Over time, a large number of Norwegians moved to Iceland. By 930, there were about 25 thousand people on the island. Iceland became the starting point for further travels of the Normans to the West. In 982-983, Eirik Turvaldson, who became Eric the Red in the Russian tradition, discovered Greenland. In the summer of 986, Bjarni Herulfson, sailing from Iceland to the Greenland Viking settlement, lost his way and found to the south of the earth... In the spring of 1004, the son of Eric the Red Lave Happy, who discovered the Cumberland Peninsula (south of the island of Baffin's Land), followed in his footsteps, east coast the Labrador Peninsula and the northern coast of Newfoundland. The northeastern shores of North America were then repeatedly visited by Viking expeditions, but in Norway and Denmark they were not considered important, since they were not very attractive by natural conditions.

Prerequisites for the discovery of America by Columbus

- the fall of Byzantium under the blows of the Ottoman Turks, the birth Ottoman Empire in the east of the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor led to the termination of land trade relations of the Great Silk Road with the countries of the East
- the critical need of Europe for the spices of India and Indochina, which were used not so much in cooking as as a hygiene item, for the manufacture of incense. After all, Europeans washed themselves in the Middle Ages rarely and reluctantly, and quintal (a measure of weight, 100 pounds) of pepper in Calicut or Hormuz cost ten times less than in Alexandria.
- misconception of medieval geographers about the size of the earth. It was believed that the Earth evenly consists of land - the giant continent of Eurasia with an appendage of Africa - and the ocean; that is, the sea distance between the extreme western point of Europe and the extreme eastern point of Asia did not exceed several thousand kilometers

Short biography of Christopher Columbus

“In which nimble fishing boats scurried and ships sailed from Lisbon to Madeira and from Madeira to Lisbon. The helmsmen and sailors of these ships whiled away the long hours of anchorage in the port tavern, and Columbus had long and useful conversations with them ... (I learned from) experienced people about their voyages in the Sea-Ocean. A certain Martin Visainte told Columbus that 450 leagues (2,700 kilometers) west of Cape San Vicente he picked up a piece of wood in the sea, processed, and at the same time very skillfully, with some tool, clearly not iron. Other sailors met boats with huts beyond the Azores, and these boats did not capsize even on a large wave. We saw huge pines near the Azores coast, these dead trees were brought by the sea at a time when strong westerly winds blew. Sailors came across the corpses of broad-faced people of "non-Christian" appearance on the shores of the Azores island of Fayal. Someone Antonio Leme, “married to a woman from Madeira,” told Columbus that, having traveled a hundred leagues to the west, he came across three unknown islands at sea ”(J. Light“ Columbus ”)

He studied, analyzed contemporary works on geography, navigation, travel notes of travelers, treatises of Arab scholars and ancient authors, and gradually made a plan to reach the rich countries of the East by the western sea route.
The main sources of knowledge on the issue of interest were five books for Columbus

• Historia Rerum Gestarum by Aeneas Silvia Piccolomini
• "Imago Mundi" by Pierre d'Ailly
• "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder
• "The Book" by Marco Polo
• "Parallel Lives" of Plutarch

Abstract on the discipline Geography

Completed: student of the BDA-2 group Andrey Aleshchik

Grodno State Polytechnic College

2007/2008 account 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 with certainty. Columbus used the Portuguese version of his name, Cristovan Colon, while living in Portugal, and the Spanish version, 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, who was born around 1418, married Susanna Fontanarossa and, to support his family, worked as a weaver, a wool seller, an innkeeper, and even acted as a politician. Christopher had three younger brothers (Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo) and a younger sister (Biancinetta). Bartolomeo and Giacomo participated in the expeditions of Columbus after 1492 in New World and were named in the Spanish manner - Bartolomé and Diego.

According to the letters, Columbus became a sailor at an unusually early age and sailed in 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 had commanded a ship at least once. 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 walked along the western coast of Africa to the Portuguese trading post of São Jorge da Mina (present-day Ghana).

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

Travel plan to India.

For centuries, lucrative Asian goods such as spices have attracted the attention of European merchants. Nevertheless, at the end of the 15th century. traders from Europe were still unable to enter Asian countries 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 purchase Asian goods, bypassing intermediaries. In the 1480s, the Portuguese tried to circumnavigate Africa in order to penetrate Indian Ocean to India. Columbus suggested that Asia can be reached by moving west. Probably, Columbus's ideas about the world and the western route to Asia took shape gradually. His assumptions were based on the discovery of islands in the Atlantic (Canary, Azores, Cape Verde, Madeira), on rumors about other islands, various finds, as well as on reading numerous scientific books on geography, including the Picture of the World (Imago mundi) by the French theologian Pierre d " Aii and the Geography of the Greek Scholar Claudius Ptolemy.

Columbus's theory was based on two misconceptions: first, that the Asian mainland stretches eastward about 30 ° further than it actually did, and, second, that Japan is 2,400 km east of this mainland. Columbus also miscalculated the circumference of the Earth. Although he divided the globe by 360 °, the estimate for its circumference at the equator level turned out to be an underestimate. Columbus believed that the Canary Islands were approximately 4,440 km from Japan, when in fact this distance is 19,615 km. Similar misconceptions were inherent in other educated people of that 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 the western route. A commission of scientists was convened to evaluate the project. Then, for unknown reasons, the king refused Columbus. Perhaps Portuguese experts questioned 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 personally. Subsequently, the king found sailors who were ready to go west at their own expense, without requiring royal subsidies or large benefits. However, one way or another in Portugal, Columbus's project did not receive approval.

Spain supports Columbus. In 1485 Columbus left Portugal to try his luck in Spain. In early 1486, while the court was at Alcalá de Henares, Columbus was introduced to the royal court and received an audience with the king and queen. Queen Isabella of Castile and her consort, King Ferdinand of Aragon, took an interest in the Columbus project. The royal couple appointed a commission under the leadership of Talavera to clarify the feasibility of traveling 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 awaiting the end of the war for Granada, Columbus met a young woman from Cordoba, Beatriz Henriquez de Arana. Although they never married, they had a son, Hernando (also known as Fernando), 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 Columbus's life.

In January 1492, during the siege of Granada, Queen Isabella invited Columbus to court. After lengthy negotiations and discussion of arguments, the royal couple realized that Columbus's support was worth a little financial risk, and rejected the objections of their advisers. The monarchs agreed to subsidize the expedition and promised to confer on Columbus the rank of nobility 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 in matters of trade, 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.

Columbus route map

First expedition, 1492-1493.

Since 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 two ships to Columbus's expedition. These were two caravels called Pinta and Ninya. In addition, Columbus chartered a four-masted sailing ship (Nao) dubbed Santa Maria. All three ships were small in size and were typical merchant ships of the era. The Santa Maria was 5.8 meters wide and 18.3 meters long, and the other vessels were even smaller. Columbus faced difficulties recruiting people for his crew, as the sailors feared that they would not find land and would not be able to return home. Finally, with the help of renowned sailor Martin Alonso Pinson, Columbus recruited a crew of 90. The monthly salary for the crew was 2000 maravedi for captains and pilots, 1000 for sailors and 666 for cabin crew.

Three ships left Palos in the early morning of August 3, 1492. The small flotilla first headed for the Canary Islands, where Columbus decided to wait for a favorable wind. After the ships were repaired and provisions were replenished, the flotilla left Fr. Homer in the Canary archipelago on September 6, 1492, heading west. Columbus and other pilots used a navigation system based on heading, time, and speed to plot the ship's course and position. They determined the direction using the compass, the time using the hourglass, which marked every half hour, and the speed by eye. Columbus maintained two systems for calculating the distance in the logbook, one for himself and the other for the team. Contrary to legend, he did not try to cheat 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 proceeded calmly with favorable winds and almost no complaints from the crew. On October 12, at 2 pm, the watchman on the Pinta, Juan Rodríguez Bermejo, saw a light ahead. And at dawn, the ships anchored off an island in the Bahamas archipelago, which the inhabitants of the local tribe called Guanahani, and Columbus renamed San Salvador. Although there is still discussion about the first landing site, most likely it was the modern Fr. San Salvador. Assuming that it is in Asia, Columbus called the Aboriginal Indians.

With the help of guides from the tribe, the flotilla secretly 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. Pinson left Cuba without Columbus's permission and went to the Pinta in search of other lands in order to establish trade with the natives. Columbus sailed on the two remaining ships to the island, which he called Hispaniola (translated as "Spanish island", now the island of Haiti), and surveyed its northern coast. Early in the morning on Christmas Day, due to the fault of a young sailor on duty, the Santa Maria ran aground and crashed. Columbus reached the coast on the only ship "Ninya" 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 Niña and sailed east along the northern coast of Hispaniola. Pinson soon joined him, and on January 16, the Ninya and Pinta set off on their return journey. Columbus took seven captive Indians with him as proof that he had reached a part of the world previously unknown to Europeans.

(Christopher Colombo, in Spanish Colon, Colon) - the famous sailor who discovered America.

Little is known about Columbus' life prior to his appearance as a Spanish admiral. Ten Italian cities and towns argued among themselves about the glory of being the birthplace of Columbus. But now it has been proven that he was born in Genoa. Less reliable is the year of his birth; different news about this diverge for more than 20 years. Rosellie de Lorgues, the author of the biography of Columbus, proves that he was born around 1435; but the more reliable news is that he was born in 1456. Information about who his father was is also unreliable, but more likely than others, he was the son of a wealthy clothier. There is news that Columbus himself was engaged in this craft up to twenty years. However, Columbus's own statement that he became a sailor from the age of 14 does not fit with this indication, based on data from the Genoese archives. Where Columbus studied as a teenager and a youth is unknown; the tradition that he was educated at the universities of Pavia or Pisa is not supported by any documents. Be that as it may, he mastered a well-known education: he read and wrote in Latin, was familiar with geometry, astronomy, geography, had the art of drawing maps, was not a bad calligrapher. There is news that in his youth he sailed in the Mediterranean; on merchant ships - he visited the island of Chios, near the coast of Tunisia, etc. But he did not know at all or were known only from vague fairytale legends of the voyages of the Normans from Greenland to Vinland, that is, to the northern part of North America. If he had certain information about this discovery of the Normans, then on his first voyage he would not have gone from the Canary Islands to the southwest, but would have sailed to the northwest. He could not be interested in the stories about Vinlandia, for he was looking for a way to the rich cultural lands of southern Asia.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus. Painter S. del Piombo, 1519

At that time, Italians were the best European sailors, and many of them moved to Portugal, which then also began to act as a maritime power. Looking for a job, the brother of Columbus, Bartholomew (Bartolomeo), moved to Lisbon, and Christopher followed him. Columbus stayed in Portugal for about ten years (1470s and 1480s), continuing to sail on merchant ships north to England and south to Guinea, and also engaged, with his brother, drawing and selling maps. In Portugal, Columbus married Dona Philippe Monis and, according to legend, lived for some time on the island of Porto Santo, where Philippe had a small estate. Here in Portugal, Columbus matured a firm conviction about the possibility of sailing westward to the shores of Asia. Columbus was especially influenced by the letter of Paolo Toscanelli, a famous Florentine scientist, cosmographer and physician, to whom he turned for guidance. Toscanelli sent Columbus a map from which it was possible to see that the distance between the western shores of Europe and Eastern Asia how they were described famous traveler Marco Polo, not particularly significant. At that time, in general, there were rather vague ideas about the relationship on the earth's surface of spaces occupied by land and sea; Columbus even believed that land takes up much more space than the sea. In addition to the map and writing Toscanelli, Columbus was guided in his views by the authority of Marco Polo and Peter d'Ali, a medieval compiler, from whom Columbus could get acquainted with the opinions of the ancients - Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny, Ptolemy, about the possibility of the existence of countries overseas, in the west.

Having considered his plan of a naval expedition, Columbus turned with him to the Portuguese king John II, who, however, having asked his court doctors and dignitaries for an opinion on this matter, rejected his offer. There is reason to believe that the Portuguese government, which was engaged in research along western shores Africa, did not want to leave them or split their forces in order to set sail to the unknown west, especially since the distance separating the countries of "spices and aromas" could turn out to be much more significant than Columbus claimed. Having failed, Columbus moved to Spain with his eldest son Diego (child 5-6 years old). It seems that Columbus fled Portugal secretly, avoiding any kind of legal prosecution, leaving there his wife and other children, whom he never met again and whom he speaks of in his will as already dead. There are stories that Columbus proposed his plan to the Genoese government; but now it has been proven that they are wrong. Genoa, agitated by strife and exhausted by the war with the Turks, did not have the opportunity to undertake such an enterprise as Columbus thought about.

In Spain, Columbus had to live seven years in travel, searching, in vain efforts. His financial situation at that time was not brilliant; he was still engaged in drawing maps, asked for handouts from the court, or enjoyed the hospitality of the Spanish grandees. In the fall of 1491, having achieved nothing from the Spanish government, Columbus decided to leave Spain, and appeared as a tired pedestrian wanderer in front of the gates of the Franciscan monastery della Rabida, near Palos, where he asked the gatekeeper for water and bread to strengthen his strength. In the monastery, the position of Columbus caused the participation of the prior abbot Juan Perez, who believed in Columbus's plan and came to the conviction that every effort should be made to ensure that the glory of the great discovery did not escape Spain. Juan Perez (former confessor of the queen) wrote a letter to queen Isabella, which had its effect. Formal negotiations began with Columbus, which were almost interrupted, however, due to the exorbitant conditions set by him, and which he demanded to be included in a written contract. Finally, the monarchs (Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon) expressed their consent and signed a contract, which provided Columbus and his heirs with the nobility and the title of admiral, in addition, he personally - the title of viceroy of all the lands and islands that he would open - the right to leave behind him a tenth of all valuables that can be obtained within his admiralty - the right to contribute one eighth of the cost of equipping ships and receive, respectively, an eighth of all income, etc. It was decided to organize the expedition in the city of Palos, partly at the expense of the queen, partly due to this city. Substantial assistance in the maiden voyage was rendered to Columbus by the wealthy Palossian sailor MA Pinson, who, together with his brother, assumed command of two ships; the third, larger ship ("Santa Maria"), was commanded by Columbus himself.

Copy of Columbus' ship "Santa Maria"

In August 1492, three caravels raised anchor and headed for Canary Islands, from where on September 8 moved westward between 27-28 ° latitude. From that day on, Columbus began to keep two diaries, one for himself, the other for the team, and in the latter he reduced the distance traveled by a quarter or a third, as if in order to frighten his companions less. On September 16, the ships entered the so-called Sargasso Sea, southwest of the Azores. The weather was generally favorable and most time there was a fair wind (trade wind). If Columbus had kept heading straight west, he would have reached the shores of Florida, but he dodged southwest and came out to one of the Bahamas.

Signs of land had already appeared a few days before: birds flew by, floating trunks, reeds, even branches with flowers could be seen on the surface of the sea. On the evening of October 11, Columbus noticed a moving light in the distance, but it soon disappeared; the next day, early in the morning, one of the sailors was the first to notice Sandy shore, which caused, according to the order given in advance, a volley from the gun. Subsequently, this sailor demanded for himself the reward assigned by the queen to whoever first saw the land, but Columbus declared that he had seen the land earlier; the case went to court, which recognized the right for Columbus - a dark fact that prompted, on the part of some of the newest researchers, the accusation of Columbus in "disgusting greed." The entire voyage lasted 33 days - from the Canary Islands and 69 days, if you count from the day of leaving Palos. To remain for more than a month without seeing land was, of course, terrifying for the Spanish sailors of that time; however, there is no evidence to support the tradition of a rebellion, allegedly on ships, against Columbus.

On the morning of October 12, Columbus with two Pinsons, the "scribe" of the squadron R. Escobedo and the treasurer R. Sanchez, landed with an escort ashore and, having unfurled the royal banner, took the island into the possession of Spain. A crowd of natives gathered on the shore, naked, swarthy, with black, long hair, painted over the body, armed with spears, with bone and stone points. According to Columbus, this island was called Gwanaani; Columbus named it San-Salvador. Later it was found out that the natives called him "Kayos", hence the subsequent name of the whole group among the Spaniards - "Lucais Islands". At the beginning of the XVI century. the entire population of these islands (Bahamas) was overfished, enslaved and transferred to the island of Cuba, where they soon died from backbreaking work. From San Salvador, Columbus went southwest, met other islands of the same group, then reached the land he called "Juana" (after the Spanish Infanta) and in which he recognized part of the Asian mainland, while in reality it was an island Cuba. Walking along the northern coast of Cuba some distance to the west and then turning back to the east, Columbus reached the eastern tip of the island and saw another island to the east, which he named "Hispaniola" (Haiti). Here, near Cape Guarico, Columbus's ship fell on a sandbank, got a hole and sank. Columbus was forced to move to a smaller ship, the Ninya, and leave most of the crew on the shore, where a wooden fortification was built in a convenient harbor and a garrison of 40 people was left in it. After that, Columbus took the little Niña back to Spain; another ship of his squadron, "Pinta", overtook him, and, having returned earlier to Spain, Pinson tried to inform the first monarchs about the discovery made, but was ordered to wait for Columbus. From Palos, Columbus was invited to Barcelona, ​​where Ferdinand and Isabella received him with great honor; the report on the new discovery made a great sensation, which was also facilitated by the 6 Indians brought by Columbus, parrots, samples of gold and other West Indian products. At the same time, it was immediately decided to equip a second expedition to Cadiz; this time, under the command of Columbus, an entire fleet of 17 ships with 1,200 or more crew members was put.

Columbus in front of kings Ferdinand and Isabella. Painting by E. Leutse, 1843

The new expedition went to the Canary Islands, then to the west, but on the way 12 degrees south of the one taken on the first voyage. 20 days after leaving the island of Ferro, one of the small Antilles(La Desirade), and then the islands of Maria Galante, Dominica, Guadeloupe to the island of Puerto Rico. From here Columbus went to Hispaniola (Haiti), where the fort he had left was destroyed and the entire garrison was exterminated by the Indians; had to found a new city - Isabella - in another place. After lying for 3 months in a fever, Columbus sent 12 ships to Spain with a request for the delivery of supplies, seeds, livestock, and he himself, leaving his brother Diego as governor, set off on a new quest to the west, along the southern coast of Cuba. In this voyage, Jamaica and many small islands south of Cuba were discovered, in the insular character of which Columbus, however, did not have to be convinced, since the opposing winds and the poor condition of the ships forced him to turn back. Returning to Isabella, Columbus was delighted with the arrival of his brother Bartholomew, with three ships, but also saddened by the strife between the Spaniards and the unrest among the oppressed Indians. Some of the disgruntled Spaniards managed to return to their homeland without permission and insist on sending a special commissioner to Hispaniola to investigate the cases. Columbus decided to personally defend his actions and went to Spain.

Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus

The continents known today as the Americas have been discovered since prehistoric times. Before the arrival of European explorers in America, tens of millions of indigenous peoples lived here. The lands of America have been repeatedly "discovered" by peoples from different parts of the world over many generations, beginning in the Stone Age, when a group of hunters first visited a land that was truly an unexplored New World.

It becomes curious why then it is believed that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. In addition, other theories about who first discovered America are widespread: Irish monks (6th century), Vikings (10th century), sailors from China (15th century), etc.

First settlers in America

The first people to settle in America came from Asia, probably about 15 thousand years ago. During the Pleistocene epoch, the ice sheets of the Laurentian and Cordillera glaciers, as a result of melting, formed a narrow corridor and a land bridge between Russia and Alaska. Land bridge between west coast Alaska and Siberia, known as the Bering Isthmus, opened up due to falling ocean levels and connected the continents of Asia and North America.

: On the site of the Bering Isthmus, the present Bering Strait was formed, separating Asia and North America. The strait was named in honor of the officer of the Russian fleet Vitus Bering, who crossed it in 1728.

The ancient settlers of America - the Paleo-Indians - passed through the Bering Isthmus from Asia to America following the movement of large animals. These migrations took place before the Laurentian and Cordillera glaciers closed and closed the corridor. The settlement of America continued in the future by sea or on ice.

After the ice plates melted and the ice age ended, the settlers who arrived in America became isolated from other continents.

Thus, the American continents were first discovered by the nomadic Asian tribes about 15 thousand years ago, which initially settled in North America, then spread to Central and South America and later became the Native American peoples.

VI century - Irish monks

According to popular Irish legend, a group of Irish monks led by Saint Brendan set out on a boat with shelter to the west in the 6th century in search of new lands. Seven years later, the monks returned home and reported that they had discovered a land covered with lush vegetation, which is modern Newfoundland.

There is no definitive evidence that Irish monks landed on the coast of North America. However, in 1976 the British traveler Tim Severin tried to prove that such a trip was possible. Severin built a replica of a 6th century monk ship and traveled from Ireland to North America along a route described by traveling monks. The explorer has reached Canada.

X century - Vikings

Around 984, the Scandinavian navigator Eric Krasus explored ancient seafaring routes and discovered Greenland. Leif Eriksson, son of Erik Kras, in 999 with a crew of 35 people on one ship left Greenland for Norway. Soon Leif Eriksson reached North America on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, where about 1000 he founded a Norwegian settlement on the territory of the modern Canadian island of Newfoundland. The Vikings named the settlement "Vineland" (English Vineland - "Grape land") because of the abundance of grapes growing on this land. However, Erickson and his team did not stay long - just a few years - before returning to Greenland. Relations with native North Americans were hostile.

In the sagas, the Vikings who settled in America are referred to as the Native American "Skreling". Most of the sagas come from Scandinavian folklore, but in 1960 the Norwegian archaeologist Helge Ingstad found the first European Viking settlement at the end of the 11th century, identical to the settlements in the Scandinavian countries, in the northern tip of Newfoundland (Canada). This historical and archaeological site was named "L'Ans aux Meadows" and is recognized by scientists as evidence of pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts.

15th century - sailors from China

British naval officer Gavin Menzies theorized that the Chinese colonized South America. He claimed that the Chinese explorer Zheng He, who commanded an armada of wooden sailing ships in the early 15th century, discovered America in 1421. Zheng He researched Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa using advanced navigation techniques.
Gavin Menzies in his book "1421 - the year China discovered the world" wrote that Zheng He sailed to east coast USA and may have established settlements in South America. Menzies based his theory on evidence from ancient shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps, and reports compiled by navigators of the time. However, this theory is in doubt.

Christopher Columbus

Discovery of Christopher Columbus

August 3, 1492 Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus, originally from the Italian city of Genoa.

With the support of the Spanish rulers - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella - with a fleet of 3 caravels ("Niña", "Pinta", "Santa Maria") and 90 crew members sailed from the port of Palos (Spain).

Sailors set off in search of a western route to Asia in order to acquire precious metals, pearls, silk, spices.

October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus's team saw the earth and discovered the New World (America). In his personal notes, Columbus noted that he had found the "New World", unknown to Europeans. The crew went ashore on the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas. Columbus assumed that the sailors reached the islands located near India. Hence the name of the islands Caribbean- "West Indies". Columbus called the local natives "Indians" - the name of the indigenous population of America, which has survived to this day.

Christopher Columbus established a colony in America that became the first European settlement in the New World. Spanish navigator also opened southern trade, which supplied sailing ships carrying goods to the New World. After the first successful voyage (1492-1493), the Spanish monarchs conferred the rank of admiral on Columbus.

Christopher Columbus made four expeditions to America during 1492-1504 Columbus died on May 20, 1506, still believing that he had found new route to Asia and that the islands he explored are part of the Asian continent. By then, other explorers were following the sea route first found by the admiral, and Europeans were already referring to Columbus's discoveries as the "New World."

: The first geographic map, which shows open overseas lands, appeared in 1507. German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller named the New World "America" ​​after the Florentine navigator and merchant Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the coast of South America and found it to be a separate continent and not part of Asia.

Thus, America was first discovered by nomadic Asian tribes about 15 thousand years ago. Many peoples probably visited the lands of America before the famous voyage of Christopher Columbus: Irish monks, Vikings, Chinese sailors.

Christopher Columbus discovered America in the sense that he introduced it to Western Europe on four expeditions to the region between 1492 and 1504.

Thanks to Christopher Columbus, the inhabitants of the Old World became known to the New World - America, which includes two continents. Columbus opened the way from the Old World to the New, paving the way for the European colonization of America, which led to the formation of new countries, including the United States, Canada and Mexico. Columbus's travels are significant events in history that are considered the beginning of the colonial period.