We have all heard of Christopher Columbus but if you’re not sure why the name rings a bell,
then don’t worry. In this video we will be discussing
every important thing you need to know about him. So, stick around and enjoy!
Who was Christopher Columbus?
The man going by the name of Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who was born
in Genoa, Italy in 1451 and lived discovering the world until 1506. He was one of five
siblings, four brothers and one sister, raised by his wool-maker father Domenico Colombo
and mother Susanna Fontanarossa. During his time he made some of the most important
discoveries of all - finding the American continents, but more on that later. His love and
passion for the waters, sailing and exploring the planet is thought to have started at an early
age when he worked on a merchant ship as a teenager. However, after an unfortunate
pirate attack he had to find his way through life in the streets of Lisbon, Portugal. Here he
lived with his brother Bartolomeo who was a cartographer. Christopher would later on marry
a woman called Filipa Moniz Perestrelo and have a son called Diego, who followed his
father’s footsteps and became an explorer. After his wife’s death, he remarried and had his
second son Fernando Columbus who would grow up to be a bibliographer.
Christopher’s quite peculiar name is Cristoforo Colombo in Italian and Cristóbal Colón in
Spanish. However, he is more well-known as ‘The Discoverer of the World.’
Let’s find out why.
Discovering America
As mentioned above, Christopher Columbus was the one who discovered the existence of
the Americas when he set off from Spain in the summer of 1492, but today some argue that
he was not, in fact, the first person to have set foot on these continents as there were
already inhabitants there when he arrived. The reason for this voyage was the need for
finding a better trade route to India. Of course, he was with his crew which were split into
three ships going by the names of Niña, the Pinta and the largest one, which was a carrack,
Santa Maria. After 36 days they found land. The first part of the continent that he stumbled
upon is thought to have been the modern-day Bahamas, which even though had already
been named by the natives (who he referred to as
Indians in his diary) he called it San Salvador, meaning ‘Holy Land’.
He later on found Cuba,
Haiti and the Dominican Republic that he called Hespaniola. Before he realized that
he had made a great discovery, he thought some of these places might have been China,
Japan or even India. During this time he made sure to fill out a diary where he would describe
the happenings of this trip and the wildlife around him in much detail. Unfortunately, the
Santa Maria was wrecked and Columbus and his crew had to sail back home with two ships. However,
they had to survive a terrible storm on their way back. In the past decade, there have been
expeditions claiming they had found the wrecked Santa Maria but nothing has been confirmed.
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The Four Voyages
This concludes Christopher’s First Voyage. During his lifetime he has executed four long
voyages that were financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. We have
already discussed the first one, now let’s take a quick look at the rest.
The Second Voyage took place a year after the First had finished. This time, instead of
three ships, he set off with 17! After around 3 weeks of sailing, himself and his
1200-member crew had reached what is known as Guadeloupe today. He also went on to
naming other Southern American islands on this voyage. Unfortunately, naming lands was
not all that he had in mind. Christopher Columbus exploited the natives, forcing them into
slavery; some were beaten up, raped, tortured and some even commited suicide as a way
of escaping his brutal and ruthless ruling. All of this was motivated by his greed for gold
natives owned before his discovery. His Second Voyage came to an end after a long 2.5-3
years in 1496.
On his Third Voyage he left Spain with six ships which took different directions - three were
guided by Christopher himself to continue the search for more land and the other three set
off to Hispaniola, which was his last stop on his First Voyage. The main discovery of this
voyage was the mainland of South America. But this was not all. He also found that the
natives in Hispaniola had rebelled against his rule which ended up in most of them being
punished by death. But he didn’t fully get away with his tyranny.
Christopher was replaced by Francisco de Bobadilla and he himself had to spend the next six weeks
behind the bars in Spain. This didn’t stop him from going on his Fourth Voyage though.
His final trip started in the winter of 1502, which is considered to be the hardest of the four,
as this time, he was forbidden to enter Hispaniola and had lost trust of many. Columbus
went on to explore the south where he was denied entry at nearly every island. Finally, he
found shelter in Jamaica, where he was stranded with his crew before
reaching Spain in November of 1504.
Not long after, Christopher Columbus passed away in Valladolid, Spain at the age of 54,
due to poor health and a number of diseases.
And just like that we have covered all the key points about Christopher Columbus for you.
We really hope you found our video interesting. If so, make sure to let us know who you
think was first to discover America; was it Christopher Columbus? Also, don’t forget to
check out more educational videos on our channel. Thank you for watching!