Columbus country of birth. Death and eternal memory. Biography of the navigator Christopher Columbus

Biography of the navigator Christopher Columbus

The Lord made me the messenger of a new heaven and a new earth,
created by him, the very ones about which St.
John... and there the Lord showed me the way.

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (born around August 26 and October 31, 1451 - death May 20, 1506) - Italian navigator who discovered America in 1492.

Columbus is eternal. Even schoolchildren in our time, who find it difficult to answer who Stalin is and why Lenin is lying on Red Square, can connect such a concept as Columbus and America. And some, perhaps, will be able to tell the sad story of his life - the life of a discoverer without discoveries, a great, fearless, erring one ... For, as Jules Verne argued, if Columbus had not had these three qualities, he might not have dared to overcome the endless expanse of the sea and go in search of lands previously mentioned only in myths and sagas.

The story of Columbus is an ongoing story of mystery. Absolutely everything is questioned - the date of his birth, his origin and the city where he was born. They argued for the right to consider themselves the birthplace of Homer 7 Greek cities. Columbus was "lucky" more. At different times and different places 26 applicants (14 Italian cities and 12 nations) put forward such claims, entering into a lawsuit with Genoa.

More than 40 years ago, Genoa seems to have finally won this centuries-old process. But to this day, the voices of advocates of false versions about the homeland and nationality of Columbus do not stop. Until 1571, no one doubted the origin of Columbus. He himself called himself a Genoese more than once. The first to question the Genoese origin of Columbus was Ferdinando Colon. He was guided by "noble" intentions to introduce noble ancestors into the genealogy of the great navigator. Genoa was not suitable for such experiments: this name did not appear on the lists even of plebeian families. Therefore, the author took the grandfathers of Columbus to the Italian city of Piacenza, where noble people from the local family of Columbus lived in the XIV and XV centuries. The example of Ferdinand Colon inspired this kind of search for historians of subsequent centuries.

Childhood. Adolescence. Youth

Christopher Columbus was born into the family of a weaver who also traded in cheese and wine. The embarrassment that occurred at the wedding of Christoforo Bianchinetta's sister speaks about the financial situation of the family and the not entirely honest father of the navigator Domenico Colombo. The son-in-law, a cheese merchant, accused Domenico of not giving the dowry promised for his daughter. Notarial deeds of those times confirm that the situation of the family was actually deplorable. In particular, major disagreements with creditors arose over the house where they settled 4 years after the birth of Christoforo.

Although Christoforo spent his childhood at his father's loom, the boy's interests were directed in a different direction. The greatest impression on the child was made by the harbor, where people with different skin colors, in burnouses, caftans, and European dress, jogged and called to one another. Christoforo did not remain an outside observer for long. Already at the age of 14, he sailed as a cabin boy in Portofino, and later on to Corsica. In those days on Ligurian coast barter was the most common form of trade. Domenico Colombo also took part in it, and his son helped: he accompanied a small ship with Latin equipment, loaded with fabrics, to nearby shopping centers, and from there delivered cheese and wine.

In Lisbon, he met the girl Felipa Moniz da Perestrello and soon married her. For Christopher Columbus, this marriage was a happy lot. He entered a noble Portuguese house and intermarried with people who took the most direct part in the overseas campaigns organized by Prince Henry the Navigator and his successors.

Felipa's father in his youth was included in the retinue of Henry the Navigator. Columbus gained access to various documents that recorded the history of the Portuguese voyages in the Atlantic. In the winter of 1476-1477, Columbus left his wife and went to England and Ireland, in 1478 he ended up in Madeira. Columbus went through the primary school of practical navigation in Porto Santo and Madeira, traveling to the Azores, and then completed a course in marine science in Guinean expeditions. During his leisure hours he studied geography, mathematics, Latin, but only to the extent necessary for his purely practical purposes. And more than once, Columbus admitted that he was not very versed in the sciences.

But in particular, the young sailor's imagination was struck by the book of Marco Polo, which spoke of the gold-roofed palaces of Sipangu (Japan), the splendor and splendor of the court of the great khan, and the birthplace of spices - India. Columbus had no doubt that the Earth had the shape of a ball, but it seemed to him that this ball was much smaller than in reality. That is why he believed that Japan was relatively close to the Azores.

Stay in Portugal

Landing of Columbus in America

Columbus decided to make his way to India by the western route and in 1484 presented his plan to the king of Portugal. Columbus' idea was simple. It was based on two premises: one completely true and one false. The first (true) one is that the Earth is a sphere; and the second (false) - that most of the earth's surface is occupied by land - a single array of three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa; the smaller one - by sea, because of this, the distance between the western shores of Europe and the eastern tip of Asia is small, and in a short period of time it is possible, following the western route, to reach India, Japan and China - this corresponded to the geographical ideas of the Columbus era.

The idea of ​​the possibility of such a voyage was expressed by Aristotle and Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Plutarch, and in the Middle Ages the theory of the One Ocean was consecrated by the church. She was recognized Arab world and its great geographers: Masudi, al-Biruni, Idrisi.

While living in Portugal, Columbus offered his project to King João II. It happened at the end of 1483 or at the beginning of 1484. The time for awarding the project was not chosen very well. In 1483-1484, João II thought least of all about long-distance expeditions. The king extinguished the revolts of the Portuguese magnates and dealt with the conspirators. He attached more importance to further discoveries in Africa, but much less interested in Atlantic voyages to the west.

The history of the negotiations between Columbus and King João II is not entirely clear. It is known that Columbus asked for a lot in return for his services. Lots of embarrassing. As much as no mortal had asked the crowned bearers before. He demanded the title of Chief Admiral of the Ocean and the title of nobility, the position of Viceroy of the newly discovered lands, a tenth of the income from these territories, an eighth of the profits from future trade with new countries and golden spurs.

All these conditions, except for the golden spurs, he subsequently included in his contract. King Juan never made rash decisions. He passed on Columbus's proposal to the "Mathematical Junta" - a small Lisbon academy, in which outstanding scientists and mathematicians met. It is not known exactly what decision the council made. At least it was unfavorable - it happened in 1485. In the same year, Columbus's wife died, and his financial situation deteriorated sharply.

Stay in Spain

1485, summer - he decided to leave Portugal for Castile. Columbus took his seven-year-old son Diego with him and sent his brother Bartolomeo to England in the hope that he would be interested in Henry VII's western route project. From Lisbon, Christopher Columbus went to Palois to settle in with the relatives of his wife Diego in the neighboring city of Huelva. Exhausted by long wanderings, with a small child in his arms, Columbus decided to seek refuge in a monastery, near which the forces finally left him.

So Columbus ended up in the monastery of Rabidu and, in a fit of revelation, poured out his soul to the abbot Antonio de Marchena, a powerful man at the Spanish court. The Columbus project delighted Antonio. He gave Columbus letters of recommendation to those close to the royal family - he had connections at court.

Inspired by a warm welcome in the monastery, Columbus went to Cordoba. The court of their highnesses temporarily stayed there (the Castilian and Aragonese kings until 1519 bore the title of highnesses) - Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon.

However, in Spain, Cristobal Colon (as Columbus was called in Spain) was expected for many years of need, humiliation and disappointment. Royal advisers believed that the project of Columbus was impossible.

In addition, all the forces and attention of the Spanish rulers were absorbed in the fight against the remnant of Moorish domination in Spain - a small Moorish state in Grenada. Columbus was refused. Then he proposed his plan to England, and then again to Portugal, but nowhere was it taken seriously.

Only after the Spaniards had taken Grenada was Columbus, after much trouble, able to obtain three small ships from Spain for his voyage.

First expedition (1492 - 1493)

With incredible difficulty, he managed to assemble a team, and, in the end, on August 3, 1492, a small squadron left spanish port Paloe and went west to look for India.

The sea was calm and deserted, a fair wind was blowing. So the ships went for more than a month. On September 15, Columbus and his companions saw a green strip in the distance. However, their joy was soon replaced by chagrin. It was not a long-awaited land, so began the Sargasso Sea - a giant accumulation of algae. On September 18–20, sailors saw flocks of birds flying west. “Finally,” the sailors thought, “the land is close!” But this time, too, the travelers were disappointed. The crew began to worry. In order not to frighten people with the range of the distance traveled, Columbus began to underestimate the distance traveled in the ship's log.

October 11 at 10 pm Columbus, eagerly peering into night mist, saw a light flickering in the distance, and on the morning of October 12, 1492, the sailor Rodrigo de Triana shouted: “Land!” The sails were removed from the ships.

Before the travelers was small island overgrown with palm trees. Naked people ran along the sand along the shore. Columbus put on a scarlet dress on the armor and, with the royal flag in his hands, went down to the shores of the New World. It was Watling Island from the group Bahamas. The natives called it Guanagani, and Columbus called it San Salvador. This is how America was discovered.

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus

True, Columbus was sure until the end of his days that he did not discover any "New World", but only found a way to India. And with his light hand, the natives of the New World began to be called Indians. The natives of the newly discovered island were tall, handsome people. They did not wear clothes, their bodies were colorfully painted. Some of the natives had shiny sticks in their noses, which delighted Columbus: after all, it was gold! This means that the country of golden palaces, Sipangu, was not far away.

In search of the golden Sipangu, Columbus left Guanagani and traveled further, discovering island after island. Everywhere the Spaniards were amazed by the lush tropical vegetation, the beauty of the islands scattered in blue ocean, the friendliness and meekness of the natives, who, for trinkets, molasses and beautiful rags, gave the Spaniards gold, colorful birds and hammocks never seen before by the Spaniards. On October 20, Columbus reached Cuba.

The Cuban population was more cultured than the inhabitants of the Bahamas. In Cuba, Columbus found statues, large buildings, bales of cotton, and for the first time saw cultivated plants- tobacco and potatoes, products of the New World, which later conquered the whole world. All this further strengthened Columbus's confidence that Sipangu and India were somewhere nearby.

1492, December 4 - Columbus discovered the island of Haiti (the Spaniards then called it Hispaniola). On this island, Columbus built Fort La Navidad (“Christmas”), left 40 garrison men there, and on January 16, 1493, headed for Europe on two ships: his largest ship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked on December 24.

On the way back, a terrible storm broke out, and the ships lost sight of each other. Only on February 18, 1493, the exhausted sailors saw Azores, and on February 25 we reached Lisbon. On March 15, after an 8-month absence, Columbus returned to the port of Paloe. Thus ended the first expedition of Christopher Columbus.

The traveler was received in Spain with enthusiasm. He was granted a coat of arms with a map of the newly discovered islands and with the motto:
"For Castile and León, Colón opened the New World."

Second expedition (1493 - 1496)

quickly organized new expedition, and already on September 25, 1493, Christopher Columbus set off on a second expedition. This time he led 17 ships. With him went 1500 people, seduced by stories of easy money in the newly discovered lands.

On November 2, in the morning, after a rather exhausting voyage, the sailors saw a high mountain in the distance. It was the island of Dominica. It was covered with forest, the wind brought spicy aromas from the shore. The next day, another mountainous island, Guadeloupe, was discovered. There, the Spaniards, instead of the peaceful and affectionate inhabitants of the Bahamas, met warlike and cruel cannibals, Indians from the Carib tribe. There was a fight between the Spaniards and the Caribs.

Having discovered the island of Puerto Rico, on November 22, 1493, Columbus sailed to Hispaniola. At night, the ships approached the place where the fort they laid on their first voyage stood.

Everything was quiet. There were no lights on the beach. The arrivals fired a volley of bombards, but only the echo rolled in the distance. In the morning, Columbus learned that the Spaniards, with their cruelty and greed, so revolted the Indians against themselves that one night they suddenly attacked the fortress and burned it, killing the rapists. So America met Columbus during his second voyage!

The second expedition of Columbus was unsuccessful: the discoveries were insignificant; despite careful searches, little gold was found; disease was rampant in the newly built Isabella colony.

When Columbus went in search of new lands (during this voyage he discovered the island of Jamaica), the Indians in Hispaniola, outraged by the oppression of the Spaniards, rebelled again. The Spaniards were able to suppress the uprising and brutally cracked down on the rebels. Hundreds of them were enslaved, sent to Spain or forced to do backbreaking work in plantations and mines.

1496, March 10 - Columbus set off on his return journey, and on June 11, 1496, his ships entered the harbor of Cadiz.

The American writer Washington Irving spoke of the return of Columbus from the second expedition:

“These unfortunates crawled out, exhausted by diseases in the colony and severe hardships of travel. Their yellow faces, in the words of an ancient writer, were a parody of the gold that was the subject of their aspirations, and all their stories about the New World were reduced to complaints of illness, poverty and disappointment.

Third expedition (1498 - 1500)

Return of Christopher Columbus

In Spain, Columbus was not only received very coldly, but also deprived of many privileges. Only after long and humiliating troubles was he able in the summer of 1498 to equip ships for the third expedition.

This time, Columbus and his crew had to endure a long calm and terrible heat. On July 31, the ships approached the large island of Trinidad, and soon a grassy coast appeared in front of Columbus.

Christopher Columbus took it for an island, in fact it was the mainland - South America. Even when Columbus got to the mouth of the Orinoco, he did not realize that he had a huge mainland in front of him.

In Hispaniola at that time there was a tense situation: the colonists quarreled among themselves; relations with the natives were damaged; the Indians responded to oppression with uprisings, and the Spaniards sent one punitive expedition after another to them.

The intrigues that had long been waged against Columbus at the Spanish court finally had their effect: in August 1500, a new government representative, Babadilla, arrived on the island of Hispaniola. He demoted Columbus and, having chained him and his brother Bartolomeo, sent him to Spain.

Appearance famous traveler in shackles caused such indignation among the Spaniards that the government was forced to immediately release him. The shackles were removed, but the mortally offended admiral did not part with them until the end of his days and ordered to put them in his coffin.

Almost all privileges were taken away from Columbus, and expeditions to America began to be equipped without his participation.

Fourth expedition (1502 - 1504)

Only in 1502 was Columbus able to set off on four ships on his fourth and last expedition. This time he went along the coast of Central America, from Honduras to Panama. It was his most unfortunate journey. The travelers endured all sorts of hardships, and in 1504 the admiral returned to Spain on the same ship.

Columbus ended his life in a struggle. The admiral began to dream about the deliverance of Jerusalem and Mount Zion. At the end of November 1504, he sent a lengthy letter to the royal couple, in which he outlined his "crusading" creed.

Death of Columbus and posthumous journey

Columbus was often sick.

“Exhausted by gout, grieving over the loss of his property, tormented by other sorrows, he gave his soul with the king for the rights and privileges promised to him. Before his death, he still considered himself the king of India and gave advice to the king on how best to rule. overseas lands. He gave his soul to God on the day of the Ascension, May 20, 1506 in Valladolid, accepting the holy gifts with great humility.

The admiral was buried in the church of the Valladolid Franciscan monastery. And in 1507 or 1509, the admiral set off on his longest journey. It lasted 390 years. Initially, his ashes were transported to Seville. In the middle of the 16th century, his remains were brought from Seville to Santo Domingo (Haiti). Columbus' brother Bartolomeo, his son Diego and grandson Luis were also buried there.

1792 - Spain cedes the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola to France. The commander of the Spanish flotilla ordered the ashes of the admiral to be delivered to Havana. The fourth funeral took place there. 1898 Spain loses Cuba. The Spanish government decided to move the ashes of the admiral back to Seville. Now he rests in the Seville Cathedral.

What was Christopher Columbus looking for? What hopes drew him west? The treaty that Columbus made with Ferdinand and Isabella does not clarify this.

"Since you, Christopher Columbus, are sent by our order on our ships and with our subjects to discover and conquer certain islands and the mainland in the ocean ... it is fair and reasonable ... that you be rewarded for this."

What islands? What mainland? Columbus took his secret with him to the grave.

Biography

Youth of Christopher Columbus

It is believed that Columbus was born into a poor Genoese family: father - Domenico Colombo (ital. Domenico Colombo), mother - Susanna Fontanarossa (ital. Susanna Fontanarossa). The exact transliteration of his name from Spanish is Cristobal Colon , however, he became world famous as Christopher Columbus ( Christopher - latin transliteration Greek name). In addition to Christopher, there were other children in the family: Giovanni (died in childhood, in 1484), Bartolomeo, Giacomo, Bianchella (married Giacomo Bavarello). Traditionally, six cities in Italy and Spain dispute the honor of being the small homeland of Columbus.

The appearance of Columbus is known from portraits that were painted after his death. Bartolome de Las Casas, who saw Columbus in 1493, describes him thus:

He was tall, above average, his face was long and commanding respect, his nose was aquiline, his eyes were bluish-gray, his skin was white, with redness, his beard and mustache were reddish in his youth, but turned gray in his works.

Studied at the University of Pavia. Around 1470, he marries Doña Felipe Moniz de Palestrello, daughter of a navigator from the time of Prince Enrique. Until 1472 Columbus lived in Genoa, and from 1472 in Savona. In the 1470s, he participated in sea trading expeditions. It is believed that as early as 1474, the astronomer and geographer Paolo Toscanelli told him in a letter that, in his opinion, India can be reached by a much shorter sea route if you sail west. Apparently, already then Columbus thought about his project sea ​​travel to India. Having made his own calculations based on the advice of Toscanelli, he decided that it was most convenient to sail through the Canary Islands, from which, in his opinion, Japan was about five thousand kilometers away.

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.

Second expedition

Second expedition

The second flotilla of Columbus already consisted of 17 ships. Flagship - "Maria Galante" (displacement of two hundred 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, mass extermination began local population. City of Santo Domingo laid down. Laid the most convenient sea ​​route to the West Indies. The Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica have been discovered, the southern coast of Cuba has been almost completely explored. At the same time, Columbus continues to claim that he is in Western India.

Chronology

• September 25, 1493 - The expedition left Cadiz. In the Canary Islands they took sugar cane and dogs accustomed to hunting. 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 west), the journey took only 20 days, and already on November 3, 1493 (on Sunday), an island from the Small Ridge was discovered. Antilles named Dominica.
• November 4 - the expedition arrived at the largest of the local islands, called Guadeloupe. On open islands lived 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 was 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 landed on west bank big island which Columbus named San Juan Bautista. It has been called Puerto Rico since the 16th century.
• November 27 - the flotilla approached the one built during the first expedition to about. Haiti fort La Navidad, but on the shore the Spaniards found only traces of a fire and corpses.
• January 1494 - A city was built to the east of the burned fort, La Isabella in honor of Queen 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 La 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 tools, offering to pay for them with slaves from among the local residents.
• April 24, 1494 - leaving a garrison in La Isabella under the command of his younger brother Diego, Columbus led three small ships west along southeast coast Cuba.
• May 1 - a narrow and deep bay is discovered ( modern city Guantanamo with Guantanamo Bay). 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. For the next 25 days, ships moved through small islands along south coast islands.
• June 12 - having traveled almost 1700 km along the southern coast of Cuba and not having reached 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 named 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 La 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 two hundred soldiers. The natives were almost unarmed, and Columbus used against them cavalry and specially trained dogs brought with him. After nine 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 South coast islands where in 1496 Bartolome Columbus founded the city of Santo Domingo - future center 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.
• April 10, 1495 - The Spanish government broke off relations with Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci obtained the right to supply India until May 1498. January 11, 1496 Vespucci receives 10,000 maravedis from the treasurer Pinelo to pay the sailors' wages. In fact, he contracted to supply in Andalusia one (if not two) expeditions in India, in particular the third expedition of Columbus. The success of the Columbus enterprise inspired Amerigo with the idea of ​​​​leaving the trading business in order to get acquainted with the newly discovered part of the world.
• 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 wonderful country Ophir, where gold was once mined for the biblical King Solomon. In addition, 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 rid Spain of unwanted elements, reducing the cost of keeping them in prisons, and on the other hand, it ensured the development of newly discovered lands with rather desperate “human material”.

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. sh., Ojeda headed northwest, passed 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 kilometers 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 kilometers northeast coast 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 clashes with unfriendly Indians, discovered the islands of Curaçao 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 kilometers of the northern coast of unknown land and never found an end to it, which meant that such a land should be a mainland.

The fate of the remains

Tomb of Columbus in Seville

However, at the end of the 19th century, during the restoration of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, the oldest in the New World, a box with bones was discovered, on which it was written that they belonged to Columbus. After that, a dispute arose between Seville and Santo Domingo for the right to be considered the place where the great navigator rests.

The statue of Columbus has a height of 90 meters, which is twice more height Statue of Liberty without a pedestal. The sculpture weighs 599 tons. The Baltimore Sun called an article about Tsereteli's Columbus "From Russia with "ugh"".

Subsequently, the achievements of the Columbus monument were used by the sculptor in 1997 when erecting in Moscow, by order of the Moscow government, on the spit of Balchug Island between the Moscow River and the Vodootvodny Canal, a huge statue of Peter the Great in medieval clothes of a Spanish grandee at the helm of a Russian sloop 98 meters high.

In July 2010, it became known that on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, near the city of Arecibo, a statue of Christopher Columbus by Zurab Tsereteli would be installed.

The statue, divided into 2750 parts, lay in warehouses for two years. According to the government of Puerto Rico, it takes $20 million to reassemble it. The statue, if installed, will be the most tall building in US controlled territories Caribbean.

Demolition of monuments to Columbus in Venezuela

named after Columbus

• asteroid (327) Columbia, discovered in 1892
• ISS module Columbus

• Main Opera House of Argentina Colon theater
• Columbus Theater in the book by Ilf and Petrov "12 chairs"

• Studio Columbia Pictures
• Monetary units of Costa Rica and El Salvador colon
• Argentine football club from Santa Fe Colon
• Columbus exchange- movement of plants, animals, microorganisms and people from the Old World to the New and vice versa

On the money

Columbus on columns

In honor of Christopher Columbus (in Spanish Cristobal Colon) was named the currency of El Salvador - Salvadoran colon. On all issued denominations of all years of issue and all denominations, without exception, a portrait of a young or elderly Columbus was placed on the reverse side.

Reverse : 1 column , and		5, and

10, and		10 and 2

25 and 50		100, and

Columbus in philately

Filmography

• "Christopher Columbus" / Christopher Columbus (Italy-France-USA, 1985). Mini-series (4 episodes). Director

The content of the article

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER(Cristoforo Colombo, Cristobal Colon) (1451–1506), Spanish navigator who discovered America. Italian by birth. Born in Genoa between August 25 and October 31, 1451 in the family of woolen weaver Domenico Colombo. In 1470 he began to actively participate in commercial transactions (until 1473 under the leadership of his father). In 1474–1479 he made several voyages with trading expeditions Genoese company Centurion Negro: visited the island of Chios, England, Ireland, the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira. In 1476 he settled in Portugal. In 1482-1484 he visited the Azores and the Guinean coast (fort Sao Jorge da Mina).

In the early 1480s, he began to develop a project for sailing to the shores East Asia the western route across the Atlantic Ocean; the works of Aristotle, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Strabo, Plutarch, Albert the Great and Roger Bacon prompted him to this idea, and the Florentine cartographer Paolo Toscanelli (1397–1482) was his main inspiration. In 1484 he presented his project to the Portuguese king João II (1481–1495). However, in the spring of 1485, the Mathematical Junta (Lisbon Academy of Astronomy and Mathematics) recognized Columbus's calculations as "fantastic". In the summer of 1485 he left for Spain (Castile) and in January 1486 offered his project to the Spanish royal couple - Ferdinand II of Aragon (1479–1516) and Isabella I of Castile (1474–1504), who created a special commission headed by E. de Talavera. In the summer of 1487, the commission issued an unfavorable opinion; nevertheless, Ferdinand and Isabella postponed the decision until the end of the war with the Emirate of Granada.

In the autumn of 1488, Columbus visited Portugal to re-propose his project to Juan II, but was again refused and returned to Spain. In 1489, he unsuccessfully tried to interest the regent of France, Anne de Beaugh, and two Spanish grandees, Dukes Enrique Medinasidonia and Luis Medinaceli, with the idea of ​​sailing west. But after the fall of Granada, with the support of influential patrons at the Spanish court, he was able to obtain the consent of Ferdinand and Isabella: on April 17, 1492, the royal couple entered into an agreement (“capitulation”) with Columbus in Santa Fe, granting him a noble rank, the titles of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean, Vice - the king and governor-general of all the islands and continents that he discovers. 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 the highest civil and military authority. Columbus was given the right to receive a tenth of everything found in the new lands and an eighth of the profits from trading with overseas goods. The Spanish crown pledged to finance most expedition expenses.

Ivan Krivushin

Columbus discovered America

The year this Spanish navigator discovered new land, in history it is indicated as the 1492nd. And by the beginning of the eighteenth century, all other regions of North America were already discovered and explored, for example, Alaska and the regions Pacific coast. It must be said that travelers from Russia also made an important contribution to the study of the mainland.

Development

The history of the discovery of North America is quite interesting: it can even be called accidental. At the end of the fifteenth century, a Spanish navigator with his expedition reached the shores of North America. However, he mistakenly believed that he was in India. From this moment, the countdown of that era begins, when America was discovered and its development and exploration began. But some researchers consider this date to be inaccurate, arguing that the discovery of a new continent happened much earlier.

The year of discovery of America by Columbus - 1492 - is not an exact date. It turns out that Spanish navigator there were predecessors, and moreover - not one. In the middle of the tenth century, the Normans got here after they discovered Greenland. True, they failed to colonize these new lands, since they were repelled by tough weather north of this continent. In addition, the Normans were also frightened by the remoteness of the new mainland from Europe.

According to other sources, this continent was discovered by ancient navigators - the Phoenicians. Some sources call the middle of the first millennium of our era the time when America was discovered, and the Chinese are the pioneers. However, this version also does not have clear evidence.

The most reliable information is considered to be the time when the Vikings discovered America. At the end of the tenth century, the Normans Bjarni Herjulfson and Leif Ericsson found Helluland - "stone", Markland - "forest" and Vinland - "vineyard" land, which contemporaries identify with the Labrador Peninsula.

There is evidence that even before Columbus in the fifteenth century, the northern continent was reached by fishermen from Bristol and Biscay, who called it the island of Brazil. However, the time periods of these expeditions cannot be called that milestone in history when they discovered America for real, that is, identified it as a new continent.

Columbus is a real pioneer

And yet, when answering the question in what year America was discovered, experts most often name the fifteenth century, or rather its end. And Columbus is considered the first to do this. The time when America was discovered coincided in history with the period when Europeans began to spread ideas about the round shape of the Earth and the possibility of reaching India or China along the western route, that is, through the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, it was believed that this route is much shorter than the eastern one. Therefore, given the Portuguese monopoly on control over South Atlantic received by the Treaty of Alcazovas of 1479, Spain, always seeking direct contact with Eastern countries, warmly supported the expedition of the Genoese navigator Columbus to the west.

Opening honor

Christopher Columbus was interested in geography, geometry and astronomy from an early age. From a young age, he participated in sea expeditions, visited almost all the then known oceans. Columbus was married to the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from whom he inherited many geographical maps and notes from the time of Henry the Navigator. The future discoverer carefully studied them. His plans were to find a sea route to India, however, not bypassing Africa, but directly across the Atlantic. Like some scientists - his contemporaries, Columbus believed that, having gone west from Europe, it would be possible to reach the Asian eastern shores - those places where India and China are located. At the same time, he did not even suspect that on the way he would meet a whole mainland, until then not known to Europeans. But it happened. And since that time, the history of the discovery of America begins.

First expedition

For the first time, the ships of Columbus set sail from the harbor of Palos on August 3, 1492. There were three. Before canary islands the expedition proceeded quite calmly: this segment of the journey was already known to the sailors. But very soon they found themselves in a boundless ocean. Gradually, the sailors began to fall into despondency and raise a murmur. But Columbus managed to pacify the recalcitrant, keeping them hopeful. Soon signs began to come across - harbingers of the proximity of land: unknown birds flew in, tree branches sailed. Finally, after six weeks of sailing, lights appeared at night, and when dawn broke, a green picturesque island, all covered with vegetation, opened up before the sailors. Columbus, having landed on the shore, declared this land the possessions of Spanish crown. The island was named San Salvador, that is, the Savior. It was one of the small pieces of land included in the Bahamas or Lucayan archipelago.

Land where there is gold

The natives are peaceful and good-natured savages. Noticing the greed of those who sailed to the golden ornaments that hung in the nose and ears of the natives, they told with signs that in the south there is a land literally abounding in gold. And Columbus went on. In the same year, he discovered Cuba, which, although he took it for the mainland, more precisely, for the eastern coast of Asia, he also announced Spanish colony. From here, the expedition, turning east, landed in Haiti. At the same time, along the way, the Spaniards met savages who not only willingly exchanged their gold jewelry for simple glass beads and other trinkets, but also constantly pointed to south direction when asked about this precious metal. On which Columbus called Hispaniola, or Lesser Spain, he built a small fortress.

Return

When the ships landed in the harbor of Palos, all the inhabitants came ashore to greet them with honors. Very graciously received Columbus and Ferdinand and Isabella. The news of the discovery of the New World spread very quickly, just as quickly gathered those who wanted to go there with the discoverer. At that time, Europeans had no idea what kind of America Christopher Columbus discovered.

Second trip

The history of the discovery of North America, which began in 1492, continued. From September 1493 to June 1496, the second expedition of the Genoese navigator took place. As a result, the Virgin and Windward Islands were discovered, including Antigua, Dominica, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Christopher, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Spaniards firmly settled on the lands of Haiti, making them their base and building the fortress of San Domingo in its southeastern part. In 1497, the British entered into rivalry with them, also trying to find northwest paths to Asia. For example, the Genoese Cabot under the English flag discovered the island of Newfoundland and, according to some reports, came very close to the north American coast: to the peninsulas of Labrador and Nova Scotia. So the British began to lay the foundation for their dominance in the region of North America.

Third and fourth expeditions

It began in May 1498 and ended in November 1500. As a result, the mouth of the Orinoco was also discovered. In August 1498, Columbus landed on the coast already on the Paria Peninsula, and in 1499 the Spaniards reached the shores of Guiana and Venezuela, after which - Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon. And during the last - fourth - trip from May 1502 to November 1504, Columbus had already discovered Central America. His ships passed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, reached from Costa Rica and Panama up to the Gulf of Darien.

new mainland

In the same year, another navigator - whose expeditions took place under the Portuguese flag - also explored the Brazilian coast. Having reached Cape Cananea, he put forward a hypothesis that the lands discovered by Columbus are not China, and not even India, but completely new mainland. This idea was confirmed after the first world travel committed by F. Magellan. However, contrary to logic, the name America was assigned to the new continent - on behalf of Vespucci.

Indeed, there is some reason to believe that new continent was named after the Bristol philanthropist Richard America from England, who financed the second transatlantic voyage in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took on the nickname in honor of the continent so named. To prove this theory, researchers cite the facts that Cabot reached the shores of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to set foot on American soil.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier, a French navigator, reached the coast of Canada, giving the area its modern name.

Other contenders

Exploration of the continent North America continued by such navigators as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Buffin. It was thanks to their research that the continent was studied up to the Pacific coast.

However, history also knows many other names of sailors who moored to American soil even before Columbus. This is Hui Shen - a Thai monk who visited this region in the fifth century, Abubakar - the Sultan of Mali, who sailed to the American coast in the fourteenth century, the Earl of Orkney de Saint-Clair, the Chinese explorer Zhehe He, the Portuguese Juan Corterial, etc.

But, in spite of everything, it is Christopher Columbus who is the man whose discoveries had an unconditional impact on the entire history of mankind.

Fifteen years after the time when the ships of this navigator discovered America, the very first geographical map of the mainland was compiled. Its author was Martin Waldseemüller. Today it, being the property of the United States, is kept in Washington.