Columbus made the most famous sea voyage in history, and opened up a whole ‘New World’ for the Europeans.
COLUMBUS SET SAIL
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. When he grew up he became a sailor and settled in Portugal. The Europeans were very keen to find a new, less difficult route to Asia, where they traded for luxury goods like silk and spices. Like most educated people, Columbus knew the world was round, and he realised that if he could sail around the world to Asia and open up a new trade route, he would be rich and famous overnight.
THE WEST INDIES
He came up with charts for a route westward to Asia, and eventually King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain agreed to give him some ships and money. Columbus set sail in August 1492 with three ships, and by October he had reached the Bahamas, though he thought he’d reached Asia. He travelled on to Cuba and the island of Hispaniola, where he built a fort and left some of his men. He called the islands the West Indies and sailed back to Spain in ships laden with parrots, plants, gold, and a few of the friendly native islanders.
A SECOND VOYAGE
Everyone was impressed, and he was soon sent off on another voyage. Columbus returned to Hispaniola, only to discover that the locals had killed almost a quarter of the settlers he’d left behind on his first voyage. As punishment, Columbus demanded that each local over the age of 14 must deliver a gift of gold or cotton to the settlers every three months. If they failed, their hands were cut off and they were left to bleed to death.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
A couple of years later Columbus set sail for a third time, exploring the Caribbean coast of South America (though he never set foot on North American land). But this time things didn’t go so well. People in the Hispaniola colony had complained that Columbus had misled them about the riches to be found there, and Columbus was sent back to Spain a prisoner.
COLUMBUS’S LAST PORT
Eventually, Columbus was released and made another Atlantic voyage, but lost his ships and had to be rescued. He returned to Spain in 1504 and died 18 months later. He never found out that he hadn’t reached Asia at all, but a completely different continent, which became known as the ‘New World’.
