Who was Christopher Columbus ?

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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who stumbled upon the Americas and whose journeys marked the beginning of centuries of transatlantic colonization.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions abroad in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “Age of Discovery.”

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, was born in Genoa, Italy, in about 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1470, when French privateers attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood and made his way to Lisbon, where he studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in Asia, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands.

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European to visit the “New World.”

Famed Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the "New World" of the Americas on an expedition sponsored by King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492.

Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 to May 20, 1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator.

In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic from Spain in the Santa Maria,

with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to India. Between 1492 and 1504.

he made a total of four voyages to the Caribbean and South America and has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, or what is now Italy.

In his 20s he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled in Spain, which remained his home base for the duration of his life.

Columbus estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles. In actuality, the distance was 12,200 statue miles.

Columbus' first contact with the Americas was when he set foot in the Bahamian Islands. He then traveled to Cuba, believing it was China.

Columbus and his brothers treated the natives harshly, which ultimately led to his arrest and being stripped of his titles as governor of the Indies

Even upon his death, Columbus believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.

Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was an Italian explorer, colonizer, and navigator. He is remembered as the principal European discoverer of the Americas and he helped bring the Americas to the forefront of the western consciousness

His discoveries and travels laid the framework for the later European colonisation of Latin and North America.

Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today Northwestern Italy. His father was a middle-class wool merchant.

Columbus learnt to sail from an early age and later worked as a business agent, travelling around Europe to England, Ireland and later along the West coast of Africa.

He was not a scholar, but was an enthusiastic self-educated man, who read extensively on astronomy, science and navigation. He also became fluent in Latin, Portuguese and Spanish.

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern day Greece, brought him the closest he would come to Asia.