![First voyage
In 1492, prior to his first voyage, Columbus negotiated with
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, entitling him to
10% of the profits of all the riches he would discover:
“that of all and every kind of merchandise, whether pearls,
precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and
merchandise whatsoever, of whatever kind, name and sort,
which may be bought, bartered, discovered, acquired and
obtained within the limits of the said Admiralty, Your
Highnesses grant from now henceforth to the said Don
Cristóbal [Christopher Columbus] … the tenth part of the
whole, after deducting all the expenses which may be incurred
therein.”](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/christophercolumbus-200324194050/85/Christopher-columbus-5-320.jpg)
Christopher columbus
- 1. Christopher Columbus Man who discovered America
- 3. Early life o Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. Born during the Renaissance period when people were making new discoveries every day, he wanted to learn more about what the future would hold. o He lived in Lisbon where he developed his interests in ships and navigation. As a teenager, he worked under a trader and sailed in several commercial voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea. o During his early years in navigation, Columbus participated in a number of voyages to Africa, giving him a lot of knowledge and experience about sailing in the Atlantic.
- 4. Navigations •During his early years in navigation, Columbus participated in a number of voyages to Africa, giving him a lot of knowledge and experience about sailing in the Atlantic. •People living in Europe wanted to set up a new trade route with China. It was a time when trading with Asia was difficult and expensive due to the monopoly by Italian merchants and Turkish control over the route. •Columbus thought the best way to do this was to sail west from Spain until he reached China. He believed that sailing across the Atlantic would reach Asia, thus discovering a new trade route.
- 5. First voyage In 1492, prior to his first voyage, Columbus negotiated with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, entitling him to 10% of the profits of all the riches he would discover: “that of all and every kind of merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever, of whatever kind, name and sort, which may be bought, bartered, discovered, acquired and obtained within the limits of the said Admiralty, Your Highnesses grant from now henceforth to the said Don Cristóbal [Christopher Columbus] … the tenth part of the whole, after deducting all the expenses which may be incurred therein.”
- 6. • In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail for China with 90 men and a fleet of 3 wooden sailing boats called the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Rather than using the stars, on this voyage Columbus had a compass and a traverse board to track where the fleet was going. • On October 12, 1492, Columbus’ fleet came across a small island that he named San Salvador. This island is now part of the Bahamas. He then sailed on and discovered Cuba and an island called Hispaniola.
- 7. Despite being near America, Columbus believed his fleet was in the Indies and so named the Native American people he came across ‘Indians’. The natives traded goods like glass, cotton, spears, and parrots with Columbus’ crew. The Europeans took note of the adornments they wore – gold! Columbus thought that modern-day Bahamas was China, and what is now Haiti and Dominican Republic he thought was Japan. All his assumptions were based on Marco Polo’s early accounts regarding the grandeur of Asia.
- 9. •On Christmas Day in 1492, Columbus’ ship, the Santa Maria, was shipwrecked on a reef. Columbus and his sailors built a new settlement using salvaged parts from the ship and called it Villa de la Navidad, or ‘Christmas Town’. •The Niña and the Pinta sailed back to Spain, leaving 40 men behind in the new settlement, arriving in 1493. Columbus had brought some captive Native Americans with him.
- 10. Second voyage Christopher Columbus was named ‘Admiral of the Seven Seas’ due to his triumphs. On his second voyage, Columbus took 17 ships back to the Bahamas to collect the men he had left behind. He found that the settlement had been destroyed and all his men had been killed. He went against the Spanish Queen’s wishes and requested that the Native Americans acted as slaves and rebuilt the settlement for him.
- 12. Third voyage On his third voyage, he discovered South America and explored the Orinoco River in Venezuela. After the third voyage, the Queen of Spain heard about how Columbus had made the Native Americans his slaves and had him arrested, but Columbus managed to convince the King that one more voyage to the New World would bring him many riches. On his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus discovered more of Central America, although he was still hoping that his ship would reach China.
- 13. LATER LIFE, DEATH, AND CONTROVERSY On the fourth voyage, Columbus’ ship was wrecked and he and his crew were stranded in Cuba. Because Columbus had insisted the Native Americans pay tribute to him every three months with food, supplies and treasures or face violent and cruel punishment, they had become resentful, staged revolts, and then refused to help him when he was shipwrecked. He was eventually rescued and taken back to Spain in 1504 and died in 1506, aged around 54, after falling ill. Throughout Columbus’ life and voyages, he failed to reach Asia and was unsuccessful in discovering a new trade route. On the other hand, he was still credited for opening the Americas to European exploration. Named after him, the Columbian Exchange set the stage for large scale transfer of people, animals, and plant species, culture, and diseases to and from the rest of the world.
- 14. Columbus’ relation with the Taino people, or Arawaks, natives of Hispaniola, is considered the center of controversy against the explorer. The extinction of the Tainos is blamed on how Columbus treated them plus the diseases brought from the west during the Age of Exploration. According to Bartolome de Las Casas in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies published in 1542, Columbus ordered the enslavement of the natives, some were grilled, dismembered, and sold as dog food, while others were strung up and burned alive, and women were held as slaves. Despite the contentions of Queen Isabella, Columbus’ colonization of the Arawaks set the stage for slave trade, which lasted for centuries.
- 15. In 1937, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the second Monday in October a federal holiday to commemorate his ‘discovery’ of the Americas as persuaded by Christian American Italians in the U.S. On the other side of the coin, critics saw Columbus as the main person who wrecked the Arawak population and initiated slavery in the Americas. Many argued that he was not the first European to set foot in today’s America since the Vikings were ahead of him. In addition, he explored the Caribbean and not modern-day United States. Moreover, some states and cities in the U.S. created a counter celebration named as Indigenous Peoples’ Day which honors the contributions of Native Americans instead of Columbus Day.
- 16. 1. Columbus didn’t set out to prove the earth was round. 2. Three countries refused to back Columbus’ voyage. 3. The Santa Maria is called by its official name, its nickname was La Gallega, after the province of Galicia in which it was built. 4. Columbus was likely not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean. That distinction is generally given to the Norse Viking Leif Eriksson, who is believed to have landed in present- day Newfoundland around 1000 A.D., almost five centuries before Columbus set sail.
- 17. Thank you!