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Christopher Columbus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the explorer. For other uses, see Christopher Columbus (disambiguation).
| Christopher Columbus | |
|---|---|
Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo. There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus.[1] | |
| Born | Between 22 August and 31 October 1451 Genoa, Republic of Genoa, in present-day Italy |
| Died | 20 May 1506 (aged 54) Valladolid, Crown of Castile, in present-day Spain |
| Nationality | Genoese |
| Other names | Italian: Cristoforo Colombo Catalan: Cristòfor Colom Spanish: Cristóbal Colón Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo Latin: Christophorus Columbus Genoese: Christoffa Corombo |
| Occupation | Maritime explorer for the Crown of Castile |
| Title | Admiral of the Ocean Sea; Viceroy and Governor of the Indies |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Spouse | Filipa Moniz Perestrelo (c. 1455–85) |
| Partner | Beatriz Enríquez de Arana (c. 1485–1506) |
| Children | Diego Fernando |
| Relatives | Giovanni Pellegrino, Giacomo and Bartholomew Columbus (brothers) |
| Signature |  |
In the 15th century people knew only 3 continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. They knew nothing about America. The man who was thought to be the discoverier of America was born in 1451 in Italy. His name was Cristopher Columbus.
Knowing that the earth was round he desided to reach India by sailing to the west. It was very difficult for him to organize an expedition as nobody wanted to help him. At last the Spanish government gave him some money. In the 1492 he sailed with 3 small ships in to the Atlantic ocean. They had been sailing for more than 2 months and at last they saw land. Columbus was certain that the lands he discoveried were part of India and he called these islands "The West Indias". He made 3 voyagers to America. His last voyage was made in 1502-1504. After that, seriously ill, he remained in Spain until his death. He died believing that Cuba was part of Asia. Colum-buse’s voyagers gave Europe first important knowledge of the new world. Many places have been named in his honour. America however was named after another explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
Americus Vespucius (or Amerigo Vespucci, as the name is spelled in Italian) was born in Florence, Italy, in 1454. He was in Spain at the time of Columbus' first and second voyages. In a letter, written in 1504 and printed in 1505, he claimed to have made four voyages, on the first of which, in 1497, he explored the South American coast. This would make him the first European to land on the American continent, for at that time Columbus had only reached the outlying islands. Most scholars reject Vespucius' version of this voyage. Vespucius perhaps did accompany a Spanish expedition that of Alonzo de Ojeda to South America in 1499, and in 1501 and 1503 he probably went with Portuguese expeditions. Probably he never commanded an expedition himself and, of course, was not the first person to set foot on the continents to which his name is given. Vespucius died in Seville, Spain, in 1512.
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