Christopher Columbus's Story of Life - Term Paper Example

 (CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, n. d) Christopher Columbus is famous because of his discovery of American continent. He was lived in the 15 th century. Apart from the discovery of America, Columbus was known for his contributions as a navigator, colonizer and an explorer. In fact he has spent a substantial period of his life in sailing from places to places. America is observing Columbus Day on every 12 October in each year in order to mark their respect towards his contributions to the Americans, even though he was a person of Italian origin. Even after five centuries after the death of Columbus we still do not have many ideas about the life and contributions of Columbus. Columbus remains as a controversial figure still since we don’t have many ideas about his exact date of his birth, the exact reasons for the voyages, the exact number of places he has discovered etc. But we know one thing that Christopher Columbus was one among the greatest mariners of all time in history. He was the first European to travel to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This paper briefly analyses the history Christopher Columbus and his contributions to the modern world. Early days of Columbus Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. Even though the exact date of his birth is still unknown, it is believed that he was born between 25 August and 31 October 1451. He was the oldest of five children in his family and his father was believed to be a wool weaver. Columbus was eager in helping his father in his wool weaving profession, but he was more interested in sailing from childhood itself (Christopher Columbus, n. d). Even though the family of Columbus was a respected one, because of lack of resources or wealth, Columbus has got little school education which prevented him from learning more about the sea he loved so much. But he has learned Spanish and Latin in order to know more about the geography of the world as most of the books published during his days were in Spanish and Latin languages. Sailing was one of the favorite hobbies of the Genoese and naturally Columbus has developed interest in sailing even from childhood. Moreover, Marco polo’s journey of Asia inspired him a lot and he decided to explore the world during his childhood itself. Some historians believe that Columbus has made his first journey to sea at the age of 10. “He is also supposed to have sailed as far south as the coast of Guinea before he was sixteen years of age. Certain it is that while quite young he became a thorough and practical navigator” (Knight, 2009) The expeditions of Columbus Before the beginning of expeditions, he arrived in Portugal in the 1470’s, anticipating that the Portuguese King may help him with ships and crews in his efforts to find gold mines in the Asian region. He tried to convince King John of Portugal to pay for supplies, ships, and a crew to make the voyage to Marco Polo’s amazing gold mine (Columbus, 2000). But he failed to convince the King, as the King thought that because of his inexperience he may fail to achieve the objectives of the expedition. The King believed that Columbus’ knowledge of the world was too little to give him assistance for his world expedition efforts. Many people are of the opinion that the King was right since Columbus had little knowledge about the size of the world at that time. Columbus has realized that the Portuguese King may not help him and there is no point in staying in Portugal further and he went to Spain in 1485, anticipating helps from the Spanish King. Even though the Portuguese King denied the assistance, Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando were convinced by the arguments and claims of Columbus and supplied him with some ships and crewmen along with other necessary goods needed for the sea journey in 1492. Columbus was decided to find the westward way to Asia. But he miscalculated that there was only one sea which connects the Europe and Asia. Moreover, they also misinterpreted Atlantic Ocean as Ocean Sea. In this journey they have spotted a land and named it as San Salvador. Columbus thought that place as an island near Japan. But actually that place was Bahamas south of Florida (Columbus, 2000). Instead of gold, Columbus and his colleagues found some Indians with little clothing and unusual traditions in the place they landed. These tribal people were cannibals and Columbus and his colleagues were able to resist the challenges raised by these uncivilized people. Columbus has realized that the place they landed were not the one they were looking for, after watching the tribal people there. But he never thought it was some American islands. He thought he was succeeded in reaching Asia and he never realized that the places he landed were the American islands. Even though they were succeeded in discovering many islands, all of them were the West Indies islands with the tribal Indians. The King was pleased by his efforts after receiving news about his discoveries of islands with strange people and made him the governor of those islands. Moreover the King has also complemented him with the award of “Admiral of the Ocean Seas” because of his brave efforts in Ocean Sea (Columbus was actually sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, but they thought that sea was Ocean sea). Columbus has made as many as four attempts to travel to Asia in his search of gold, but again and again he landed in the same West Indies Islands. The first expedition which was resulted in the discovery of San Salvador was started on 3 August, 1492. The second trip was a more comprehensive one which started on 25 September 1493. He has made use of 17 ships and 1200-1500 crewmen in this expedition. The third expedition started on 30 May, 1498 and the fourth voyage was on 2 April 1502 (Knight, 2009). During the third expedition nobody came forward to help him after watching the failures of the initial two expeditions. But Columbus was able to arrange six vessels and some crewmen for his assistance for the third expedition. The forth expedition was believed to be the most dangerous one because of dangerous climatic conditions. Severe storm and rain put their life in danger, but they managed to escape from death utilizing their experiences in the previous journeys. Even though he failed to reach Asia or United Sates, he was succeeded in coming to a place around 90 miles closer to Florida. He has reached the Island of Madeira, Gomera, Haiti, Cape Verde Islands etc during his third expedition. Columbus did all his journeys without the assistance of even a compass needle. Still he was able to locate the directions without many problems. Columbus had no intention to reach America. But the destiny led him to America. He was actually looking for a shorter route to the Far East in search of valuable silks, gold and spices. Some people argue that Columbus was actually trying to prove that the world is round in shape. But considering other evidences, most of the people of that time were aware of the fact that the world is round in shape. So Columbus also should have that information and there are no substantial evidences to prove the above claim. Some others believe that being a Christian, Columbus was actually trying to spread Christianity across the world through his expeditions. These people portrayed Columbus as a highly religious person. But analyzing the available evidences, it is clear that Columbus was a person who was looking for wealth and fame. Columbus was died on 20 May 1506. His latter periods were not so good. The Spanish King, who made him the governor of the islands he discovered, developed some illusions and jealousy. Moreover, Columbus asked the King at least 10% of the wealth he discovered in the new islands which forced the King to put Columbus in prison for few years. But the king realized his mistake later and released him from prison. Conclusions Controversies surrounding Christopher Columbus have not over yet even after five centuries from his death. But nobody has any doubt about the abilities of Columbus as one of the all time greatest sailors in the history. Even though Columbus filed in his declared mission of reaching Far East or Asia, he succeeded in discovering one of the prominent continents of the modern world, America. Columbus has made as many as four attempts to reach Asia, but on all four occasions he has reached some American islands in which the tribal Indians were staying. Even though, technology has developed a lot, still many sailors are losing their ways in ocean, but Christopher Columbus was able to sail successfully on four occasions even without a compass needle. In short, whatever the claims and controversies surrounding Christopher Columbus, we can safely say that Columbus has rewritten the history of sailing. References 1. Columbus, (2000), Retrieved on 17 July 2010 from http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/columbus.htm 2. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, (n. d), Retrieved on 17 July 2010 from http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdcolum.htm 3. Christopher Columbus: Explorer,(2010), Retrieved on 17 July 2010 from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/c/columbus.shtml 4. Knight K (2009), Christopher Columbus, Retrieved on 17 July 2010 from http://www.newadvent.org/adverts/99001f.htm Read More