christopher columbus ships

The problem with facts about Christopher Columbus is that there are less of them than you might imagine. Much of what you may have learned in school is being revised as historians continue to explore the life of this famous explorer. Even things as simple as his nationality are open for debate. We do know that Columbus successfully petitioned the king and queen of Spain to receive financing for a trip west across the Atlantic Ocean. It was already common knowledge that the Earth was round by this point, so there is no truth to the persistent rumor that Columbus proved the world is round. Instead, by using the shape of the Earth, Columbus assumed that he could reach India and their valuable spices, teas and cloth by sailing west. Voyages to India at this time required either a long overland trip across Europe and the Middle East or a long southern trip by ship around the southern tip of Africa. Both paths had their inherent dangers. The overland trip risked being attacked by

Though Christopher Columbus’s famed voyages are taught in most Western country classrooms and his impact on modern civilization is undeniable, it is often difficult to separate what we actually know about the man from what we think we know. For example, it is widely stated that Columbus was born in 1451 to a wool merchant family in the Republic of Genoa – which is now part of northern Italy. But Christopher Columbus left 536 pages of letters and documents in which he never once identified himself as being Genoan. Additionally, the letters he wrote to his brothers and to others were all written in Spanish or Latin, rather than in the native language of Genoa, Genoese. Some claim that Christopher Columbus was hiding his true heritage and identity. There have been recent studies that determined Columbus was actually Catalan and that he was concerned that the Spanish crown would seek revenge against him after he fought in the Catalan civil war which lasted from 1462 to 1

Christopher Columbus is forever linked with exploration and discovery but historians are focused more than ever with exploring and discovering the man himself more than the voyages he made across the Pacific. In 1492, Columbus set sail to find a new trade route with India. The Spanish monarchy financed the trip which has led some to believe that Columbus was Spanish. But Italy has claimed the explorer for their own in spite of the controversy around his “discovery” of the New World. But if you look around, you can find a number of theories linking Columbus to a large number of heritages, countries and religions. 500 years after his famous voyages, historians are still looking to understand where the man came from. Most everyone agrees that Columbus was born in 1451. It has long been accepted by a large number of academics and historians that Columbus was born in the Liguria region of what is currently the northwest part of Italy. In those days, Genoa was the capital of L

Christopher Columbus , the Italian explorer, who sailed under the auspices of the Spanish court, remains a controversial figure to this day. Here are five facts about this fascinating man. Fact #1 – Christopher Columbus was not his real name Scholars are unsure of precisely the year in which Columbus was born, and both 1450 and 1451 are acceptable. He was born in Genoa to a wool merchant and his wife and named Cristoforo Colombo. The name Christopher Columbus is an Anglicized version of his proper name. Fact #2 – He wrongly calculated the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan Columbus was determined to find a safe westward passage between Europe and Japan. He knew the earth was a sphere, and he calculated the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be approximately 2,300 miles. He used his calculations to approach several governments to fund an expedition to find this westward passage. Still, many of his contemporaries disagreed with his calc