christopher columbus ships

For someone as famous (or infamous, depending on your view of history) as Christopher Columbus , you might think that we know all there is to know about his life. After all, researchers have been fascinated in his story ever since he “discovered” the Americas. But there is much about the man that has not been proven and so historians cannot definitively give you an answer about every detail. In fact, the earliest details of his life are some of the least understood, starting with where he was born. There are theories that connect him to a variety of regions, countries, and religions at birth. 500 years after he began crossing the Atlantic, we still don’t know which are true.   Traditionally, Columbus has been thought to be Italian. His birth name was allegedly Cristoforo Colombo. For people who subscribe to this theory, he was born in 1451 to Susanna Fontanarossa and Domenico Colombo who sold wool. They lived in the region of Liguria which was part of Northwest Italy....

Christopher Columbus , that Portuguese explorer who is credited with discovering America, is a person that elicits very different images depending on where you come from. To some, he is the very epitome of an intrepid explorer and a hero of the Spanish people, but to others, he is the person responsible for the decimation of the indigenous peoples of South America. So who is he? Early life According to International Inside , Columbus was born in the middle of the 15th Century to a wool merchant, Domenico Colombo, and his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa. He had brothers, Giovanni Pellegrino, Bartolomeo, and Giacomo and a sister named Bianchinetta. In his early life, he sailed with the Portuguese merchant marine until 1470. After being attacked by pirates, he gave up the sea, and he moved to Lisbon, where he studied astronomy, cartography, mathematics, and navigation. On completing his studies, he and his brother, Bartolomeo, worked as mapmakers until the...