Columbus ships and the discovery of America. What did Christopher Columbus discover? Discoveries of Christopher Columbus
The end of the 15th century was the beginning of the era of great geographical discoveries. The world known to Europeans began to expand rapidly, literally every year the contours of newly discovered lands - archipelagos, individual islands, straits - and even vast new continents were drawn on the maps of sailors. The date of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the first on this list.
This discovery was of tremendous importance for the development of not only European, but also planetary civilization, it irreversibly influenced the course of history. Columbus discovered America in 1492. But there is information, although often poorly substantiated, that Europeans - and not only - repeatedly visited this continent long before Columbus. It could be:
- ancient Romans;
- Japanese;
- sailors of ancient Egypt;
- Chinese, etc.
The most popular unconfirmed hypothesis is the multiple contact with South America. Ancient egypt... It was promoted by famous traveler XX century Thor Heyerdahl, who was an adherent of this idea.
To experimentally prove the possibility of swimming in ancient times through Atlantic Ocean, it was reconstructed according to old Egyptian drawings papyrus boat, on which the traveler repeated the supposed route of the ancient Egyptian sailors.
In addition, the results of some chemical analyzes of Egyptian mummies showed the presence in their composition of elements of coca and tobacco, which grow only in South America. But repeated studies have not yet confirmed this.
Adherents of pre-Columbian contacts with America, China and Africa, also have their own arguments. Their main proof is the stone sculptures "Olmec heads", which have pronounced Negroid features, which may indicate their African origin.
But even if all this turns out to be someday true, such contacts were local and, most likely, did not have the consequences of a civilizational scale, therefore, the memory of them faded away in the mists of time. It is reliably known only about repeated voyages to the shores North America Vikings at the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia, as well as, possibly, mutual travels to each other of the aborigines of America and Polynesia.
The real history of the discovery of America began only at the end of the 15th century. Christopher Columbus, a Spanish navigator of Genoese origin, decided to put into practice the idea of reaching India, trade with which was intensively developing, making a voyage to it from east to west, and not, as usual, from west to east around Africa. This would significantly reduce the length of the trade route. The project was based on the idea of the sphericity of the Earth.
But he was able to make the first attempt to lay this trade route only several decades after he first heard of such an opportunity from the geographer and astronomer Toscanelli in 1470. Having no funds of his own to organize an expedition, Columbus was forced to seek help from merchants or rulers. It took a long time to get it.
An attempt to interest in such an expedition in 1775 the merchants and rulers of Genoa ended in failure. It was denied assistance to the plans of Columbus and at the court of the Portuguese king João II.
And only the third attempt was successful: after several years of studying all the pros and cons of the upcoming enterprise, Columbus's project was supported at the Spanish court. Columbus, in addition to financial support for his expedition, in case of success, should have received the title of admiral, as well as the status of a nobleman and viceroy of all the lands opened to him.
Columbus made four voyages to the shores of America:
- the first, in 1492−1493;
- the second, completed in 1496;
- the third, 1498-1500;
- the fourth, which lasted from 1502 to 1504.
The flotilla, which set off in search of a short route to India on August 3, 1492 from the port of Palos, consisted of three ships: the caravel "Santa Maria", "Pinta", "Niña". Not knowing the true size of the globe, the navigator did not suspect what a long way he would have to sail if a new part of the world did not exist between Europe and Asia - a continent unknown to Europeans.
Therefore, when a few weeks later the sailors, having long passed the Canary Islands, still saw only the boundless ocean ahead of them, a murmur began, demands appeared to return to Spain. But the captain managed to convince the dissatisfied to continue sailing, promising a big reward to the one who first sees the land.
Finally, on October 12, more than two months after leaving Spain, the watchman noticed land on the horizon. It was one of the islands of the Bahamas archipelago, named by Columbus after the landing on it by San Salvador. Then Cuba and Haiti were discovered, after which in March, having lost the crashed on the reef "Santa Maria" The expedition returned home.
The navigator was convinced that he had sailed to India. The return was triumphant. Columbus received the promised titles.
Columbus made his second voyage across the Atlantic with the rank of admiral, commanding a flotilla of seventeen ships. The expedition lasted almost three years. This time the Spaniards discovered the Virgin and Windward Islands, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, and for the first time reached continental America in the area later named after its discoverer - Colombia. During this trip on the island of Jamaica, Columbus first embarked on an expedition deep into the newly discovered territories in search of gold.
The third expedition, which took place in 1498-1500, involved 6 ships. The coast was discovered South America in the region of the Orinoco River and several nearby islands.
Having survived arrest on denunciation in 1500 and freed himself, Columbus set off in 1502 on his last journey. A flotilla of four ships surveyed the east coast of the Isthmus of Central America. After being wrecked off the coast of Jamaica in 1503, the expedition was able to return to Spain only in November 1504.
The navigator died sick and in poverty in 1506, never knowing that the lands he discovered were part of two previously unknown new continents, later called North and South America. He died believing that he had opened a new path to India.
The news of the previously unknown lands in the west of the Atlantic Ocean, discovered by the Genoese Christopher Columbus, quickly spread throughout Europe, causing the appearance of his followers. The most famous of these is Amerigo Vespucci... Having visited the coast of America in 1501-1502, he was the first to conclude that the Genoese did not find the east coast of India, but discovered a completely unknown continent. After the first trip around the world undertaken by F. Magellan, this idea received irrefutable confirmation. His findings later became the basis for the creation new card world, on which a new continent appeared, later called America.
Nowadays, the day of the discovery of America by Columbus is celebrated in many countries of the American continent, in the USA it is a day off. Although not all residents of the New World consider this event a blessing, for many indigenous peoples of the mainland it turned into genocide.
The discovery of America for Europe by Christopher Columbus in 1492 is a milestone in the history of mankind. The appearance on the geographical map of a new continent changed the idea of people about the planet Earth, forced them to comprehend its vastness, the countless possibilities of knowing the world and oneself in it. , the brightest page of which - the discovery of America, gave a powerful impetus to the development of European science, art, culture, the creation of new productive forces, the establishment of new production relations, which ultimately accelerated the replacement of feudalism with a new, more progressive socio-economic system - capitalism
America's Discovery - 1492
The first discovery of America by the Normans
The sailing of the Normans to the shores of North America was unthinkable without their justification in Iceland. But the first Europeans to visit Iceland were Irish monks. Their acquaintance with the island took place around the second half of the 8th century.
“30 years ago (that is, no later than 795), several clerics who were on this island from February 1 to August 1, informed me that there, not only during the summer solstice, but also in the preceding and subsequent days, the setting sun seemed to be only hides behind a small hill, so that it is not dark there even for the shortest time ... and you can do any kind of work ... If the clerics lived on the high mountains of this island, the sun might not be hidden from them at all ... While they are there lived, days always gave way to nights, except for the summer solstice; however, at a distance of one day's journey further north, they found a frozen sea. "
About 100 years later, a Viking ship accidentally hit the shores of Iceland
“They say that people from Norway were going to sail to the Faroes…. However, they were carried west into the sea, and there they found more land. Entering the eastern fjords, they climbed high mountain and looked around to see if they could see smoke somewhere or any other signs that this land was inhabited, but did not notice anything. In the fall, they returned to the Faroe Islands. When they left for the sea, there was already a lot of snow on the mountains. Therefore, they called this country the Snow Land "
Over the years, a large number of Norwegians moved to Iceland. By 930, there were about 25 thousand people on the island. Iceland became the starting point for further travels of the Normans to the West. In 982-983, Eirik Turvaldson, who became Eric the Red in the Russian tradition, discovered Greenland. In the summer of 986, Bjarni Herulfson, sailing from Iceland to the Greenland Viking settlement, went astray and found land to the south. In the spring of 1004, the son of Eric the Red Leave Happy, who discovered the Cumberland Peninsula (south of Baffin Island), the eastern coast of the Labrador Peninsula and the northern coast of Newfoundland, followed in his footsteps. The northeastern shores of North America were then more than once visited by Viking expeditions, but in Norway and Denmark they were not considered important, since they were not very attractive by natural conditions.
Prerequisites for the discovery of America by Columbus
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the fall of Byzantium under the blows of the Ottoman Turks, the birth of the Ottoman Empire in the east of the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor led to the termination of overland trade relations along the Great Silk Road with the countries of the East
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the critical need of Europe for the spices of India and Indochina, which were used not so much in cooking as as a hygiene item, for the manufacture of incense. After all, Europeans washed themselves in the Middle Ages rarely and reluctantly, and quintal (a measure of weight, 100 pounds) of pepper in Calicut or Hormuz cost ten times less than in Alexandria.
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misconception of medieval geographers about the size of the earth. It was believed that the Earth evenly consists of land - the giant continent of Eurasia with an appendage of Africa - and the ocean; that is, the sea distance between the extreme western point of Europe and the extreme eastern point of Asia did not exceed several thousand kilometers
Short biography of Christopher Columbus
Born in Genoa in 1451. He was the firstborn in a large family of a weaver. Participated in the production and trade enterprises of his father. In 1476 he settled in Portugal by chance. He married Felipe Moniz Perestrello, whose father and grandfather were actively involved in the activities of Heinrich the Navigator. He settled on the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago. Was admitted to family archives, sea voyage reports, geographic maps and directions. Frequently visited the harbor of the island of Porto Santo
“In which nimble fishing boats scurried and ships anchored from Lisbon to Madeira and from Madeira to Lisbon. The helmsmen and sailors of these ships whiled away long hours of stay in the port tavern, and Columbus had long and useful conversations with them ... (I learned from) experienced people about their voyages in the Sea-Ocean. A certain Martin Visente told Columbus that 450 leagues (2,700 kilometers) west of Cape San Vicente, he picked up a piece of wood in the sea, processed, and at the same time very skillfully, with some tool, clearly not iron. Other sailors met boats with huts beyond the Azores, and these boats did not capsize even on a large wave. We saw huge pines near the Azores coast, these dead trees were brought by the sea at a time when strong westerly winds blew. Sailors came across the corpses of broad-faced people of "non-Christian" appearance on the shores of the Azores island of Fayal. Someone Antonio Leme, "married to a woman from Madeira," - told Columbus that, having traveled a hundred leagues to the west, he came across three unknown islands at sea "(J. Light" Columbus ")
He studied, analyzed contemporary works on geography, navigation, travel notes travelers, treatises of Arab scholars and ancient authors, and gradually drew up a plan to reach the rich countries of the East by the western sea route.
The main sources of knowledge on the issue of interest were five books for Columbus
- Historia Rerum Gestarum by Aeneas Silvia Piccolomini
- "Imago Mundi" by Pierre d'Ailly
- "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder
- "The Book" by Marco Polo
- "Parallel Lives" of Plutarch
1492, April 30 - the royal couple approved the certificate of granting Columbus the titles of Admiral of the Ocean-Sea and Viceroy of all lands, which will be opened to them in the voyage of the named Ocean-Sea. Titles complained forever "from heir to heir", at the same time Columbus was elevated to the rank of nobility and could "call and title himself Don Christopher Columbus", had to receive a tenth and an eighth share of the profits from trade with these lands, had the right to sort out all litigations. The city of Palos was approved as the center for the preparation of the expedition
“He talked heart to heart with the inhabitants of Palos and said everywhere that the expedition needed brave and experienced sailors and that its participants would receive great benefits. “Friends, go there, and we will go on this trip all together; you will leave the poor, but if with God's help we will be able to open the land to us, then, having acquired it, we will return with gold bars, and we will all get rich, and we will get a big profit. " Soon volunteers were drawn to the harbor of Palos, wishing to take part in a voyage to the shores of an unknown land "
Columbus ships
Discovery of America. Briefly
- 1492, September 16 - Columbus's Diary: "They began to notice many tufts of green grass, and, as could be judged by its appearance, this grass was only recently torn off the ground."
- 1492, September 17 - Diary of Columbus: Canary Islands there was not so little salt water in the sea. "
- 1492, September 19 - Columbus's Diary: “At 10 o'clock a dove flew into the ship. In the evening we saw another one. "
- 1492, September 21 - Columbus's Diary: “We saw a whale. A sign of land because whales swim close to the shore. "
- 1492, September 23 - Columbus's Diary: "Since the sea was calm and warm, people began to murmur, saying that the sea is strange here, and the winds that would help them return to Spain would never blow."
- 1492, September 25 - Columbus's Diary: “The earth appeared. He ordered to go in that direction. "
- 1492, September 26 - Columbus's Diary: "What we took for earth turned out to be heaven."
- 1492, September 29 - Diary of Columbus: "Sailed our way to the West."
- 1492, September 13 - Columbus noticed that the compass needle was not pointing to Polar Star, and 5-6 degrees northwest.
- 1492, October 11 - Columbus's Diary: “We sailed to the west-south-west. During the whole time of the voyage, there has never been such excitement at sea. We saw "pardelas" and green reeds near the ship. People from the "Pinta" caravel noticed a reed and a branch and fished out a hewn, possibly iron, stick and a piece of reed and other herbs that would be born on earth, and one tablet
1492, October 12 - America is discovered. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when the shout "Earth, earth !!!" and a bombard shot. In the moonlight, the outline of the coast appeared. In the morning the boats were lowered from the ships. Columbus with both Pinsons, a notary, a translator, a royal controller, landed on the beach. “The island is very large and very flat and there are a lot of green trees and water, and in the middle there is big lake... There are no mountains, "wrote Columbus. The Indians called the island Guanahani. Columbus designated it San Salvador, now Watling Island, part of the Bahamas archipelago
- 1492, October 28 - Columbus discovered the island of Cuba
- 1492, December 6 - Columbus approached the big island called by the Borgio Indians. Along its coast "the most beautiful valleys stretch, very similar to the lands of Castilla," the admiral wrote in his diary. apparently that is why he named the island of Hispaniola, now - Haiti
- 1492, 25 December - "Santa Maria" crashed into reefs off the coast of Haiti. The Indians helped to remove valuable cargo, guns and supplies from the ship, but the ship could not be saved
- 1493, January 4 - Columbus set off on the return journey. He had to sail back on the smallest ship of the expedition "Niñe", leaving part of the crew on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti), since even earlier the third ship "Pinta" separated from the expedition, and "Santa Maria" ran aground. Two days later, both surviving ships met, but on February 14, 1493 they parted in a storm.
- 1493, March 15 - Columbus returned to Palos on "Ninya", with the same tide the "Pinta" entered the harbor of Palos
Columbus made three more voyages to the shores of the New World, discovered islands and archipelagos, bays, bays and straits, founded forts and cities, but he never knew that he had found a way not to India, but to a completely unknown world for Europe.
Expeditions of Christopher Columbus
1st expedition
The first expedition of Christopher Columbus (1492-1493) of 91 people on the ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta", "Ninya" left Palos on August 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands (September 9), crossed the Atlantic Ocean to subtropical belt and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, where Christopher Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 ( official date discoveries of America). On October 14-24, Christopher Columbus visited a number of other Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5, he discovered and surveyed a section of the northeastern coast of Cuba. On December 6, Columbus reached Fr. Haiti and moved along its northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on the reef, but people escaped. Columbus on the ship "Ninya" 4-16 January 1493 completed the survey of the northern coast of Haiti and 15 March returned to Castile.
2nd expedition
The 2nd expedition (1493-1496), which Christopher Columbus led already in the rank of admiral, and in the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of over 1.5 thousand people. On November 3, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, turning to the Northwest - about 20 more Lesser Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands, and on November 19 - the island of Puerto Rico and approached the northern coast of Haiti. On March 12-29, 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, made an aggressive campaign into Haiti, and he crossed the Cordillera Central ridge. On April 29-May 3, Columbus with 3 ships sailed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, turned from Cape Cruz to the South and on May 5 opened about. Jamaica. Returning on May 15 to Cape Cruz, Columbus walked along the southern coast of Cuba to 84 ° West longitude, discovered the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, the Zapata peninsula and the island of Pinos. On June 24, Christopher Columbus turned east and surveyed the entire southern coast of Haiti from August 19 to September 15. In 1495, Christopher Columbus continued the conquest of Haiti; On March 10, 1496 he left the island and on June 11 he returned to Castile.
3rd expedition
The 3rd expedition (1498-1500) consisted of 6 ships, 3 of which Christopher Columbus himself led across the Atlantic Ocean near 10 ° north latitude. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco delta and the Paria peninsula, initiating the discovery of South America. Having then left for the Caribbean Sea, Christopher Columbus approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered the island of Margarita on August 15 and arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti) on August 31. In 1500, Christopher Columbus was arrested on a denunciation and sent to Castile, where he was released.
4th expedition
4th expedition (1502-1504). Having obtained permission to continue searching for a western route to India, Columbus with 4 ships reached Martinique Island on June 15, 1502, on July 30, the Gulf of Honduras, and opened from August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503 the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to the Uraba Bay. Turning then to the North, June 25, 1503 crashed off the island of Jamaica; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Christopher Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504.
Facts
Hypotheses
In addition, hypotheses were put forward about the visit to America and contact with its civilization by seafarers before Columbus, representing various civilizations of the Old World (for more details, see Contacts with America before Columbus). Here are just a few of these hypothetical contacts:
- in the 5th century - Hui Shen (Taiwanese monk)
- in the VI century - St. Brendan (Irish monk)
- there are versions according to which at least from the 13th century America was known to the Knights Templar
- OK. - Henry Sinclair (de Saint-Clair), Earl of Orkney (c. 1345 - c. 1400)
- in Zheng He (Chinese researcher)
- in the city - Juan Corterial (Portuguese)
Notes (edit)
Literature
- Magidovich I.P. The history of the discovery and exploration of North America. - M .: Geografgiz, 1962.
- Magidovich I.P. The history of the discovery and exploration of Central and South America. - M .: Thought, 1963.
- John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. The book of common delusions. - Phantom Press, 2009.
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See what the "Discovery of America" is in other dictionaries:
Discovery of America by the expedition of Christopher Columbus- Columbus's expedition began on August 3, 1492, when the ships Santa Maria, Pinta and Ninha left the bay of the Spanish city of Palos de la Frontera. On September 16, 1492, bunches of green began to appear on the way of the expedition ... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers
Salvador Dali Discovery of America by the effort of sleep by Christopher Columbus, 1958 1959 Oil on canvas. 410 × 284 cm Moose ... Wikipedia
Discovery of America and Spanish conquests- In the spring of 1492, the Spaniards took Granada the last stronghold of the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula, and on August 3 of the same year, three caravels of Christopher Columbus set out on a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from the Spanish port of Paloe with the aim of opening ... ... The World History... Encyclopedia
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Christopher Columbus. The Discovery Genre Drama Director John Glen Starring Marlon Brando Tom Selleck Duration 122 min ... Wikipedia
An invention, a find. Discovery of America, invention of gunpowder. Finding ... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999. discovery, invention, find, know-how, patent; finding; Start … Synonym dictionary
Opening- Discovery ♦ Découverte To make a discovery means to make explicit what already existed (as opposed to an invention) but was unknown. Such are the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the law of universal gravitation by Newton. Concept ... ... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
OPENING- - identification of natural things, phenomena, patterns, etc., really existing in nature, but not known before (the discovery of America, the periodicity of elements, mineral deposits, etc.), which is dominated by internal ... ... Philosophy of Science and Technology: Thematic Dictionary
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This term has other meanings, see Discovery (disambiguation). Opening of Mass Effect: Revelation Cover of the Russian edition of the book Author ... Wikipedia
Books
- Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America, D. Winsor. Illustrated historical and critical research, translated from English by F.I.Bulgakov. The book contains information about the sources, about the ancestors and homeland of Columbus, his life in Portugal and ...
Christopher Columbus is the discoverer of South and Central America. Columbus expeditions.
Christopher Columbus biography
1 expedition. Discovery of America by Columbus in 1492
- The first expedition Christopher Columbus assembled from three ships - "Santa Maria" (a three-masted flagship 25 m long, with a displacement of 120 tons, the captain of the Columbus ship), the "Pinta" caravel (captain - Martin Alonso Pinson) and "Niña" (captain - Vicente Janes Pinson) with a displacement of 55 tons and 87 people of the expedition.
The flotilla left Palos on August 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea and reached an island in the Bahamas archipelago (the sailor of the "Pinta" Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see American land October 12, 1492). Columbus landed on the shore, which the locals call Guanahani, hoisted a banner on it, announced open land property of the Spanish king and formally took possession of the island. The island is named after him San Salvador.
For a long time(1940 -1982) Watling Island was considered San Salvador. However, our contemporary American geographer George Judge processed all the collected materials on a computer in 1986 and came to the conclusion: the first American land seen by Columbus was Samana Island (120 km southeast of Watling).
On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamas, and on October 28 - December 5, he discovered part of the northeastern coast of Cuba. December 6 reached the island of Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on the reef, but the crew escaped. For the first time in the history of navigation, by order of Columbus, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor bunks.
Columbus on "Niña" on March 15, 1493 returned to Castile. From America, Columbus brought seven captive American natives, who were nicknamed Indians in Europe, as well as some gold and plants and fruits unseen in the Old World, including an annual plant corn (in Haiti it is called maize), tomatoes, peppers, tobacco (“ dry leaves, which were especially appreciated by the locals "), pineapples, cocoa and potatoes (because of their beautiful pink and white flowers). The political resonance of Columbus's voyage was the "papal meridian": the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the rivals of Spain and Portugal for discovering new lands.The first landing of Christopher Columbus on the shores of the New World: in San Salvador, Wisconsin, October 12, 1492.
Author of the painting: Spanish artist Tolin Puebla, Theophilus Dioscoro Dioscoro Teofilo Puebla Tolin (1831-1901)
Publisher: American firm Currier and Ives (prints, lithographs, popular prints), published 1892.
2 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1493 - 1496)
- The second expedition (1493-96), led by Admiral Columbus, in the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On November 3-15, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and about 20 Lesser Antilles, on November 19, the island of Puerto Rico. In March 1494, in search of gold, he made a military campaign deep into the island of Haiti, in the summer he opened the southeastern and south coast Cuba, Juventud Islands and Jamaica. For 40 days, Columbus explored the southern coast of Haiti, the conquest of which he continued in 1495. But in the spring of 1496 he sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile. Columbus announced the opening of a new route to Asia. The colonization of new lands by free settlers, which began soon, cost the Spanish crown very dearly, and Columbus proposed that the islands be populated by criminals, halving their sentence. With fire and sword, plundering and destroying the country of ancient culture, military detachments of Cortes marched through the land of the Aztecs - Mexico, the troops of Pizarro - across the land of the Incas - Peru.
3 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1498 - 1499)
- The third expedition (1498-99) consisted of six ships, three of which Columbus himself led across the Atlantic. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco Delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Out into the Caribbean, he approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered Margarita Island on August 15, and arrived in Haiti on August 31. In 1500, on a denunciation, Christopher Columbus was arrested and, shackled (which he then kept all his life), was sent to Castile, where he was awaited by his release.
4 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1502 - 1504)
The question of who discovered America usually does not raise many questions. But bad luck - when? Earlier I, for example, simply assumed that somewhere in the middle of the last millennium. It's a shame ... Such things, of course, you need to know. In this story I will discuss this. :)
When America was discovered
The discovery of America by Europeans can be considered literally the most significant event in history. After all, after that, a huge number of Europeans rushed to the new continent, as a result of which success in trade was ensured for many years. After all, on this mainland there were many useful natural resources.
And now a few numbers - 1492. This year is the official year of the discovery of America. And this great event happened quite by accident, because Christopher Columbus was going to get to India in this way. He studied geography almost all his life and was going to find a western route to India, he believed that it could be much shorter than the eastern one.
Few know, but the travels and discoveries of Columbus did not end there. From 1493, he led several more expeditions, during which many nearby islands were discovered, for example.
However, at that time it was not yet clear where the sailors ended up. There were versions that this is the eastern coast of India. Some have argued that it is. And only Amerigo Vespucci, having explored the coast of Brazil, came to an unambiguous conclusion - this is a new continent. It was in honor of him that this continent was named, although it was not he who discovered it at all.
I have prepared a small selection interesting facts about the discovery of America:
- Few know that Columbus barely managed to get permission to travel across the ocean. He decided to arrange an expedition back in 1485.
- On the ships of the Columbus expedition were not sailors, but all kinds of rabble. Ordinary sailors and residents of Spain did not want to go on a voyage across the ocean, no one knew how it would turn out. Columbus had to recruit a team of criminals in prison.
- Columbus had three small ships on which to travel across the ocean was a real suicide. But Columbus apparently drank champagne, as they say. :)