This was especially true for sailors , explorers and navigators. There was still , however , uncertainty regarding the world's size and circumference. Columbus greatly underestimated the size of the world. When trying to finance his expedition , he first approached the court of Portugal. He was rejected , in part because the king's experts , who had a fairly accurate idea of the world's size , doubted that anyone could survive the 19, km 10, nautical miles trip from Europe to East Asia.
By marrying , Ferdinand and Isabella had united the largest kingdoms of Spain and were ruling them together. Columbus spent the next 7 years lobbying the Spanish court , and in was finally successful. The monarchs agreed to help finance the expedition. Because Spain was financially drained from the campaign to conquer Granada , the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula , the Royal Treasurer had to shift funds among various royal accounts to get the money for Columbus' enterprise.
Only half the money came from Spain. Italian investors had already agreed to provide half the money. The Second voyage. On September 24 , , Admiral Columbus left from Cadiz , Spain for his second voyage , with 17 boats carrying supplies , and about men to assist in the subjugation of the native Americans and the colonization of the region. On November 3 , , Columbus sighted a rugged island that he named Dominica.
Sailing northwest he discovered and explored more than a dozen Caribbean islands before finally reaching Hispaniola and the site of the settlement he began. There he found that all the colonists had been killed and the fort burned.
Before he left Spain for his second voyage , he had been directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly , even loving , relations with the natives. However , during his second voyage he sent a letter to the monarchs proposing to enslave some of the native peoples , specifically the Caribs , on the grounds of their aggressiveness.
Although his petition was refused by the Crown , in February , Columbus captured Arawak , a peaceful tribe , as slaves. Some of them were shipped to Spain where after legal proceedings , the survivors were released and ordered to be shipped home. Some were kept by Columbus and his men as slaves , while the others were let go.
They fled into the hills , making , according to Columbus , prospects for their future capture dim. Rounding up the slaves led to the first major battle between the Spanish and the Indians in the New World.
The main objective of Columbus' journey had been gold. To further this goal , he imposed a system on natives in Haiti. All those above fourteen years of age had to find a certain quota of gold. Those who failed to reach their quota would have their hands chopped off. Despite such extreme measures , Columbus did not manage to obtain much gold. In his letters to the Spanish King and Queen , Columbus would repeatedly suggest slavery as a way to profit from the new colonies , but these suggestions were all rejected by the monarchs , who preferred to view the natives as future Christians.
The Third Voyage. Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of Trinidad on July He also explored a small part of the mainland of South America , including the Orinoco River. His fourth and final voyage to the Caribbean took place in Columbus never found China or India or the gold he was looking for, but he did manage to terrorize and enslave native islanders, turn his crews against him feeding them worm-infested biscuits will do that , and get stranded in Jamaica for a year after wrecking a four-boat fleet.
Christopher Columbus would die on May 20, In , President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared October 12 as Columbus Day, a federal day of observance that became a reality thanks to the influence of a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus. In , President Richard Nixon created the modern version of Columbus Day by declaring that it be observed on the second Monday of every October.
This was in an attempt to make uniform holidays that took place on Mondays to create more three-day weekends for Americans. That doesn't mean everyone is a fan of the holiday. Due to Columbus's malicious treatment of Native Americans and other indigenous people, many states and cities refuse to recognize Columbus Day, instead opting for Indigenous Peoples' Day, while others celebrate Leif Erikson Day to honor the traveling Norseman.
As the story goes, Christopher Columbus discovered America in But the truth is far more complex. BY Michele Debczak. Most people who went to elementary school in the United States know the name Christopher Columbus. How much was that worth? For comparison, the annual salary of a pilot who steered ships across the ocean was around 24, maravedis — that is, times less.
The monthly rent for a good house in Seville ranged between 1, and 2, maravedis. Another comparison: the wealthiest man in Spain at that time, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, had an annual income of 20 million maravedis. So, where does this false idea that Columbus was poor come from?
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