Christopher Columbus (redirected from Admiral of the Ocean Sea)

Columbus, Christopher 

(Italian, Cristoforo Colombo; Spanish, Cristóbal Colón). Born 1451 in Genoa; died May 20, 1506, in Valladolid. Navigator, of Genoese parentage.

From 1476 to 1484, Columbus lived in Lisbon and on Portugal’s Madeira and Porto Santo islands. Relying on the classical theory of the earth’s sphericity and on incorrect calculations by 15th-century scientists, Columbus drew up a plan of a western sea route from Europe to India, which he believed would be shorter than existing routes. In 1485, after the Portuguese king rejected his plan, Columbus moved to Castile, where, with the support mainly of Andalusian merchants and bankers, he was able to get a government oceanic expedition organized under his command.

The first expedition (1492–93), consisting of 90 men on the vessels Santa María, Pinta, and Niña, sailed from Palos on Aug. 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands on September 9, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamian archipelago, where Columbus landed on Oct. 12, 1492 (the official date of the discovery of America). From October 14 to October 24, Columbus visited a number of other Bahamian islands, and from October 28 to December 5 he discovered and explored a section of the northeastern coast of Cuba. On December 6, Columbus reached the island of Hispaniola and moved along its northern shore. On the night of December 25 the flagship Santa María ran aground on a reef, but the crew was saved. Columbus completed the exploration of the northern shore of Hispaniola on the Niña from January 4 to January 16 and on Mar. 15, 1493, returned to Castile.

The second expedition (1493–96), which Columbus headed with the rank of admiral and as viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 vessels with a crew of more than 1,500. On Nov. 3, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe and, after turning northwest, about 20 islands of the Lesser Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands; on November 19 he discovered the island of Puerto Rico and approached the northern shore of Hispaniola. On Mar. 12, 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, began a conquest of the interior and crossed the Cordillera Central, returning on March 29. From April 29 to May 3, Columbus, with three vessels, moved along the southeastern shore of Cuba, turned south from Cabo Cruz, and on May 5 discovered the island of Jamaica. Returning on May 15 to Cabo Cruz, Columbus sailed along Cuba’s southern coast to 84° W long, and sighted the archipelago of Jardines de la Reina, the Península de Zapata, and the Isla de Pinos. On June 24, Columbus turned east and between August 19 and September 15 explored the entire southern shore of Hispaniola. In 1495, Columbus continued the conquest of Hispaniola; on Mar. 10, 1496, he left the island and on June 11 arrived back at Castile.

The third expedition (1498–1500) consisted of six vessels, three of which Columbus himself conducted across the Atlantic Ocean near 10° N lat. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, and sighted Paria Peninsula and the delta of the Orinoco River and the mouth of its western arm. This marked the discovery of South America. Sailing on into the Caribbean Sea, Columbus approached the Punta de Araya, discovered the Isla de Margarita on August 15, and arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on Hispaniola) on August 31. In 1500 he was denounced, arrested, and sent to Castile, where he was freed.

The fourth expedition (1502–04) set out after Columbus secured permission to continue the search for a western route to India. With four vessels he reached the island of Martinique on June 15, 1502, and the Gulf of Honduras on July 30. Between August 1, 1502, and May 1, 1503, he explored the Caribbean shores of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama to the Gulf of Urabá. After Columbus then turned north, his vessels were wrecked at Jamaica on June 25, 1503; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Columbus returned to Castile on Nov. 7, 1504.

Columbus’ discoveries were accompanied by colonization of the islands, the founding of Spanish settlements, and the enslavement and extermination of the indigenous population, whom he called Indians.

Columbus’ priority in the discovery of America has been debated in scholarly literature. It has been established that Vikings visited islands and coastal areas of northern and northeastern North America hundreds of years before Columbus; it has not been ruled out that Europeans and inhabitants of Africa accidentally reached the shores of tropical America. However, only Columbus’ discoveries were of worldwide significance, since it was only after his voyages that the American lands became part of geographic concepts. Columbus’ discoveries contributed to a revision of the medieval world view and to the appearance of colonial empires.

REFERENCES

Puteshestviia Khristofora Kolumba: Dnevniki, pis’ma, dokumenty. Moscow, 1961. (Translated from Spanish.)
Magidovich, I. P. Istoriia otkrytiia i issledovaniia Tsentral’noi i Iuzhnoi Ameriki. Moscow, 1965.
Morison, S. E. Khristofor Kolumb moreplavatel’. Moscow, 1958. (Translated from English.)
Ballesteros y Beretta, A. Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América, vols. 1–2. Barcelona-Buenos Aires, 1945.

I. P. MAGIDOVICH