Interpretive Biography Of Christopher Columbus

First Quarter Paper
Interpretive Biography of Christopher Columbus

Thomas Le
AP Euro
Mr. Leston

1451 Christopher Columbus was born and grew up in Genoa, a small town in Italy. He was born into a respectable, but impoverished family. It was a seaport near the Tyrrannean sea. Columbus believed that the world was flat just like everybody else in his times. The unknown seas were feared by people who did not seek exploration. Columbus of course was not like the others and dreamed of sailing to far away places. His father did not share the same ideas however. During Colombus’ times the tradition of a family would be that the son would take over the family business (Anderson and Ancona). Columbus was sent to the University of Pavia where

He had difficulty looking for a crew because everyone at the time feared the unknown area of the sea. He led the expedition with three ships. The three ships were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Nina was captained by Vicente Yanez Pinzon, the Pinta was captained by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and the Santa Maria was captained by Columbus himself. The crew were mostly experienced seamen and some government officials. The date of the sail was on August 3, 1492. October 11, 1492 the Caribbean islands were spotted. They landed Guanahani, in which Columbus named San Salvador. They met local Taino Indians. Columbus captured many of them and sold them into slavery. This was the island where Columbus thought he landed in Asia and called it the Indies. He also named the inhabitants Indians. He most likely did not know it was not Asia because of the modern knowledge of the time. (Enchanted,

They did not know any values and often traded unequally. Columbus’ true goal on this island were the fact that the islanders had gold pierced into their noses and had gold jewelry on their arms and legs. Columbus, on the third day, left San Salvador in order to find other islands. Columbus eventually reached the coast of Cuba by October. He was convinced that it was one of the lands described by Marco Polo. Pinzon sailed off in the Pinta upset with the small amount of wealth being received at that point. Columbus sailed to a place called La Isla Espanola where he sailed the coast. Columbus became friends with Guacanagari who was a young Taino chief. He set up a meeting on Christmas at his residence but the meeting was not attended since the Santa Maria got grounded. This must have upset Columbus who was eager to meet the chief again (Encarta,