Columbus Day

Christopher Columbus was the son of a wool merchant. He was born in Genoa in about 1451. As a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. One day they attacked his ship and it sank, he floated to shore on a scrap of wood and got to Lisbon. He then studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and navigation. He wanted fame and fortune and he found some Spanish monarchs that wanted the same, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. He promised the Spanish that he would bring back riches like, pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, etc. On August 3^rd, 1492, Columbus and his crew sailed from Spain in three ships called, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. On October 12 he landed on one of the Bahamian islands. He sailed island to island trying to find what he had promised the Spanish, he did not find much. In March 1493, he left to Spain leaving behind 40 men to settle in Hispaniola (present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).In May of 1498; he returned to Hispaniola to find that the brothers that he had left behind had an argument and had the colonist revolt against each other. The conditions were so bad that they had to send a new governor to take over. Columbus was then returned to Spain in chains. In 1502, he had cleared away most of his serious charges but he got stripped of his noble titles. He persuaded the Spanish king to pay him one last trip across the Atlantic. This time he made it to Panama where he had to abandon two of his four ships because of an attack by hostile natives. Empty handed he returned to Spain where he died in 1506. Columbus did not discover the “Americas” nor the first European to visit the “New World”. His journey kicked off centuries of exploration of the American continents which had consequences on the countries because he had brought diseases and environmental changes.

Reflection: In my opinion I think Columbus made the mistake of going to the “Americas” because he ruined the settlements of Indians. He really didn’t do much but just take diseases and disturbed things for people who lived in the “Americas”. He did ruin his life by telling his only supporters lies which got him him into trouble, taking away all his titles. In reality he did do something and that was mixing races, he had left some of Europeans in the “Americas” and by that obviously they mixed with the natives from there and they made a mixed race.