CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Did Christopher Columbus's voyages have a positive effect on world history?

Did Christopher Columbus's Voyages have a Positive Effect on World History?

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. He was the oldest of five children and the son of Domenico Colombo, a wool-comber and Susanna Fontanarossa. Columbus enjoyed the sea and spent much of his time as a child riding ships. Although he had little schooling he was a genius when it came to the sea. He later became a master navigator and admiral whose four transatlantic voyages opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas (Krensky & Green, 1991). Christopher Columbus departed on his first voyage on August 3, 1492. He departed from the port of Palos in southern Spain in command of three ships: the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. His crew was a group of men who he recruited from surrounding the towns of Lepe and Moguer. His flagship the Santa Maria had fifty-two men aboard while his other two ships held a maximum crew of eighteen men. “The success of his first voyage led Columbus to little trouble at convincing the Spanish Sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabela to follow up immediately with a second voyage. Unlike the first exploratory voyage, the second voyage was a massive colonization effort, comprised of seventeen ships and over a thousand men.” This second voyage brought European livestock to America for the first time (Krensky & Green, 1991).

Christopher Columbus has been praised as a great man and a hero in some sorts to us all, while in reality; he is quite a controversial figure. What he accomplished is definitely significant and he should be praised for it but there are those who feel that he should be looked down upon for some of the things that ...