Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Introduction

Born in Genoa in 1451, Christopher Columbus became known for being the first man to bring consistent news on existing lands in the western part of the Atlantic, America. Because it is considered the discoverer of a new world and also because being originating in the Italian peninsula, lived many years in Portugal and made ??his greatest achievement in the service of the Catholic Kings of Aragon and Castile and because there are some lesser known steps of their biography, much has been speculated about this character.

There are numerous theories that argue that he would not Genoese but Galician, Catalan, Portuguese Bulgarian or even, depending on the origin of the authors of these ideas. Theories about his role as a spy to the service D. John II or on kabbalistic interpretations of its signature or his own name also abound. There is obviously about these or other fanciful ideas developed around the character of Columbus that we intend to write about but the facts are proven by serious historical research.

Discussion

At the time that Columbus lived were known by most Europeans, the extraordinary riches that the East had, especially in terms of spices. Objective was to D. John II reach these regions by sea in order to divert the trade which hitherto was done by land, and that Europe was controlled by the merchants of the city-states of the Italian peninsula.

Moreover, at the same time, it was accepted that the earth would have a spherical shape. So the trip to these eastern lands could be taken two ways. One would cross the entire Atlantic, the North-South direction, so around Africa to climb back north to get to India and then proceed further east. This was the route that the Portuguese went exploring and saw as possible, remember that Bartolomeu Dias have crossed the Cape of Good Hope.

The other possibility was to Navigation westward, always in the northern hemisphere, in the hope that the other side of the Atlantic will find the Far East, the kingdom of Cipango. An obvious advantage of this alternative was that not be necessary to cross the equator, and the trip always done in regions more favorable for European sailors more or less temperate.

Lived many years in Portugal, more precisely in the archipelago of Madeira where he married Filipa Moniz, daughter of Perestrelo. No wonder therefore that Columbus monitors closely the developments that the Portuguese discoveries were knowing, especially something confusing news that reported the existence of land to the west. On the other hand, we also noted the new Marco Polo's expedition to the Far East. If we add all the geographical notions acquired especially through the influence of the ideas of Toscanelli, who attributed to the Earth below those which actually has dimensions will be easy for him to realize that the most expeditious way of reaching the East would sail to the West because the kingdom of Cipango "was already there on the other side of this ocean that was ...