Christopher ColumbusBy: Josh Kessner

History 140Professor Arguello

Early Life

• Born in October 1451 in Genoa, Columbus’s father was a middle-class wool weaver

• Columbus was born in modern day Italy but his known signature by hand was Spanish and it read Cristobal Colon

• While in Spain in 1487, Columbus found a new mistress by the name of Beatriz Enriquez de Arana

• He learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian

• Columbus studied many subjects such as astronomy, geography, and history

The Campaign to the Orient

• Columbus had proposed his plan of travel to John II, the King of Portugal

• Also, Columbus tried proposing his plan to Asia by western route to many other places but they had all denied him the funding.

• This was due to the fact that many of the places thought that the distance Columbus had estimated was far too short

• Overtime, after funding and investments, Columbus finally found funding and gained a contract with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

Voyages

• Between the years of 1492 and 1503 Columbus made four trip voyages to the Americas under the sponsorship of the Crown of Castile

• The areas that he ended up exploring were parts of central America and islands close to modern day Florida

• These voyages marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization of the American continents