Christopher Columbus Friend or Foe

The goals of Christopher Columbus

Much has been written about the effects of the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the 1400's. One of his aims was to Christianize the people of the lands he would find, but Columbus was also an ambitious man. He was looking for fame and fortune. He made several demands of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain before he set sail. He wanted to be made a knight, admiral of the Ocean Sea. He wanted to be the viceroy and governor general of all the lands he would discover. Also he wanted one-tenth of everything he found of value in the new lands.His was hardly an altruistic view.

The early life of Columbus

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy a seaside city. There were five children in the family and he was the oldest. His father was a wool weaver. He helped his father with the weaving, but his lifelong dream was to sail the seas. His contact with the sailors who came into the port fueled this dream.

He didn't have much schooling, but he was self-taught. During his travels he learned to read and write Spanish. He also taught himself Latin because all the geography books were written in Latin.

Financing his voyage

Columbus began to try to get financing for his voyage in 1484 by going first to King John of Portugal, but he refused. Then he went to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. After thinking about it for a year they said, "No". In 1488 he went back to the king of Portugal, but was again refused. Two years later he went back to Spain and asked again. This time they refused after considering it for a month. Finally a Spanish monk, Father Perez, approached the king and queen on Columbus' behalf and he was successful in persuading them to finance Columbus' venture.

The first voyage

Columbus got three ships ready to sail; the Santa Maria and two smaller ships, the Pinta and the Nina. He took enough food for a year. In four months he was ready to sail. They left Spain on August 3, 1492. They made one stop, then sailed on toward the west. After sailing for over two months without any sight of land, the crew was ready to turn around and go back home. Columbus was about to have a mutiny to deal with. He persuaded them to sail on. "Just three more days", he said, "then if we don't see land, we'll turn around and go back home". Within two days they sighted land; an island Columbus named San Salvador. The date was October 12, 1492. He thought he had found the Indies and called the people he saw there "Indians".

When he got to Cuba, he thought he was in China. The world was a lot larger than he thought. On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria was wrecked near Haiti. Columbus built a fort and left 40 men to hunt for gold.

The return to Spain and subsequent voyages

Columbus returned to Spain on the Nina. The Pinta also returned and the people in Spain received him as a hero.He would make three more voyages across the ocean. His 13-year-old son, Ferdinand went with him on the fourth voyage.

The detrimental effect of Columbus' discovery on the natives

One blot on the history of Columbus is the fact that he exploited some of the natives he found in this new world he had discovered. Some of them he took back to Spain to be sold as slaves. An unintended effect was the devastation caused by diseases which the natives contracted from the Spaniards.

The voyages of Columbus opened the door to further exploration and the introduction of the white man onto the North American continent. It was the beginning of the end of the way of life the natives had enjoyed for centuries.

The end of the story

Columbus did not become rich as he had hoped. At the end of his life he had only a pension provided for him by the monarchs because he had been the first to reach the New World. He spent his last few months in bed because of the pain of arthritis.

Christopher Columbus
Biography written for children includes games and puzzles.