Who discovered America? when did this happen? Columbus starts discovery voyage on the day August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail to start his journey in search of the way to the Indies, the land of gold and spices. Two months later, he will arrive in the New World.
See too: Who discovered Brazil
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The son of a Genoese weaver, Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) became a navigator out of necessity. With the bankruptcy of his father's company, he discovered a new way of life in the maritime trade. In 1477, he settled in Lisbon, together with his brother Bartolomeu, who was a cartographer. His destination was India, the land of gold and spices. To get there, at that time, it was necessary to bypass Africa.
Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas, now called Samana Cay. Convinced that he had arrived at his planned destination, he christened the new land the West Indies. With the permission of the Spanish crown he took possession of everything as "viceroy".
In 1485, he presented it to King D. João II the project of reaching the Indies via the West. The plan was rejected, as Portugal was firmly resolved to reach the Indies via Periplo Africano. With the refusal, Columbus offered his services to England and France. In vain. That left Spain.
But Spain at that time, 1486, was involved in the reconquest of Granada. In 1488, Columbus returned to Portugal, where he was received by the king. Unfortunately, for Colombo, Bartolomeu Dias skirted the south of Africa – Cape of Good Hope -, opening the way for the Indies.
On 02/01/1492 the Catholic kings finally recaptured Granada and triumphantly entered the city. Columbus also attended, enjoying the moment of euphoria and waving promises of riches and expansion of faith. Colombo finally got support for his project.
On 03/08/1492, the ship “Santa Maria”, commanded by Colombo, and the caravels “Pinta” and “Nina”, commanded by the Pinzon brothers, heading for the Indies, sailing towards the west, to demonstrate that the “arrival point would be the same as that of the match".
On October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on the island of Guanaani, which was named San Salvador, in Central America. For more than three months he toured the region, from island to island. However, there was no sign of the “incalculable riches”, the “gold roofs”, the “dazzling jewels”, the “cities never dreamed of”, described by the traveler Marco Polo.
Even so, in front of naked inhabitants, without palaces, Columbus believed that he had reached the kingdom of Cipango (Japan) and, therefore, the Indies. From this geographical error, Native Americans came to be known as Indians. Returning to Spain, even without fabulous riches and spices, Columbus was very well received by the kings and he got new funding for another trip in search of the “golden roofs” Marco had talked about. Pole.
Between 1484 and 1485, Columbus left for Castile, a province of Spain. He is then able to present his project to the Catholic Kings Fernando and Izabel, who have not given him any definitive answer. Tired of waiting and going through financial needs, he decides to leave for France. At the beginning of the trip, accompanied by his son, Columbus stops at a convent to rest, and excitedly tells the monks about his plans. Convinced by Columbus, they decided to help him, and asked him to stay in Spain. The person in charge of the monks then went to the Court, and there he reported that Columbus had given up on remaining in Spain. The queen decides to receive him and starts to support him.
In 1492, an agreement is signed between Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs. The expenses of the expedition were covered (fifty and half) by the Spanish Crown and by Genoese bankers from Seville.
The maritime expansion is motivated by the desire of the European kingdoms, mainly Portugal and Spain, to expand their territorial domains and conquer alternative trade routes. The main objective is to reach the Indies – generic name that includes the entire Orient -, a major supplier of spices and a new consumer market. To avoid crossing the Mediterranean, dominated by Italian and Muslim traders, Portugal seeks an alternative route around Africa and ends up establishing bases on the coast of the continent. In Spain, the catholic kings Fernando II and Isabel I decide to finance trips to the Indies after expelling the Moors (Muslim Arabs), who for more than 5 centuries dominated the region. Under the influence of Columbus and the Florentine navigator Americo Vespucci, the kings chose the western direction, based on the thesis of the sphericity of the Earth.
Far from discovering the sea route to the Spice Islands, as he expected, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World and opened the doors to the exploration of the Americas.
By that time, while man realized that the Earth was (although Columbus was convinced that it was in the form of pear and that the sea would rise as it sailed west) was thought to have a perimeter close to what we know today to have.
Columbus had done some trade in the Mediterranean, had visited the coast of Guinea, and though he was more of a merchant than a seaman.
First, he tried to interest the Portuguese king in his proposals. Then he tried with Queen Isabella of Spain, but she was determined to conquer the last Moorish stronghold in Spain.
Only after the Moors were completely defeated in 1492.
Christopher Columbus was a navigator and explorer who reached America on October 12, 1492 under the orders of the Catholic Kings of Spain. Believing that the earth was a relatively small sphere, he undertook his journey across the Atlantic Ocean with the aim of reach India, having actually discovered the islands of the Caribbean (Antilles) and, later, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in America Central.
The Treaty of Tordesilhas, so named because it was celebrated in the Castilian village of Tordesilhas, was signed on June 7, 1494 between Portugal and Castile (part of Spain), defined the sharing of the so-called new world between both crowns, 1 year and a half after Columbus officially claimed America for Isabel the Catholic to follow his instructions for the negotiation of this treaty and its signature, the Perfect Prince appointed his cousin from Castile (daughter of a Portuguese Infanta) to D. Rui de Sousa.
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