The age of Exploration

1. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
(1451-1506)

2. CONTENTS
o Early Life
o Voyages
o Columbus’ beliefs
o Discovery of America
o Discovery of America continued
o Second Voyage
o Third Voyage
o Fourth Voyage

3. EARLY LIFE
o Columbus was born in Genoa on October 31 1451.
o He had three brothers called Bartolommeo, Giovanni
Pellegrino, and Giacomo.
o He was at sea from an early age. In fact he claims to have
gone to the sea at the age of 10!
o Columbus was an educated man. He learned Latin,
Portuguese and Castilian, and read widely about
astronomy, geography, and history.
o Columbus also showed a keen interest in the Bible.

4. VOYAGES

5. COLUMBUS’ BELIEFS
o Columbus believed the earth was the
shape of a pear.
o He believed by sailing west he could reach
Asia.
o He first asked the King of Portugal to sponsor his journey but
was denied.
o He then asked King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and
was granted permission.

6. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
o On August 3 1492 Columbus set sail.
o He had a fleet of three ships:
1. The Nina - caravel
2. The Pinta - caravel
3. The Santa Maria - nao
o They sailed west for over 2 months without spotting land.
o On October 12 1492 land was sighted.
o Columbus went ashore and named the land San Salvador, still
convinced it was India.
o They came into contact with Native Americans thinking they
were Indians

7. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA
o They spent the next three months
in the area we now know to be the
Caribbean.
o He returned to Europe after losing many of his men to scurvy.
o The people of Spain were amazed to see him return.
o His return encouraged many other sailors to sail west also.

8. SECOND VOYAGE
o On the 24 September 1493 Columbus set sail with seventeen ships carrying
1,200 men.
o The exact course of Columbus's voyage is not known but he discovered and
named several islands, including:
 Antigua (after a church in Seville, Spain, called Santa Maria la Antigua, meaning "Old St. Mary's")
 Redonda (Santa Maria la Redonda, Spanish for "St. Mary the Round", owing to the island's shape)
 Nevis (from the Spanish Nuestra Senora de las Nieves, "Our Lady of the Snows", because Columbus
thought the clouds over Nevis Peak made the island resemble a snow-capped mountain)
 Saint Kitts (for St. Christopher, patron of sailors and travellers)
 Montserrat (for Santa Maria de Montserrate, after the Blessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrat,
which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, in Catalonia, Spain)

9. THIRD VOYAGE
o On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with six ships.
o After travelling to various islands Columbus returned to Hispaniola.
o There, he got into an argument with the governor, appointed by
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.
o He was arrested, and transported in chains to Spain.
o He was eventually freed and allowed to return to the New World.
o It was not a very successful voyage.

10. FOURTH VOYAGE
• In 1502 he set off accompanied by his brother Bartolommeo
and his 13-year-old son Fernando.
• He predicted a hurricane was on the way so he stopped at
Hispaniola to take shelter.
• He warned the governor who didn’t believe him.
• The hurricane struck taking out 29 of the 30 ships in the
governor's fleet and 500 lives (including that of the governor).
• Columbus considered his last voyage to be his greatest.