Christopher Columbus
By:
Josh Victor
Columbus
was born in Genoa, Spain. People don't know exactly when he was born but it is
known that it was between August 25 – October 31 1451. He was the oldest of
five children. During his
childhood, his family was poor and he only got an education until the age of
fourteen. He studied at a Monastery and only learnt basic Latin and Mathematics.
While he was at the monastery, he needed to be tutored. His father was a poor
weaver. Because of this his father also worked as a gatekeeper and a wine
merchant. His father’s name was Domino Columbo (Columbus is the way people
refer to it now but his real sir name was Columbo). His mother’s name was
Susanne Columbo. Two of his siblings were Bartholomew and Diego - the other
siblings were not well known. Bartholomew and Diego worked with Columbus on many
of his enterprises and also helped him take care of the settlements he set up on
the islands he visited. Columbus spent his last years suffering from a disease
and then it happened, on May 20th 1506 Columbus died. Columbus had
lived about 55 years.
When Columbus decided to sail for the first time he hoped to sail under the flag of Portugal. But when he offered his idea to King John II he was thrown out of the courtroom because to the king the plan was impossible. Next Columbus thought he might ask Spain. When he presented his idea to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella they had to think about it for some time. They were preoccupied at that time because they fighting with the Moors over some land (The Moors are a section of land near the southern tip of Spain). When the war was over the King & Queen decided to let Columbus have a chance even though all their advisors and seamen thought it was impossible. Columbus was given three ships for this voyage. The Nina was one of them. It was the only ship that didn’t make it back and neither did its crew. The Santa Maria didn't make it back but its crew did. The Pinta made it back and so did its crew. It also rescued the crew of the Santa Maria. After making it back to Spain, Columbus discovered his theory that the world was not flat was right. When he got back to Spain he impressed King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella by showing them jewels, parrots and worst of all, live Natives. On his 2nd voyage they had stopped on land for a rest. Islanders attacked them and many of the crew were killed. Before this happened they had decided that they were in Asia but were really in what is now called Jamaica. Here Columbus set up a settlement but was immediately disgraced when Spain heard that he had been treating the Natives and Spaniards brutally. So, Columbus returned to Spain. There he set up plans for a 3rd voyage. On this voyage Columbus planned to sail across the coast of Venezuela. His settlement there was called Hispaniola and the people were getting discontent rapidly. Again Columbus started treating them brutally. And again Spain found out about it and this time sent Francisco Bamilda to put Columbus and his brothers in chains. It is said that as soon as Columbus left the settlement he was followed by 30 ships full of people wanting to return to Spain. As usual Spain after a couple of years gave him permission to sail again. This voyage he called the “High Voyage” for he hoped to accomplish his biggest dream - to find a route to Asia. His son Ferdinand came with him on this voyage and in the end Columbus succeeded.
As I said before, Spain was the country Columbus sailed for. And not until he returned with evidence that he had landed in what he thought was India, would anyone believe that the world wasn’t flat. Queen Isabella & King Ferdinand got together their advisors and their famous seamen and everyone thought the plan was impossible. But Queen Isabella & King Ferdinand liked the idea of riches and treasure and they decided to finance the voyage. Lots of things were needed for the voyage such as food, water, a crew, and most important .. ships! They got three ships as you know - they were the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. Some people of that time thought that Queen Isabella paid for some of the materials with her own jewels. One other reason that Spain agreed was that they thought they could gain possession of a few islands while the journey went on. For this reason they provided Columbus with small boats so he could land on Japan and conquer it. Another reason was that Columbus wanted to spread the Catholic religion to the natives. A personal reason was that he would get to own about 1/5 of Spain's crown and he wanted to get some gold for himself.
When Columbus reached his first island he immediately set up a settlement. He called it Hispaniala. This settlement was a success except for the fact that the people there got discontented and Columbus treated the people badly. Some diseases also harmed the natives. One of the main ones which killed people was fever. Now Columbus wasn’t a kill-everyone-in-sight kind of guy but he didn’t just leave them alone. He usually just slayed them if they didn’t do what he wanted them to or if they wouldn’t go with him to Spain. Still, he traded mainly European goods for some pearls, beads or gold the natives had. Columbus traded a lot with a tribe and its chief Kaseke.
I think that he was good because he discovered America and I think this is important to many of us because quite a few people at this school are from America. Also he went a round the world and found a trading route to Asia. One other good thing about him was that he wouldn't let what other people said get him down. This happened when he suggested his idea of going to India to Spain and to Portugal. Every one thought the plan was impossible and that he wouldn't make it and he would fall off the earth. But even though other people said this he wouldn't let it bother him.
Still he was bad in a few ways too. For one thing just because the people at his settlement started getting discontented he lost his head and treated them brutally and wouldn't stop. He might have felt so much power that he got carried away. I think though that he was kind of mischievous, because even when he got in trouble with Spain about various different things that happened on his voyage he somehow got them to agree to let him sail again.
I feel that this was a fun project but a hard one. I once thought that I shouldn't do Christopher Columbus for my project because I knew everything about him but now I know how much everything is. I hope that other 5th graders in the future will pick Christopher Columbus even though they think they know every thing about him.
HIspaniala
one of Columbus's Settlements
Bibliography
The World Book vol.4
Christopher Columbus, How he did it
Discoveries and Exploration vol.1