The man who discovered America. Who discovered America - Columbus or Vespucci? An excerpt characterizing the Discovery of America
Such an event as the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is now of little interest to anyone, but just a few centuries ago America itself did not exist for Europeans at all.
No one could have imagined that beyond their narrow world there existed huge world, where large nations live, there is a developed culture and a lot of monuments of ancient history.
Today America is the center of development of our world, where people from all over the planet flock, the best scientists, programmers, and simply active people who want to realize the American dream in their lives. And this is one of the most important reasons why it is worth knowing more about the discovery of this continent.
North America is interesting to study from a historical perspective, not only because it is unique and fascinating in its own way, but also in order to better understand its people, established values and culture.
It was the colonialist status of this powerful power that at one time became the incentive that forced it to actively develop and turn into what we see now. And it fell to the great traveler Columbus to discover this continent full of beauty and secrets.
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Who discovered America first
We all know the stories about the travels of the great man Columbus, who, together with his crew, fearlessly sailed the oceans in search of new places to spread the power of his country. This man acted both from the will of his leadership and the country, and was driven by personal interests, the desire to move and discover new things.
Amerigo Vespucci (1454 - 1512)
But not everyone knows that Columbus was not the first to discover America, since another equally legendary traveler managed to do it before him.
America got its name in honor famous traveler of his time - Amerigo Vespucci. This resident of Florence, born in 1454, set out under the leadership of Admiral Alonso de Ojeda as a navigator to conquer hitherto unprecedented lands.
It was he who gave Venezuela its current name, which means “little Venice,” and also discovered dozens of other places, which later largely retained the names given to them. It is interesting that Vespucci most likely was personally acquainted with the Spanish traveler Columbus; their acquaintance probably took place in the trading house of Danoto Berardi.
The discoverer Vespucci did not go unnoticed, and it was in honor of his discoveries that the lands of the New Overseas World were later named America.
What then did Columbus discover?
If it was Vespucci who discovered the continents of America, which is reflected even in its name, then what are the merits of the famous Columbus, why is he considered the discoverer of this region of the world?
Many travelers reached the shores of the New World before Columbus, but the problem with their travels was that they did not leave behind any clear and structured information. The heritage of the travels of Christopher's predecessors remained in the shadows, few knew about them, and that part of the world still remained distant and mysterious.
Columbus himself, starting from 1499 and later, in his further voyages not only reached the shores of the Western Hemisphere, but collected a lot of information about the countries and islands located there.
It was he who opened these places to a wide range of Europeans and launched mass travel and migration to this region, beginning a century of great change and transformation of the whole world.
When and how America was discovered by Christopher Columbus
The discovery of America is a collective concept that includes many events, and not just the discovery of the largest island or country on the continent.
The discoverer is believed to have discovered New world in 1492, during his first expedition there. At this time, Spanish ships reached Haiti, Caribbean Islands, visited the Bahamas archipelago, as well as Cuba.
The first island that travelers met in America was San Salvador, where they landed in the memorable year 1492.
This expedition, like the three subsequent ones, was organized by the Spanish king with the goal of finding shorter routes to India, with which increasingly close trade relations were being established at that time. But fate turned out differently, and the sailors’ path went to the shores of completely new lands.
Columbus's four expeditions - a brief history of the discovery of America
In total, Columbus, together with other brave sailors, made 4 expeditions to the shores of Novaya Zemlya. Thanks to these visits, a lot of new islands, countries and regions appeared on the map, many of which still have the names that the sailors of the past assigned to them.
The first trip took place in 1492-1493, there were 91 people on 3 ships, the places visited at that time have already been mentioned above. The sailors returned home on March 15, 1943.
The next, 2nd journey, took place in 1493-1496. The navigator was already in the rank of admiral and, in addition to this, also the viceroy of the open lands. Now a team of one and a half thousand people and 17 ships was faced with the task of gaining a foothold in new lands and thoroughly exploring them. This time we managed to discover the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Pinos, and delve significantly into the study of Haiti.
The third time the journey lasted 2 years (1498-1500) and this voyage made it possible to study even better New World. The islands of Trinidad and the Paria Peninsula were discovered, and the development of not only the lands of what is now the United States, but also South America began. The peninsulas of Margarita and Araya were also found, and many studies were carried out.
The last, 4th voyage of Columbus took place in 1502-1504. This time, the brave discoverer of new lands reached the Caribbean shores, visiting Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama. In 1503, trouble happened - a sailor's ship was wrecked near Jamaica.
Columbus's travel routes on the map
To clearly see the journey that the brave traveler from Europe took with his team, just look at the routes of all 4 expeditions shown on the map. In general terms, the features of the route of each new voyage are clear from the list of new lands discovered, but for greater clarity, you can use the following image:
Official discovery date of America
As mentioned above, the official date of the discovery of America is considered to be 1492, when the very first expedition of the great European sailor took place.
There are a lot of stories that indirectly indicate that the coast of America was first discovered not by Columbus or Vespucci, but by many other explorers and even representatives of the Viking people.
But the official date of discovery is precisely 1492, because it was not just a discovery on the map, but also the discovery of the countries of the New World as a cultural phenomenon, the beginning of an endless flow of emigrants and the establishment of trade and economic ties.
The fact that it was Christopher Columbus who took upon himself the great glory of being considered a discoverer is, in a way, a stroke of fate, but not just something that fell on one’s head, but given as a reward for courage, activity and lack of fear of trials and distant journeys.
The significance of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus
Obviously, the discovery of the New World for Europe in the form of North and South America became a grandiose event of its time and set the vector for the development of an entire world civilization for hundreds of years to come.
Thanks to these events, the United States emerged, at first frail and mired in internal conflicts, populated by incomprehensible personalities and adventurers, and later quickly transformed into an advanced country that fought slavery, created the most powerful dollar currency, and shifted progress in science and technology to new horizons.
The event in question has become extremely important both for Europe and America, and for the whole world. It is difficult to imagine what the current civilization, economic and political maps worlds, if not for the presence at one time of a Spanish daredevil, who, for the sake of the call of honor and a reckless desire for adventure, would not have gone to conquer the Atlantic Ocean.
Everyone from school knows the story of how in 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus reached the shores of America, mistaking it for India. Many believe that this historical moment is the discovery of America, however, everything was much more complicated.
First Europeans in North America
Modern archaeological evidence suggests that the real discoverers of America were the Scandinavian Vikings. Written sources telling about these travels are:
- "Saga of the Greenlanders";
- "The Saga of Eric the Red."
Both works described the events of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. They told about the maritime expeditions of Icelanders and Norwegians to the west. The first person to decide to long journey among polar ice there was an adventurer and navigator Eric the Red. Eric committed several murders for which he was expelled first from Norway, then from Iceland. After the second exile, Eric assembled a whole flotilla of 30 ships and sailed west. There he opened huge island, which he called Greenland. The first Viking settlements appeared here, which gradually turned into full-fledged colonies that lasted for several centuries.
However, the Vikings did not stop there and continued to advance westward. According to medieval evidence, at the end of the 10th century the Vikings knew about the existence of a certain land called Vinland. The inhabitants of Vinland, according to the descriptions of the Scandinavians, were short, dark, with wide cheekbones and dressed in animal skins.
Similar legends existed among the indigenous people North America. Among the Indians who lived in Canada, there was a legend about a mythical kingdom of tall, white-skinned and blond-haired people who had a lot of gold and furs.
For a long time, the fact that the Vikings were in North America remained unconfirmed. But in the 1960s, a real Scandinavian settlement was discovered on the island of Newfoundland. Presumably, it was founded by Eric the Red, and then led by his followers, including the navigator’s daughter and daughter-in-law. However, this Scandinavian colony did not last long. Due to conflicts with the Indians, the Vikings had to leave Vinland.
Another indisputable fact in favor of the presence of the Vikings in North America was put forward by geneticists. Scientists studying the origins of the modern inhabitants of Iceland discovered the presence of Indian blood in their genes. And in 2010, anthropologists were able to study the remains of an Americanoid woman, who influenced the genetic structure of the Icelanders. Apparently she was taken from North America to Iceland as a slave at the beginning of the 11th century.
Thus, the first people to discover America to Europeans were undoubtedly the Vikings.
Activities of Amerigo Vespucci
Due to the fact that the Vinland colony existed for only a few years, specific information about it was gradually erased from human memory. The once open America again ceased to exist for Europeans. When Christopher Columbus set out on his journey, only two continents were depicted on world maps - Eurasia and Africa. In 1498 to India via Pacific Ocean the Portuguese Vasco da Gamma passed. His journey ended successfully, and then it became known in Europe that the lands that Columbus reached were not India at all. All this negatively affected the authority of the Italian navigator. Columbus was declared a fraud and stripped of all his discoverer privileges.
The man who drew up maps of new lands and subsequently gave them his name was the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was originally a financier. In 1493, he was approached by Christopher Columbus, who had recently returned from his first expedition and wanted to continue exploring the discovered lands. Columbus decided that the land he discovered were some islands in Asia that required closer study. Vespucci agreed to finance Columbus's subsequent voyages. And in 1499, Vespucci decided to leave his banker's chair for sea adventures and went on an expedition to unknown lands.
Vespucci's path lay to the shores of South America, while the traveler used the maps that Columbus gave him. Vespucci carefully studied the coast and came to the conclusion that these were not separate Asian islands, but an entire continent. Vespucci decided to call these lands the New World.
Many European monarchs became aware of the former banker’s expeditions. At the beginning of the 16th century, Vespucci served as cartographer, cosmographer and navigator to the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs.
In total, Vespucci participated in three trips. During their course he:
- explored the coasts of Brazil and Venezuela;
- explored the mouth of the Amazon;
- managed to climb the Brazilian Highlands.
From his travels, Vespucci brought slaves, sandalwood and travel notes, which were later published and sold in large quantities. In addition to their geographical discoveries, Vespucci described morals in his diaries local residents, flora and fauna of new lands.
Already in 1507, the first maps appeared on which the new continent was plotted. According to the tradition that developed during this period, the lands of the New World began to be called America - in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.
In what century Columbus discovered America, you will learn from this article.
In what century was America discovered?
The year marked by the discovery of America is rightfully considered a turning point in the life of all of Europe. The appearance of a new continent on the world map inspired people to undertake sea expeditions in order to explore and develop new territories. The most significant was the navigation of Columbus, who, while looking for ways to India, stumbled upon previously unknown lands. But in what century America was discovered to the whole world, we will tell you right now.
America was discovered in the 15th century.
Who discovered North America?
The discovery of North America belongs to a Norwegian with Icelandic roots - Leif Erikson. Presumably he was born in Iceland. But Erikson really wanted to go into the service of the Christian king of Norway Olav Tryggvason and moved to new country. Engaged in sea expeditions, he reached Greenland. Here he met Bjarni Herjolfson, a navigator who discovered west of Greenland unknown lands, but he did not land on them. Leif Erikson bought a ship from a navigator and decided to go to new lands in order to explore them. According to the prevailing saga of the Greenlanders, Leif and 15 of his sailors reached the rock-covered land. This is an island now called Baffin Island. It is located between Greenland and Canada. The next stop was land with forests and sandy beaches. It is believed that it was a Labrador. Not stopping there, the Norwegians continued their voyage and stopped in modern Newfoundland, building a village here for the winter.
There is no exact date when North America was discovered. Researchers agree that it was discovered at the beginning of the 11th century, based on the date and chronology of Erikson’s life - 970-1020.
Who discovered South America?
Until the end of the 15th century, Europeans knew about the existence of only three continents - Europe, Africa and Asia. They had no idea about America at all, despite the fact that the continent was inhabited by peoples and tribes.
The first who tried to discover India by the southern route (and we all know that he discovered America) was the navigator Christopher Columbus. The discoverer was born into a weaver's family in Italy. He knew how to draw geographical maps, studied the works of scientists and the notes of sailors. He was sure that our planet was spherical and wanted to make a voyage to prove this.
Having moved to Spain, Christopher Columbus spent 8 years seeking the king’s consent to an expedition across the Atlantic Ocean in order to find sea routes to India. The Spanish king agreed and appointed the persistent navigator as ruler of the lands he discovered.
In 1492, 3 caravels on board with a crew of 90 people set off. The long voyage led to the fact that the sailors began to demand the commander to turn the ships home. But Columbus's faith was strong. After 70 days, land was finally visible in the distance. These were the Greater Antilles. Next was the island of Trinidad, off the coast of South America. Continuing his journey south to the mainland, Columbus discovered the islands of Haiti and Cuba. Thus, in 1492, South America was opened to the world.
The discovery of America is one of the greatest events in human history. The history of the discovery of a huge continent is fraught with many interesting and amazing facts. To this day, there is debate about who really discovered America. Everyone knows that the name of the discoverer is Christopher Columbus, why the land was named after Amerigo Vespucci, and who else visited the continent before Columbus... More on this and much more in the article.
At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus and his expedition reached the shores of North America, mistakenly believing that he had arrived in India. It was from this moment that the era of the discovery of America began and its exploration and exploration began. However, there are researchers who consider this date to be inaccurate, insisting that the new continent was discovered much earlier.
The first information about the existence of a new continent, later called America, appeared in the prehistoric period. These events happened by chance. The motives for discovery were, as a rule, the search for habitable lands (the desire for survival), the search for gold and large trading cities.
The Paleo-Indians were the first
The first to settle in America about 15 thousand years ago were people from Asia. During the Pleistocene era, as a result of the melting of the ice sheets (Laurentine and Cordilleran), a narrow corridor formed between Russia and Alaska. The so-called land bridge between west coast Alaska and Siberia, or the Bering Isthmus, connected the continents of Asia and North America as a result of falling ocean levels.
The Paleo-Indians, the ancient settlers of the Americas, arrived from Asia to America via the Bering Isthmus following the movement of large animal prey. Migrations occurred before the closure of the corridor, that is, the closure of the Laurentian and Cordilleran glaciers. Subsequently, the settlement of America took place by sea or by ice. When the Ice Age ended and the ice plates melted, the settlers who arrived in America found themselves isolated from other continents.
It turns out that the American continents were first discovered by nomadic Asian tribes, who initially settled North America, then occupied Central and South America. They later became the indigenous American peoples.
The Legend of the Irish Monks
As a popular Irish legend has it, in the 6th century, a group of Irish monks, led by Saint Brendan, set off by boat to the west in search of new lands. Seven years later, the monks returned home and reported that they had discovered a land covered with lush vegetation that was present-day Newfoundland.
However, there is no exact evidence confirming the fact that the Irish monks not only saw, but also visited the coast of North America. In 1976, British traveler Tim Severin decided to prove that such a journey was possible. He made an exact copy of the monastic ship and set off from Ireland to North America, following the route that traveling monks had once described. As a result, the researcher reached Canada.
Vikings and Vinland
In 984, as a result of researching ancient sea routes, the Scandinavian navigator Eric Krasus discovered Greenland. In 999, his son, Leif Eriksson, gathered a crew of 35 people and set off on one ship from Greenland to Norway. Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson reached North America on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean. There, on the territory of the modern Canadian island of Newfoundland, he founded a Norwegian settlement.
Due to the abundance of vineyards on this land, the Vikings named the settlement “Vinland”, which means “Grape Land” in English. But Erickson and his team did not stay there for long. Due to hostile relations with the native North Americans, they stayed only a few years before returning to Greenland.
In the sagas, the Vikings who settled in America are referred to as the Native Americans - “Skrelings”. Most sagas come from Scandinavian folklore, but in 1960 Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian archaeologist, found the first European Viking settlement in the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada, from the late 11th century, which is identical to those in Scandinavian countries. This historical and archaeological site, called "L'Anse aux Meadows", is recognized by scientists as evidence of transoceanic contacts that took place before the discovery made by Columbus.
Sailors from China
In the debate “who discovered America,” even facts about the Chinese visiting America come up. Gavin Menzies, a British naval officer, put forward a theory about the colonization of South America by the Chinese. According to him, a Chinese explorer named Zheng He, who commanded an armada of wooden sailing ships, discovered the continent in 1421. According to the officer, Zheng He used advanced navigation techniques to explore areas such as Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa.
In his book 1421, the Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies wrote that Zheng He was heading to east coast USA and supposedly established settlements in South America. Menzies' theory is based on evidence from ancient shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps, and reports compiled by navigators of the time. However, the theory is being questioned.
Accidental discovery of Columbus
1942 is considered the year of the discovery of America, although some historians consider these data to be rather approximate. Columbus discovered America by accident. Discovering new lands and islands over the course of four expeditions, Columbus did not even imagine that this was a completely different continent, which would later be called the “New World”. Each time, arriving at new and new lands, the traveler believed that these were the lands of “Western India”.
All of Europe thought so for quite a long time, until another navigator Vasco da Gama declared Columbus a deceiver, since it was Gamma who found a direct route to India, visited there and brought local gifts and spices. There are suggestions that Columbus died convinced that he had discovered a new route to India, and not a new, hitherto unknown side of the world.
The mysterious name of the continent
Why was the new continent named not in honor of Columbus, who discovered it, but in honor of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci? The visit of this part of the “New World” by the traveler Vespucci is the first widely known and recorded fact. In 1503, he sent a letter to his friend the Medici with the following text: “These countries should be called the New World... Most ancient authors say that there is no continent south of the equator, but only a sea, and if some of them recognized the existence of a continent there, then they did not consider it inhabited. But my last journey proved that this opinion of theirs is erroneous and completely contrary to the facts, since in southern regions I found a continent more densely populated by people and animals than our Europe, Asia or Africa, and, moreover, a climate more temperate and pleasant than in any of the countries known to us ... "
It was he who first suggested that the discovered lands were not India or China, but a new unknown continent. And a quote from his letter, which spread around the world, became a good reason for the decision to name the new continent in honor of an unknown trade representative at that time, and not in honor of the famous discoverer. The name America first appeared in 1507 in Martin Waldseemüller's Introduction to Cosmography. The new continent is also represented under the same name on the first globe of Johann Schöner (1511).
An interesting fact is that not a single mention has been found of Vespucci’s initiative to assign his name to open overseas lands.
For the curious
There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the continent was named after the English philanthropist from Bristol - Richard America, who financed John Cabot's second transatlantic expedition in 1497. Vespucci took his nickname in honor of the already named continent. Cabot became the first recorded European to set foot on the North American continent, reaching the shores of Labrador in May 1497. It was he who compiled the map of the coast of North America - from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. Bristol made the following entries in its calendar that year: “...on St. John the Baptist, the land of America was found by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name "Matthew".
The discovery of America by Europe, carried out by Christopher Columbus in 1492, is the most important milestone in human history. The appearance of a new continent on the geographical map changed people’s understanding of planet Earth, forced them to comprehend its enormity, the countless possibilities of understanding the world and themselves in it. , the brightest page of which is the discovery of America, gave a powerful impetus to the development of European science, art, culture, the creation of new productive forces, the establishment of new production relations, which ultimately accelerated the replacement of feudalism with a new, more progressive socio-economic system - capitalismYear of discovery of America - 1492
First discovery of America by the Normans
The sailing of the Normans to the shores of North America was unthinkable without their settlement in Iceland. But the first Europeans to visit Iceland were Irish monks. Their acquaintance with the island occurred approximately in the second half of the 8th century.
“30 years ago (that is, no later than 795), several clerics who were on this island from February 1 to August 1 informed me that there, not only during the summer solstice, but also on the previous and subsequent days, the setting sun seemed to only hides behind a small hill, so that it is not dark there even for the shortest time... and you can do any kind of work... If the clerics lived on the high mountains of this island, then the sun might not be hidden from them at all... While they are there lived, days always gave way to nights, except during the summer solstice; however, at a distance of one day's journey further north, they discovered a frozen sea" (Dicuil - Irish medieval monk and a geographer who lived in the second half of the 8th century AD)
About 100 years later, a Viking ship was accidentally washed up on the shores of Iceland by a storm.
“They say that people from Norway were going to sail to the Faroe Islands... However, they were carried west, into the sea, and there they found mainland. Entering the eastern fjords, they climbed high mountain and looked around to see if they could see smoke somewhere or any other signs that this land was inhabited, but they didn’t notice anything. In the fall they returned to the Faroe Islands. When they went out to sea, there was already a lot of snow on the mountains. That's why they called this country Snow Land."
Over time, a large number of Norwegian residents moved to Iceland. By 930 there were about 25 thousand people on the island. Iceland became the starting point for further travels of the Normans to the West. In 982-983, Eirik Turvaldson, who became Eric the Red in the Russian tradition, discovered Greenland. In the summer of 986, Bjarni Herulfson, sailing from Iceland to the Greenland Viking village, lost his way and discovered land to the south. In the spring of 1004, the son of Eric the Red, Leif the Happy, followed in his footsteps, discovering the Cumberland Peninsula (south of Baffin Island), the eastern coast of the Labrador Peninsula and north shore Newfoundland Islands. The northeastern shores of North America were then visited more than once by Viking expeditions, but in Norway and Denmark they were not considered important, since their natural conditions were unattractive
Prerequisites for the discovery of America by Columbus
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the fall of Byzantium under the attacks of the Ottoman Turks, the birth Ottoman Empire in the east of the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor led to the cessation of overland trade relations along the Great Silk Road with the countries of the East
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Europe's critical need for spices from India and Indochina, which were used not so much in cooking, but as a hygiene item, for making incense. After all, Europeans washed their faces in the Middle Ages rarely and reluctantly, and a quintal (measure of weight, 100 pounds) of pepper in Calicut or Hormuz cost ten times less than in Alexandria.
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misconception of medieval geographers about the size of the earth. It was believed that the Earth evenly consists of land - the giant continent of Eurasia with an appendage of Africa - and ocean; that is sea distance between the extreme western point of Europe and the extreme eastern point Asia did not exceed several thousand kilometers
Brief biography of Christopher Columbus
Born in Genoa in 1451. He was the first-born in a large weaver's family. He participated in his father's manufacturing and trading enterprises. In 1476, by chance, he settled in Portugal. He married Felipe Moniz Perestrello, whose father and grandfather were actively involved in the activities of Henry the Navigator. Settled on the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago. Was allowed access to family archives, reports on sea travel, geographical maps and driving directions. Frequently visited the harbor of the island of Porto Santo
“in which nimble fishing boats scurried and anchored ships sailing from Lisbon to Madeira and from Madeira to Lisbon. The helmsmen and sailors of these ships whiled away the long hours of stay in the port tavern, and Columbus had long and useful conversations with them... (He learned from) experienced people about their voyages in the Sea-Ocean. A certain Martin Vicente told Columbus that 450 leagues (2,700 kilometers) west of Cape San Vicente, he picked up a piece of wood in the sea, processed, and very skillfully, with some kind of tool, clearly not iron. Other sailors met boats with huts beyond the Azores Islands, and these boats did not capsize even on a large wave. We saw huge pine trees off the Azores coast; these dead trees were carried by the sea at a time when strong westerly winds blew. Found by sailors on the shore Azores Fayal corpses of broad-faced people of “non-Christian” appearance. A certain Antonio Leme, “married to a Madeiran,” told Columbus that, having traveled a hundred leagues to the west, he came across three unknown islands in the sea” (Ya. Svet “Columbus”)
He studied and analyzed contemporary works on geography, navigation, travel notes of travelers, treatises by Arab scientists and ancient authors, and gradually drew up a plan to reach the rich countries of the East by the Western sea route.
The main sources of knowledge on the issue of interest for Columbus were five books
- "Historia Rerum Gestarum" by Aeneas Silvia Piccolomini
- "Imago Mundi" by Pierre d'Ailly
- "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder
- "The Book" of Marco Polo
- Parallel Lives of Plutarch
1492, April 30 - the royal couple approved a certificate granting Columbus the titles of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean and Viceroy of all lands that would be discovered by him during his voyage along the said Sea-Ocean. Titles were complained forever “from heir to heir,” at the same time Columbus was elevated to the rank of nobility and could “name and title himself Don Christopher Columbus,” was supposed to receive a tenth and an eighth share of the profits from trade with these lands, and had the right to litigate all litigation. The city of Palos was approved as the expedition's preparation center.
“He had heart-to-heart conversations with the Palos residents and said everywhere that the expedition needed brave and experienced sailors and that great benefits would accrue to its participants. “Friends, go there, and we will go on this hike all together; you will leave poor, but if, with God’s help, you manage to open up the land for us, then, having found it, we will return with gold bars, and we will all get rich, and we will receive a big profit.” Soon volunteers flocked to Palos harbor, wanting to take part in the voyage to the shores of an unknown land.”
Columbus's ships
Discovery of America. Briefly
- 1492, September 16 - Diary of Columbus: “They began to notice many tufts of green grass, and, as could be judged by its appearance, this grass had only recently been torn from the ground.”
- 1492, September 17 - Diary of Columbus: “I discovered that since sailing from Canary Islands there was never so little salt water in the sea.”
- 1492, September 19 - Diary of Columbus: “At 10 o’clock a dove flew onto the ship. We saw another one in the evening.”
- 1492, September 21 - Diary of Columbus: “We saw a whale. A sign of land, because whales swim close to the shore.”
- 1492, September 23 - Diary of Columbus: “Since the sea was calm and warm, people began to grumble, saying that the sea here was strange, and the winds would never blow to help them return to Spain.”
- 1492, September 25 - Diary of Columbus: “The earth appeared. He ordered us to go in that direction.”
- 1492, September 26 - Diary of Columbus: “What we took for earth turned out to be heaven.”
- 1492, September 29 - Diary of Columbus: “We sailed our way to the West.”
- 1492, September 13 - Columbus noticed that the compass needle did not point to the North Star, but 5-6 degrees to the northwest.
- 1492, October 11 - Diary of Columbus: “We sailed west-southwest. During the entire voyage there had never been such rough seas. We saw “pardelas” and green reeds near the ship. People from the Pinta caravel noticed a reed and a branch and caught a stick hewn, possibly with iron, and a fragment of a reed and other herbs that were born on the ground, and one tablet
1492, October 12 - America is discovered. It was 2 o’clock in the morning when a cry of “Earth, earth!!!” was heard on board the faster “Pinta”, which was walking slightly ahead. and a bombard shot. The outline of the shore appeared in the moonlight. In the morning the boats were lowered from the ships. Columbus with both Pinsons, a notary, a translator, and a royal controller landed on shore. “The island is very large and very flat and there are a lot of green trees and water, and in the middle there is big lake. There are no mountains,” wrote Columbus. The Indians called the island Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador, now Watling Island, part of the Bahamas archipelago
- 1492, October 28 - Columbus discovered the island of Cuba
- 1492, December 6 - Columbus approached big island, called Borgio by the Indians. Along its shore “beautiful valleys stretch, very similar to the lands of Castile,” the admiral wrote in his diary. Apparently that’s why he named the island Hispaniola, now Haiti
- 1492, December 25 - "Santa Maria" struck reefs off the coast of Haiti. The Indians helped remove valuable cargo, guns and supplies from the ship, but the ship could not be saved.
- 1493, January 4 - Columbus went to Return trip. He had to sail back on the smallest ship of the Niñe expedition, leaving part of the crew on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti), since even earlier the third ship, Pinta, separated from the expedition, and Santa Maria ran aground. Two days later, both surviving ships met, but on February 14, 1493 they were separated in a storm
- 1493, March 15 - Columbus returned to Palos on the Niña, and the Pinta entered Palos harbor with the same tide.
Columbus made three more voyages to the shores of the New World, discovered islands and archipelagos, bays, bays and straits, founded forts and cities, but he never learned that he had found a way not to India, but to a world completely unknown to Europe
