THE MAN WHO DISCOVERED AMERICA: Christopher Columbus

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10 Feb 2024

Among the great explorers, Christopher Columbus undoubtedly has a special place. Because Columbus did what no other explorer had done so far and discovered a whole new continent. However, his real goal was not to discover new places. He only wanted to find a new and shorter sea route to India, China and Japan. So he was after making money, not fame.

The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451. He lived in Lisbon for a long time. His interest in ships and sailing started here. He educated himself by reading books on geography, astronomy and history. As a young man, under the patronage of a merchant, he participated in several voyages to the Mediterranean and the Aegean. In his youth he moved to Spain. Here, he participated in expeditions to Africa and increased his knowledge, knowledge and experience. He learned map making and ship captaincy.

At that time, the land and sea routes to the riches of the East were under the control of the Italians and Ottomans. All European explorers were seeking to discover new routes to India and China.

Columbus planned to reach these countries in the east by sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean. This would open up a much shorter trade route by sea. Educated people and sailors of that time knew that the Earth was spherical. This was a fact that had been known since ancient Greece. However, no one knew exactly what the diameter and circumference of the Earth was. Columbus had studied many maps that had been reproduced thanks to the printing press, including maps by famous geographers of antiquity. Based on these studies, he also made various calculations about the circumference of the Earth. His aim was to find out how many months it would take to reach China by going westward continuously. Thinking that some of the incorrect information on the maps was correct and using them as a basis for his calculations, Columbus underestimated the circumference of the Earth by about 11,000 kilometers.

Based on this miscalculation, he concluded that China could be reached in only two months if he sailed continuously westward (if the winds were favorable).

Columbus spent years trying to find someone who would financially support his voyages. Among those he approached was King John II of Portugal. However, the king was not interested in his idea. Finally, Columbus approached King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. He convinced them that the voyage would be a great commercial success. Columbus agreed with the king and queen that he would receive 10 percent of the wealth he would capture.

With three ships, the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, and 90 sailors, he set sail for the Atlantic Ocean on August 3, 1492. Neither Columbus nor the sailors would have dared to make such a long voyage if they had known that it would be 11,000 kilometers longer.

Three ships under the command of Columbus reached a small island (today in the Bahamas) 70 days later, on October 12, 1492. They arrived on the island known today as San Salvador. In the middle of the route Columbus had planned to take from Europe to China, there stood a continent that no one in the Old World (the name given to Asia, Europe and Africa together) had ever known existed.

After San Salvador, Cuba and Hispaniola were discovered and named. Columbus thought he had arrived in India, not a brand new continent, so he called the indigenous people he met Indians. The crew exchanged various products and goods with the natives.

When he left some of his men behind and sailed back in one ship, Columbus took some of the Indians back to Spain with him. On March 15, 1493, he arrived in Spain. He was very well received there. He was given the title of 'Admiral of the Seven Seas'. His voyage and discoveries spread rapidly in Europe. Everyone started talking about Columbus finding a new sea route to Asia.

After his first voyage, Columbus made three more voyages until late 1504. In all of them he discovered new places. But in 1506, at the age of 54, he fell ill and died. Columbus did not reach his great goal of reaching Asia and discovering new trade routes. But he did what no explorer before or after him could do: He united two worlds that had developed independently and without any knowledge of each other. He made the world one world and started globalization.

Columbus Exchange

The discovery of the Americas by Europeans after the landing of Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought the Old World (Asia, Europe and Africa) and the New World (North and South America) into contact, two great regions that had developed for thousands of years without knowing each other. The significance of this event in world history is unrivaled by any other. Both sides became acquainted with plants, animals and microbes they had never seen or known existed before. For example, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, sunflowers and turkeys were unknown in Anatolia before this date. People living in the Americas also did not know cats, horses, chickens, chickens, donkeys, cows, camels, sheep, wheat, rice, olives, onions, apples, lemons, bananas and carrots.

New crops and animals were quickly adopted on both sides. But the real impact on people's lives came from germs they had never encountered before. Malaria, measles, tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox and plague, which European sailors unknowingly brought with them, claimed tens of millions of lives in the Americas.