Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy on October 31, 1451 and died on May 20, 1506 at age 54. His father, Domenico Colombo was a wool weaver and his mother's name was Susanna Fontanarossa. Columbus first went to sea as a teen getting involved in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean seas. Christopher Columbus’s first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 almost ended his life as the ship he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. Columbus’s ship was burned and destroyed and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore and make his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he eventually got settled and married a woman named Felipa Perestrello
In the 1450s, the Turkish Empire controlled northern Africa, stopped europe's easiest access to the precious goods of the Orient, stuff …show more content…
To gain the support for his journeys, he went the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. As part of his offer, he said that he hoped to be able to spread Christianity to ‘heathen lands’ in the east. In 1492, he sailed from Europe to America. He and his sailors crossed the Atlantic Ocean, not knowing where they would land. It was a voyage into the unknown as they say. Columbus did not find America, There were many people already living there Like native Americans. Vikings from Europe had landed in America many years before. Columbus and his sailors sailed bravely into the unknown. They brought home new foods, new knowledge and gold. But, they killed many Native Americans. The Europeans took their land and claimed it there's. Many Native Americans were killed in wars with the Europeans, or died from European