Christopher Columbus

Timeline

1. c. 1451–1465Genoa · Republic of GenoaChristopher Columbus was born around 1451 in the Republic of Genoa; his father Domenico Colombo was a wool weaver and cheese merchant. He spent his childhood in Genoa, receiving a basic education and absorbing the shipping culture of this commercial port. In the 1450s Genoa was still an important hub of east-west Mediterranean trade, and the geographical knowledge and seafaring legends carried by merchant ships deeply shaped the young Columbus's imagination of the distant seas, planting the seeds of his later maritime career.
2. c. 1473–1485Lisbon · LisbonAround 1473 Columbus began sailing with merchant ships on Mediterranean and Atlantic routes, accumulating rich practical seafaring experience. Around 1476 he moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where with his brother Bartolomeo he engaged in chart-making and copying navigational books. In Lisbon he gained access to Portuguese royal geographical exploration intelligence, read letters by geographers such as Toscanelli arguing that sailing west could reach Asia, gradually forming his core idea of "reaching the East by going west," and began seeking royal patronage.
3. 1492–1493Canary Islands to the Caribbean (Bahamas) · BahamasOn August 3, 1492 Columbus departed from Palos in Spain with three ships—the flagship Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña—crossing the Atlantic after provisioning in the Canary Islands. On October 12 of the same year the fleet landed on an island in the Caribbean, which Columbus named San Salvador and claimed for the Spanish crown. The voyage subsequently explored Cuba and Hispaniola, established the first European settlement, "La Navidad," and returned to Spain in March 1493, causing a great stir in European society and officially inaugurating the Age of Discovery's exploration of the Americas.