Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa and died in Valladolid, Castilla in 1506 without realizing that he had discovered a new continent. He was a navigator, cartographer, admiral and discoverer of the New World, where he governed as Viceroy and Governor General of The West Indies in the service of the Crown of Castilla.
The life of Columbus throws up certain enigmas, including his birth place and where his remains were laid to rest, but it is known that he was the son of Domenico Columbus, a Genoese textile manufacturer, and he spent his youth sailing up and down the coast of what was then the Republic of Genoa, looking after his father's business. Later he worked as a trader, buying sugar, and he sailed the Atlantic Ocean, getting as far as Guinea.
In 1484, at the age of 33, Columbus had completed his project for the Big Voyage and was in a position to present it to the main European Royal Courts. Unlike the route that had been followed by the Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama, sailing along the coast of Africa and round the Cape of Good Hope, his navigation plan consisted in accepting the idea that the earth was round, and after a voyage in the Atlantic Ocean heading west, one would arrive in the East Indies, known as the Spice Islands.
The Genoese navigator went to live in Portugal which was the big centre of maritime trade. There he got married to Felipa Moniz in 1479, with whom he had a son, Diego.
His wife, who came from the Portuguese aristocracy, opened dogs for him to contacts in the court and to present his navigation project to Juan II of Portugal. The Portuguese monarch didn't reject Columbus, but delayed his decision, possibly with the idea of eliciting information about his itinerary.
Faced with the lack of a firm answer from the Portuguese crown, Columbus decided to try the kingdom of Castilla. He settled in Palos de la Frontera, in the province of Huelva, where he contacted the friars in the monastery of Rábida, who supported his project and recommended Brother Hernando de la Talavera, confessor of Queen Isabel of Castilla, with whom he had an interview and managed to interest in the project.
During this time he met the Cordovan woman Beatriz Enriquez de Arana with whom he would have another son, Hernando.
In 1492, having assumed the kingdom of Nazari of Granada, the Catholic Kings decided to fund Columbus' project, with the financial support of Luis de Santangel, a loan shark who financed Fernando el Católico. In the district of Santa Fe, on the outskirts of Granada, the Capitulations of Santa Fé were signed, in which the conditions of the expedition were established and Columbus was granted extensive privileges as long as he succeeded in discovering new lands. He was granted the titles of Admiral, Viceroy and Governor General of all the territories that he discovered or conquered during his lifetime. They also recognized his right to claim a tenth part of any business carried out in the conquered territories.
Once the agreement had been reached with the Catholic Kings, Colombus undertook four voyages to America, establishing a regular and safe navigation route between Castilla and America.
For the first voyage, with the support of the Pinzón brothers, he managed to put together a crew that, on 3ª August 1492, set sail from Palos de la Frontera with three ships, the caravels called the Pinta and the Niña and the carrack, called the Santa Maria, stopping off at the Canary Islands in order to reach what they thought were the Indies. After dealing with many setbacks, on 12" October 1492, the day of the Virgin of Pilar, they reached dry land at what today is called the Bahamas. On this first voyage Columbus explored several Caribbean islands and established a settlement in what is today the Dominican Republic, which he named La Española. In January he returned to Spain.
On the second voyage, which lasted nearly three years, from September 1493 until June 1496, Colombus sailed from the port of Cádiz with five carracks and twelve caravels.
He sailed around the Caribbean, discovering the Lesser Antilles (Dominica and Guadalupe). Afterwards, he explored Cuba, arriving in La Habana and later sailing south, discovering Jamaica. During this second voyage certain discrepancies appeared between Colombus, who preferred to dominate through military force those territories he discovered, with the basic aim of doing business, and the model of the Catholic Kings of occupying the lands to carry out a cultural colonization and to preach the Catholic faith.