Christopher columbus brief biography of adolf

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round

They all laughed when Edison recorded sound

Ira Gershwin, 1937

Okay, you can make the argument that anybody who thought he was sailing to China and ends up in the Bahamas is the pits as a navigator.

And you can make the argument that Christopher Columbus was worse than Hitler because he and his sailors introduced smallpox and measles to the Americas and caused epidemics that killed off millions among the native population.

You can even argue that without Columbus, the New World wouldn't have had slavery, male chauvinism, air pollution or destruction of spotted owl habitats.

You can make all these arguments until the cows come home but I, for one, am not convinced. Maybe it's my Italian, Spanish, Scottish and French ancestry, but I still think Columbus represents what's great in Western _ no, make that human _ civilization.

He may have been a money-grubber who chiseled his benefactors, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He may have been less than politically correct in dealing with the strange new civilization he encountered. He may even have been an egomaniac as some of his contemporaries thought.

But as Joe E. Brown says at the end of Some Like It Hot, "Nobody's perfect."

The fact remains that whatever his failings or imperfections, Columbus' voyage in 1492 changed the course of history as much as any single event in the past 1,000 years. The protests and counter-demonstrations held in many parts of the world Monday, Columbus Day, can't change that.

It wasn't that Columbus was more brilliant or heroic than everybody else. Likely as not, he was simply the right person in the right place at the right time.

If Columbus hadn't done the honors, it might have been his fellow freelance Italian sea captain, John Cabot (real name Giovanni Caboto) who was working for the English and explored the North American mainland in 14

Of the many controversies surrounding the life and legacy of Christopher Columbus, who died on this day 510 years ago, one of the most intriguing but least discussed questions is his true country of origin. For reasons lost in time, Columbus has been identified with unquestioned consistency as an Italian of humble beginnings from the Republic of Genoa. Yet in over 536 existing pages of his letters and documents, not once does the famous explorer claim to have come from Genoa.

Moreover, all of these documents, including letters to his brothers and various people in Italy, are written in Spanish or Latin rather than in Italian. If Columbus was from Genoa, why wouldn’t he write in his native tongue? Additionally, in official Castilian documents in which his origin should have been specified, he is simply referred to as “Cristóbal de Colomo, foreigner” or “Xrobal Coloma” with no qualifying adjective, when other foreign mariners were invariably identified in royal documents by their places of origin—”Fernando Magallanes, Portuguese,” for example, and “Amerigo Vespucci, Florentine.” Why was that? And when Columbus returned from his first voyage to the New World in 1493, ambassadors to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella from Genoa said not a word about him being one of their countrymen in letters they wrote home.

Equally strange is the fact that there are no existing documents indicating that Cristoforo Colombo, a master mariner who supposedly discovered America, had any meaningful sailing experience prior to his epic voyage of 1492. What is more intriguing is that this same son of a lowly wool carder was addressed as don, had his own coat-of-arms, and married a Portuguese noblewoman, all before his historic voyage of discovery. This would have been impossible in the rigidly class-conscious Iberian society of the 15 ce

1. Early Life and Background

Christopher Columbus was born in the Italian city of Genoa in 1451, the son of a weaver. It is said that Columbus's father was quite a good weaver and at a young age, Columbus went to school to study navigation and geography. Genoa was an important seaport and young Christopher would have grown up watching the ships and learning the skills of sailors. When Columbus was a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at this job for a few years and then in 1476, the ship on which he was working was sunk in battle by pirates. As Columbus moved to different countries, he learned more about the explorations then taking place. For example, when he lived in Portugal, he talked to people who had returned from exploring the coast of West Africa. This helped to give Columbus the idea that it might be possible to sail west across the Atlantic to reach the East Indies. Columbus's life, in the years leading up to the famous 1492 voyage, was greatly enriched by his quest for a new route to the Orient and the potential fame and riches that could come of it. He moved to Spain, from where he could seek help for his voyage and we all know now that he eventually gained sponsorship from the Spanish monarchy. He firmly believed that he could find a quicker, safer route to China and India and so he was willing to put himself through arduous journeys and many years of uncertainty and so-called failure in order to achieve his aim. He remained at this job for a few years and then in 1476, the ship on which he was working was sunk in battle by pirates. As Columbus moved to different countries, he learned more about the explorations then taking place. For example, when he lived in Portugal, he talked to people who had returned from exploring the coast of West Africa. This helped to give Columbus the idea that it might be possible to sail west across the Atlantic to reach the East Indies. Col

THE ATLANTIC BOOKSHELF

By Salvador de Madariaga. The Macmillan Company, $4.00.

FROM a reader’s point of view, this is to be regarded as a mystery story rather than as a biography, for Columbus is second only to Shakespeare as the most unapproachable and mysterious figure in the whole history of the Western world. Good mystery stories run to two patterns. Some show no clues, and the story is made up out ot the gradual transformation ot ingenious guesswork into clues and finally into a solution. Others show many clues, each one canceling out two or three of the rest in such a way as to make a solution apparently impossible. The mystery of Shakespeare is in the first pattern. That of Columbus, on the other hand, is in the second pattern. There is so much evidence for and against everything that it is impossible for anyone really to know anything about anything. A reader who enjoys a first-class high-grade mystery story will have a rare treat in seeing what M. de Madariaga does with the first great question, Who and what was Columbus? Was he a Genoese, a Catalan, a Gallegan, a Portuguese, or what? Nobody knows. There is plenty of evidence pointing any way you like. The author produces all of it, balances it point against point, makes all the obvious and necessary cancellations, and finally builds up and presents his own interesting and plausible solution of the mystery.

No less fascinating are the many minor mysteries which surround the life and doings of Don Cristóforo from the very outset of his career. How, at nineteen, did he get the wherewithal to come forward and see his father through financial difficulties involving quite a bit of money? The author has an answer, very plausible, rather grim. How did he come by Toscanelli’s map, and why did he not produce it to back his plea before the Talavera commission? Why was he kept hanging about so long, in receipt of living expenses from the king and queen, instead of being promp