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128-628: Cristobal Colon may refer to: The Spanish name of the explorer known in English as Christopher Columbus Spanish cruiser  Cristóbal Colón  (1887) , an unprotected Spanish cruiser that foundered off Cuba in 1895 Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón , a Spanish armoured cruiser that fought in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War in 1898 Spanish frigate Cristóbal Colón ,

256-516: A Genoese dialect ( Ligurian ) as his first language, though Columbus probably never wrote in it. His name in 15th-century Genoese was Cristoffa Corombo , in Italian, Cristoforo Colombo , and in Spanish Cristóbal Colón . In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at 14. In 1470, the family moved to Savona , where Domenico took over a tavern. Some modern authors have argued that he

384-662: A 2010 Spanish air defence frigate of the Álvaro de Bazán class Cristóbal, Colón , a port on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal Pico Cristóbal Colón , the highest mountain in Colombia Cristóbal Colón Ruiz (born 1954), Puerto Rican politician Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Cristobal Colon . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

512-554: A degree of longitude along the equator) spanned 56.67 Arabic miles (equivalent to 66.2 nautical miles, 122.6 kilometers or 76.2 mi), but he did not realize that this was expressed in the Arabic mile (about 1,830 meters or 1.14 mi) rather than the shorter Roman mile (about 1,480 m) with which he was familiar. Columbus therefore estimated the size of the Earth to be about 75% of Eratosthenes's calculation. Third, most scholars of

640-591: A different social structure. Until the accurate dating of Watson Brake and similar sites, the oldest mound complex was thought to be Poverty Point , also located in the Lower Mississippi Valley . Built about 1500 BCE, it is the centerpiece of a culture extending over 100 sites on both sides of the Mississippi . The Poverty Point site has earthworks in the form of six concentric half-circles, divided by radial aisles, together with some mounds. The entire complex

768-532: A five-week voyage across the ocean. On 7 October, the crew spotted "[i]mmense flocks of birds". On 11 October, Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, believing land was soon to be found. At around 02:00 the following morning, a lookout on the Pinta , Rodrigo de Triana , spotted land. The captain of the Pinta , Martín Alonso Pinzón , verified the sight of land and alerted Columbus. Columbus later maintained that he had already seen

896-560: A journey west. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 October, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas now referred to as the pre-Columbian era . His landing place was an island in the Bahamas , known by its native inhabitants as Guanahani . He then visited the islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola , establishing a colony in what

1024-841: A light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land. Columbus called this island (in what is now the Bahamas) San Salvador (meaning "Holy Savior"); the natives called it Guanahani . Christopher Columbus's journal entry of 12 October 1492 states: I saw some who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they defended themselves; and I believed and believe that they come here from tierra firme to take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that

1152-566: A mistress in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named Beatriz Enríquez de Arana . It is likely that Beatriz met Columbus when he was in Córdoba , a gathering place for Genoese merchants and where the court of the Catholic Monarchs was located at intervals. Beatriz, unmarried at the time, gave birth to Columbus's second son, Fernando Columbus , in July 1488, named for the monarch of Aragon. Columbus recognized

1280-627: A much later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago, moving across the ice from Siberia into Alaska. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded during the Lithic stage . It finally stabilized about 10,000 years ago; climatic conditions were then very similar to today's. Within this time frame, roughly about the Archaic Period , numerous archaeological cultures have been identified. The unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout

1408-473: A nearby smaller island, which he named Mariagalante , now a part of Guadeloupe and called Marie-Galante . Other islands named by Columbus on this voyage were Montserrat , Antigua , Saint Martin , the Virgin Islands , as well as many others. On 17 November, Columbus first sighted the eastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico , known to its native Taino people as Borikén . His fleet sailed along

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1536-730: A population of over 20,000. Other chiefdoms were constructed throughout the Southeast, and its trade networks reached to the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia was the most populous city in North America. (Larger cities did exist in Mesoamerica and the Andes.) Monks Mound , the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of

1664-570: A single unified empire. The Mixtecs would eventually be conquered by the Aztecs until the Spanish conquest. The Mixtecs saw the Spanish conquest as an opportunity for liberation and established agreements with the conquistadors that allowed them to preserve their cultural traditions, though relatively few sections resisted Spanish rule. The Totonac civilization was concentrated in the present-day states of Veracruz and Puebla . The Totonacs were responsible for

1792-568: A son, Ferdinand . Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable in geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the East Indies , hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade . After the Granada War , and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II , agreed to sponsor

1920-456: A variety of tools, including distinctive projectile points and knives, as well as less distinctive butchering and hide-scraping implements. The vastness of the North American continent, and the variety of its climates, ecology , vegetation , fauna , and landforms, led ancient peoples to coalesce into many distinct linguistic and cultural groups. This is reflected in the oral histories of

2048-507: A variety of ways. Columbus often wrote about seeking gold in the log books of his voyages and writes about acquiring it "in such quantity that the sovereigns... will undertake and prepare to go conquer the Holy Sepulcher " in a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy . Columbus often wrote about converting all races to Christianity. Abbas Hamandi argues that Columbus was motivated by the hope of "[delivering] Jerusalem from Muslim hands" by "using

2176-507: A wool weaver who worked in Genoa and Savona , and owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa . He had three brothers— Bartholomew , Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego) —as well as a sister, Bianchinetta. Bartholomew ran a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood. His native language is presumed to have been

2304-614: Is Y-chromosome haplogroup Q1a3a . Researchers have found genetic evidence that the Q1a3a haplogroup has been in South America since at least 18,000 BCE. Y-chromosome DNA , like mtDNA , differs from other nuclear chromosomes in that the majority of the Y-chromosome is unique and does not recombine during meiosis . This has the effect that the historical pattern of mutations can easily be studied. The pattern indicates Indigenous peoples of

2432-603: Is known that in the autumn of 1477, he sailed on a Portuguese ship from Galway to Lisbon, where he found his brother Bartholomew, and they continued trading for the Centurione family. Columbus based himself in Lisbon from 1477 to 1485. In 1478, the Centuriones sent Columbus on a sugar-buying trip to Madeira. He married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz , daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrello , a Portuguese nobleman of Lombard origin, who had been

2560-411: Is nearly a mile across. Mound building was continued by succeeding cultures, who built numerous sites in the middle Mississippi and Ohio River valleys as well, adding effigy mounds , conical and ridge mounds, and other shapes. The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures lasted from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. The term was coined in the 1930s and refers to prehistoric sites between

2688-487: Is now Haiti . Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493, with captured natives. Word of his voyage soon spread throughout Europe. Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the Lesser Antilles in 1493, Trinidad and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the east coast of Central America in 1502. Many names he gave to geographical features, particularly islands, are still in use. He gave

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2816-536: Is said to them; and I believe they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak. Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited Los Indios (Spanish for "Indians"). He initially encountered the Lucayan , Taíno , and Arawak peoples. Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus took some of

2944-558: Is the anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus . Growing up on the coast of Liguria , he went to sea at a young age and traveled widely, as far north as the British Isles and as far south as what is now Ghana . He married Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo , who bore a son, Diego , and was based in Lisbon for several years. He later took a Castilian mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Arana , who bore

3072-578: Is the Olmec. This civilization established the cultural blueprint by which all succeeding indigenous civilizations would follow in Mexico. Pre-Olmec civilization began with the production of pottery in abundance, around 2300 BCE in the Grijalva River delta. Between 1600 and 1500 BCE, the Olmec civilization had begun, with the consolidation of power at their capital, a site today known as San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán near

3200-720: The Reconquista , an expensive war against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula , were eager to obtain a competitive edge over other European countries in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus's project, though far-fetched, held the promise of such an advantage. Though Columbus was wrong about the number of degrees of longitude that separated Europe from the Far East and about the distance that each degree represented, he did take advantage of

3328-844: The Americas , each voyage being sponsored by the Crown of Castile . On his first voyage he reached the Americas, initiating the European exploration and colonization of the continent , as well as the Columbian exchange . His role in history is thus important to the Age of Discovery , Western history , and human history writ large. In Columbus's letter on the first voyage , published following his first return to Spain, he claimed that he had reached Asia, as previously described by Marco Polo and other Europeans. Over his subsequent voyages, Columbus refused to acknowledge that

3456-658: The Archaic period and the Mississippian cultures . The Adena culture and the ensuing Hopewell tradition during this period built monumental earthwork architecture and established continent-spanning trade and exchange networks. This period is considered a developmental stage without any massive changes in a short period but instead has a continuous development in stone and bone tools, leatherworking, textile manufacture, tool production, cultivation, and shelter construction. Some Woodland people continued to use spears and atlatls until

3584-520: The Cape Route around Africa to Asia. Columbus had to wait until 1492 for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his voyage across the Atlantic to find gold, spices, a safer route to the East, and converts to Christianity. Carol Delaney and other commentators have argued that Columbus was a Christian millennialist and apocalypticist and that these beliefs motivated his quest for Asia in

3712-628: The Cape of Good Hope ). Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile , who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated

3840-503: The Ciguayos , the only natives who offered violent resistance during this voyage. The Ciguayos refused to trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in the buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest. Because of these events, Columbus called the inlet the Golfo de Las Flechas ( Bay of Arrows ). Columbus headed for Spain on

3968-672: The Cliff Palace of Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon , New Mexico . The Puebloans also constructed a road system that stretched from Chaco Canyon to Kutz Canyon in the San Juan Basin . The Ancestral Puebloans are also known as "Anasazi", though the term is controversial, as the present-day Pueblo peoples consider the term to be derogatory, due to

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4096-522: The Columbian exchange , named after him. These events and the effects which persist to the present are often cited as the beginning of the modern era . Columbus was widely celebrated in the centuries after his death, but public perception fractured in the 21st century due to greater attention to the harms committed under his governance, particularly the beginning of the depopulation of Hispaniola's indigenous Taíno people, caused by Old World diseases and mistreatment, including slavery . Many places in

4224-670: The Maya script . Other accounts also suggest that the Huastecs migrated as a result of the Classic Maya collapse around the year 900 CE. The Zapotecs were a civilization that thrived in the Oaxaca Valley from the late 6th century BCE until their downfall at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors. The city of Monte Albán was an important religious center for the Zapotecs and served as the capital of

4352-572: The Niña , but a storm separated him from the Pinta, and forced the Niña to stop at the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Half of his crew went ashore to say prayers of thanksgiving in a chapel for having survived the storm. But while praying, they were imprisoned by the governor of the island, ostensibly on suspicion of being pirates. After a two-day standoff, the prisoners were released, and Columbus again set sail for Spain. Another storm forced Columbus into

4480-651: The Olmec , Teotihuacan , Mayas , Zapotecs , Mixtecs , Huastecs , Purepecha , Toltecs , and Mexica / Aztecs . The Mexica civilization is also known as the Aztec Triple Alliance since they were three smaller kingdoms loosely united together. These Indigenous civilizations are credited with many inventions: building pyramid temples, mathematics , astronomy , medicine, writing, highly accurate calendars , fine arts , intensive agriculture, engineering , an abacus calculator, and complex theology . They also invented

4608-458: The Tlingit , Haida , Chumash , Mandan , Hidatsa , and others, and some established large settlements, even cities, such as Cahokia , in what is now Illinois . Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before

4736-570: The donatary captain of Porto Santo . In 1479 or 1480, Columbus's son Diego was born. Between 1482 and 1485, Columbus traded along the coasts of West Africa , reaching the Portuguese trading post of Elmina at the Guinea coast in present-day Ghana . Before 1484, Columbus returned to Porto Santo to find that his wife had died. He returned to Portugal to settle her estate and take Diego with him. He left Portugal for Castile in 1485, where he took

4864-623: The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Silk Road was closed to Christian traders. In 1474, the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli suggested to King Afonso V of Portugal that sailing west across the Atlantic would be a quicker way to reach the Maluku (Spice) Islands, China , Japan and India than the route around Africa, but Afonso rejected his proposal. In

4992-500: The founding population . The microsatellite diversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicate that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region. The Na-Dené , Inuit , and Indigenous Alaskan populations exhibit haplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA) mutations, however, and are distinct from other Indigenous peoples with various mtDNA mutations. This suggests that

5120-553: The trade winds , which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. He planned to first sail to the Canary Islands before continuing west with the northeast trade wind. Part of the return to Spain would require traveling against the wind using an arduous sailing technique called beating , during which progress is made very slowly. To effectively make the return voyage, Columbus would need to follow

5248-401: The 1480s, Columbus and his brother proposed a plan to reach the East Indies by sailing west. Columbus supposedly wrote to Toscanelli in 1481 and received encouragement, along with a copy of a map the astronomer had sent Afonso implying that a westward route to Asia was possible. Columbus's plans were complicated by Bartolomeu Dias 's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, which suggested

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5376-507: The Americas experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes: first with the initial peopling of the Americas and second with European colonization of the Americas . The former is the determinant factor for the number of gene lineages and founding haplotypes present in today's Indigenous populations . Human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from the Bering Sea coastline , with an initial 20,000-year layover on Beringia for

5504-598: The Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The Paleo-Indians were hunter-gatherers , likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family. These groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon and ancient bison . Paleo-Indian groups carried

5632-420: The Americas. He sailed with nearly 1,500 men, including sailors, soldiers, priests, carpenters, stonemasons, metalworkers, and farmers. Among the expedition members were Alvarez Chanca , a physician who wrote a detailed account of the second voyage; Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico and Florida; the father of Bartolomé de las Casas; Juan de la Cosa , a cartographer who is credited with making

5760-528: The April 1492 " Capitulations of Santa Fe ", King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella promised Columbus that if he succeeded he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands he might claim for Spain. He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10% ( diezmo ) of all

5888-523: The Arawaks prisoner and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold. Columbus did not believe he needed to create a fortified outpost, writing, "the people here are simple in war-like matters ... I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased." The Taínos told Columbus that another indigenous tribe, the Caribs , were fierce warriors and cannibals , who made frequent raids on

6016-457: The Canary Islands west to Japan; the actual distance is 10,600 nmi (19,600 km; 12,200 mi). No ship in the 15th century could have carried enough food and fresh water for such a long voyage, and the dangers involved in navigating through the uncharted ocean would have been formidable. Most European navigators reasonably concluded that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was unfeasible. The Catholic Monarchs, however, having completed

6144-518: The Castilian crown, known as the pleitos colombinos , alleging that the Crown had illegally reneged on its contractual obligations to Columbus and his heirs. The Columbus family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as viceroy but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes initiated by heirs continued until 1790. Between 1492 and 1504, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and

6272-444: The Catholic Monarchs of Spain. They were replaced by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. The two earliest published copies of Columbus's letter on the first voyage aboard the Niña were donated in 2017 by the Jay I. Kislak Foundation to the University of Miami library in Coral Gables, Florida , where they are housed. On 24 September 1493, Columbus sailed from Cádiz with 17 ships, and supplies to establish permanent colonies in

6400-401: The Earth; and the number of miles or leagues in a degree of longitude , which was possible to deduce from the theory of the relationship between the size of the surfaces of water and the land as held by the followers of Aristotle in medieval times. From Pierre d'Ailly 's Imago Mundi (1410), Columbus learned of Alfraganus 's estimate that a degree of latitude (equal to approximately

6528-420: The Europeans arrived, Indigenous peoples of North America had a wide range of lifeways from sedentary, agrarian societies to semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. Many formed new tribes or confederations in response to European colonization. These are often classified by cultural regions , loosely based on geography. These can include the following: Numerous pre-Columbian societies were sedentary, such as

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6656-449: The Hohokam, they constructed kivas and great houses as well as ballcourts . Several of the Sinagua ruins include Montezuma Castle , Wupatki , and Tuzigoot . The Salado resided in the Tonto Basin in southeastern Arizona from 1150 CE to the 15th century. Archaeological evidence suggests that they traded with far-away cultures, as evidenced by the presence of seashells from the Gulf of California and macaw feathers from Mexico. Most of

6784-441: The Indies implausible. Columbus had left for France when Ferdinand intervened, first sending Talavera and Bishop Diego Deza to appeal to the queen. Isabella was finally convinced by the king's clerk Luis de Santángel , who argued that Columbus would take his ideas elsewhere, and offered to help arrange the funding. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch Columbus, who had traveled 2 leagues (over 10 km) toward Córdoba. In

6912-446: The Maya city of Chichen Itza . The Toltecs established vast trading relations with other Mesoamerican civilizations in Central America and the Puebloans in present-day New Mexico . During the Post-Classic era, the Toltecs suffered a subsequent collapse in the early 12th century, due to famine and civil war. The Toltec civilization was so influential to the point where many groups such as the Aztecs claimed to be descended from. With

7040-401: The Maya civilization cannot be overstated: it transformed political power, artistic depictions, and the nature of economics. Within the city of Teotihuacan was a diverse and cosmopolitan population. Most of the regional ethnicities of Mexico were represented in the city, such as Zapotecs from the Oaxaca region. They lived in apartment communities where they worked their trades and contributed to

7168-508: The Mississippian groups had vanished, and vast swaths of their territory were virtually uninhabited. The Ancestral Puebloans thrived in what is now the Four Corners region in the United States. It is commonly suggested that the culture of the Ancestral Puebloans emerged during the Early Basketmaker II Era during the 12th century BCE. The Ancestral Puebloans were a complex Oasisamerican society that constructed kivas , multi-story houses, and apartment blocks made from stone and adobe, such as

7296-483: The Olmec resulted in a power vacuum in Mexico. Emerging from that vacuum was Teotihuacan, first settled in 300 BCE. By 150 CE, Teotihuacan had risen to become the first true metropolis of what is now called North America. Teotihuacan established a new economic and political order never before seen in Mexico. Its influence stretched across Mexico into Central America, founding new dynasties in the Maya cities of Tikal , Copan , and Kaminaljuyú . Teotihuacan's influence over

7424-586: The Olmecs, Teotihuacan, the Toltecs, the Mexica, and the Mayas. These civilizations (except for the politically fragmented Maya) extended their reach across Mesoamerica—and beyond—like no others. They consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology. Other regional power players made economic and political alliances with these civilizations over 4,000 years. Many made war with them, but almost all peoples found themselves within one of their spheres of influence. Regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica have been

7552-459: The Spanish colonists. The Wichita people were a loose confederation that consisted of sedentary agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers who resided in the eastern Great Plains . They lived in permanent settlements and even established a city called Etzanoa , which had a population of 20,000 people. The city was eventually abandoned around the 18th century after it was encountered by Spanish conquistadors Jusepe Gutierrez and Juan de Oñate . When

7680-403: The Spanish crown sent him 20,000 maravedis to buy new clothes and instructions to return to the Spanish court for renewed discussions. Columbus waited at King Ferdinand's camp until Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada , the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, in January 1492. A council led by Isabella's confessor, Hernando de Talavera , found Columbus's proposal to reach

7808-403: The Taínos, often capturing their women, although this may have been a belief perpetuated by the Spaniards to justify enslaving them. Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba, where he landed on 28 October. On the night of 26 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the Pinta on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island called "Babeque" or "Baneque", which the natives had told him

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7936-445: The Tlaxcalans for preserving their culture and for their assistance in defeating the Aztecs. The Tlaxcalans would once again assist to the Spaniards during the Mixtón War and the conquest of Guatemala . Cuzcatlan was a Pipil confederacy of kingdoms and city-states located in present-day El Salvador . According to legend, Cuzcatlan was established by Toltec migrants during the Classic Maya collapse in approximately 1200 CE. During

8064-402: The Western Hemisphere bear his name , including the South American country of Colombia , the Canadian province of British Columbia , the American city Columbus, Ohio , and the United States capital, the District of Columbia . Columbus's early life is obscure, but scholars believe he was born in the Republic of Genoa between 25 August and 31 October 1451. His father was Domenico Colombo ,

8192-572: The boy as his offspring. Columbus entrusted his older, legitimate son Diego to take care of Beatriz and pay the pension set aside for her following his death, but Diego was negligent in his duties. Columbus learned Latin , Portuguese, and Castilian. He read widely about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Ptolemy , Pierre d'Ailly 's Imago Mundi , the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville , Pliny 's Natural History , and Pope Pius II 's Historia rerum ubique gestarum . According to historian Edmund Morgan , Columbus

8320-443: The calendar, were bequest from the former inhabitants of Tula, the Toltecs. The Mexica-Aztecs were the rulers of much of central Mexico by about 1400 (while Yaquis , Coras, and Apaches commanded sizable regions of northern desert), having subjugated most of the other regional states by the 1470s. At their peak, the Valley of Mexico where the Aztec Empire presided, saw a population growth that included nearly one million people during

8448-457: The city's economic and cultural prowess. Teotihuacan's economic pull impacted areas in northern Mexico as well. It was a city whose monumental architecture reflected a monumental new era in Mexican civilization, declining in political power about 650 CE—but lasting in cultural influence for the better part of a millennium, to around 950 CE. Contemporary to Teotihuacan's greatness was that of the Maya civilization. The period between 250 CE and 650 CE

8576-406: The civilizations in its area, the Tarascan Empire was the most prominent in metallurgy, harnessing copper, silver, and gold to create items such as tools, decorations, and even weapons and armor. Bronze was also used. The great victories over the Aztecs by the Tarascans cannot be understated. Nearly every war they fought in resulted in a Tarascan victory. Because the Tarascan Empire had little links to

8704-429: The cliff dwellings constructed by the Salado are primarily located in Tonto National Monument . The Iroquois League of Nations or "People of the Long House" was a politically advanced, democratic society, which is thought by some historians to have influenced the United States Constitution , with the Senate passing a resolution to this effect in 1988. Other historians have contested this interpretation and believe

8832-404: The coast in southeast Veracruz . The Olmec influence extended across Mexico, into Central America , and along the Gulf of Mexico . They transformed many peoples' thinking toward a new way of government, pyramid temples, writing, astronomy, art, mathematics, economics, and religion. Their achievements paved the way for the Maya civilization and the civilizations in central Mexico. The decline of

8960-439: The colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago. The chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the Americas occurring no earlier than 14,000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory , which proposes that

9088-446: The curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where he would be able to catch the " westerlies " that blow eastward to the coast of Western Europe. The navigational technique for travel in the Atlantic appears to have been exploited first by the Portuguese, who referred to it as the volta do mar ('turn of the sea'). Through his marriage to his first wife, Felipa Perestrello, Columbus had access to

9216-541: The de Soto expedition wandered the American Southeast for four years, becoming more bedraggled, losing more men and equipment, and eventually arriving in Mexico as a fraction of its original size. The local people fared much worse though, as the fatalities of diseases introduced by the expedition devastated the populations and produced much social disruption. By the time Europeans returned a hundred years later, nearly all of

9344-656: The decline of the Toltec civilization came political fragmentation in the Valley of Mexico . Into this new political game of contenders to the Toltec throne stepped outsiders: the Mexica . They were also a desert people, one of seven groups who formerly called themselves "Azteca", in memory of Aztlán , but they changed their name after years of migrating. Since they were not from the Valley of Mexico , they were initially seen as crude and unrefined in

9472-423: The destruction, a few original documents have survived, and others were transcribed or translated into Spanish, providing modern historians with valuable insights into ancient cultures and knowledge. Before the development of archaeology in the 19th century, historians of the pre-Columbian period mainly interpreted the records of the European conquerors and the accounts of early European travelers and antiquaries. It

9600-408: The distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an allowance, totaling about 14,000 maravedis for the year, or about the annual salary of a sailor. In May 1489, the queen sent him another 10,000 maravedis , and

9728-638: The earliest migrants into the northern extremes of North America and Greenland derived from later populations. Asian nomadic Paleo-Indians are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge (Beringia), now the Bering Strait , and possibly along the coast. Genetic evidence found in Indigenous peoples ' maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. After crossing

9856-505: The east than Japan, including the mythical Antillia , which he thought might lie not much farther to the west than the Azores , and the distance westward from the Canary Islands to the Indies as only 68 degrees, equivalent to 3,080 nmi (5,700 km; 3,540 mi) (a 58% error). Based on his sources, Columbus estimated a distance of 2,400 nmi (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) from

9984-640: The empire from 700 BCE to 700 CE. The Zapotecs resisted the expansion of the Aztecs until they were subjugated in 1502 under Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl . After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , the Zapotecs resisted Spanish rule until King Cosijopii I surrendered in 1563. Like the Zapotecs, the Mixtecs thrived in the Oaxaca Valley. The Mixtecs consisted of separate independent kingdoms and city-states, rather than

10112-580: The end of the period when they were replaced by bows and arrows . The Mississippian culture was spread across the Southeast and Midwest of what is today the United States, from the Atlantic coast to the edge of the plains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Upper Midwest, although most intensively in the area along the Mississippi River and Ohio River . One of the distinguishing features of this culture

10240-457: The establishment of cities, such as El Tajín as important commercial trading centers. The Totonacs would later assist in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire as an opportunity to liberate themselves from Aztec military imperialism. The Toltec civilization was established in the 8th century CE. The Toltec Empire expanded its political borders to as far south as the Yucatán peninsula , including

10368-546: The first world map depicting the New World ; and Columbus's youngest brother Diego. The fleet stopped at the Canary Islands to take on more supplies, and set sail again on 7 October, deliberately taking a more southerly course than on the first voyage. On 3 November, they arrived in the Windward Islands ; the first island they encountered was named Dominica by Columbus, but not finding a good harbor there, they anchored off

10496-461: The first Cazonci, Tariacuri, united these communities and built them into one of the most advanced civilizations in Mesoamerica. Their capital at Tzintzuntzan was just one of the many cities—there were ninety more under its control. The Tarascan Empire was among the largest in Central America, so it is no surprise that they routinely came into conflict with the neighboring Aztec Empire . Out of all

10624-458: The first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 50,000–40,000 years ago or earlier. Artifacts have been found in both North and South America which have been dated to 14,000 years ago, and accordingly humans have been proposed to have reached Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America by this time. In that case, the Inuit would have arrived separately and at

10752-526: The first voyage , probably dispatched to the Spanish court upon arrival in Lisbon, was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about his voyage. Almost immediately after his arrival in Spain, printed versions began to appear, and word of his voyage spread rapidly. Most people initially believed that he had reached Asia. The Bulls of Donation , three papal bulls of Pope Alexander VI delivered in 1493, purported to grant overseas territories to Portugal and

10880-590: The first voyage. Columbus found the fort in ruins. He learned from Guacanagaríx , the local tribe leader, that his men had quarreled over gold and taken women from the tribe, and that after some left for the territory of Caonabo , Caonabo came and burned the fort and killed the rest of the men there. Pre-Columbian era During the pre-Columbian era, many civilizations developed permanent settlements, cities, agricultural practices, civic and monumental architecture, major earthworks , and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilizations had declined by

11008-450: The former Toltec Empire , they were also quite independent in culture from their neighbors. The Aztecs, Tlaxcaltec , Olmec, Mixtec, Maya, and others were very similar to each other, however. This is because they were all directly preceded by the Toltecs, and they therefore shared almost identical cultures. The Tarascans, however, possessed a unique religion, as well as other things. Tlaxcala

11136-405: The grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400 nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been. In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near

11264-592: The impact was minimal or did not exist, pointing to numerous differences between the two systems and the ample precedents for the constitution in European political thought. The Calusa were a complex paramountcy/kingdom that resided in southern Florida . Instead of agriculture, the Calusa economy relied on abundant fishing. According to Spanish sources, the "king's house" at Mound Key was large enough to house 2,000 people. The Calusa ultimately collapsed into extinction at around 1750 after succumbing to diseases introduced by

11392-484: The indigenous peoples, described by a wide range of traditional creation stories which often say that a given people have been living in a certain territory since the creation of the world. Throughout thousands of years, paleo-Indian people domesticated, bred, and cultivated many plant species, including crops that now constitute 50–60% of worldwide agriculture. In general, Arctic, Subarctic, and coastal peoples continued to live as hunters and gatherers, while agriculture

11520-687: The influence that astronomical activities had upon Mesoamerican people before the arrival of Europeans. Many of the later Mesoamerican civilizations carefully built their cities and ceremonial centers according to specific astronomical events. The biggest Mesoamerican cities, such as Teotihuacan , Tenochtitlan , and Cholula , were among the largest in the world. These cities grew as centers of commerce, ideas, ceremonies, and theology, and they radiated influence outwards onto neighboring cultures in central Mexico. While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, Mesoamerica can be said to have had five major civilizations:

11648-503: The interpreter Luis de Torres , and founded the settlement of La Navidad , in present-day Haiti . Columbus took more natives prisoner and continued his exploration. He kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship until he encountered Pinzón and the Pinta on 6 January. On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the Americas, in the Bay of Rincón in northeast Hispaniola. There he encountered

11776-580: The island's southern coast for a whole day, before making landfall on its northwestern coast at the Bay of Añasco , early on 19 November. Upon landing, Columbus christened the island San Juan Bautista after John the Baptist , and remained anchored there for two days from 20 to 21 November, filling the water casks of the ships in his fleet. On 22 November, Columbus returned to Hispaniola to visit La Navidad in modern-day Haiti , where 39 Spaniards had been left during

11904-607: The land bridge, they moved southward along the Pacific coast and through an interior ice-free corridor. Throughout millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout the rest of North and South America. Exactly when the first people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture , with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago. However, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate

12032-531: The lands he visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. This might explain, in part, why the American continent was named after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci —who received credit for recognizing it as a " New World "—and not after Columbus. On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera with three ships. The largest

12160-472: The late Aztec period (1350–1519). Their capital, Tenochtitlan , is the site of modern-day Mexico City . At its peak, it was one of the largest cities in the world with population estimates of 200,000–300,000. The market established there was the largest ever seen by the conquistadores on arrival. Initially, the lands that would someday comprise the lands of the powerful Tarascan Empire were inhabited by several independent communities. Around 1300, however,

12288-607: The late twentieth century, archeologists have studied, analyzed, and dated these sites, realizing that the earliest complexes were built by hunter-gatherer societies, whose people occupied the sites on a seasonal basis. Watson Brake , a large complex of eleven platform mounds, was constructed beginning in 3400 BCE and added to over 500 years. This has changed earlier assumptions that complex construction arose only after societies had adopted agriculture, and become sedentary, with stratified hierarchy and usually ceramics. These ancient people had organized to build complex mound projects under

12416-493: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cristobal_Colon&oldid=1257235895 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus ( / k ə ˈ l ʌ m b ə s / ; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506)

12544-610: The name indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he encountered. The extent to which he was aware the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he had reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality and removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the Crown of Castile and its colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over

12672-463: The nautical charts and logs that had belonged to her deceased father, Bartolomeu Perestrello , who had served as a captain in the Portuguese navy under Prince Henry the Navigator . In the mapmaking shop where he worked with his brother Bartholomew, Columbus also had ample opportunity to hear the stories of old seamen about their voyages to the western seas, but his knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns

12800-557: The only true writing system native to the Americas using pictographs and syllabic elements in the form of texts and codices inscribed on stone, pottery, wood, or perishable books made from bark paper. The Huastecs were a Maya ethnic group that migrated northwards to the Gulf Coast of Mexico. The Huastecs are considered to be distinct from the Maya civilization, as they separated from the main Maya branch at around 2000 BCE and did not possess

12928-646: The people abandoned their settlements, likely due to drought. The Mogollon resided in the present-day states of Arizona , New Mexico, and Texas as well as Sonora and Chihuahua . Like most other cultures in Oasisamerica, the Mogollon constructed sophisticated kivas and cliff dwellings. In the village of Paquimé , the Mogollon are revealed to have housed pens for scarlet macaws , which were introduced from Mesoamerica through trade. The Sinagua were hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists who lived in central Arizona. Like

13056-583: The port at Lisbon. From there he went to Vale do Paraíso north of Lisbon to meet King John II of Portugal, who told Columbus that he believed the voyage to be in violation of the 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas . After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. Returning to Palos on 15 March 1493, he was given a hero's welcome and soon afterward received by Isabella and Ferdinand in Barcelona. To them he presented kidnapped Taínos and various plants and items he had collected. Columbus's letter on

13184-416: The prehistoric Americas . The culture reached its peak in about 1200–1400 CE, and in most places, it seems to have been in decline before the arrival of Europeans. Many Mississippian peoples were encountered by the expedition of Hernando de Soto in the 1540s, mostly with disastrous results for both sides. Unlike the Spanish expeditions in Mesoamerica, which conquered vast empires with relatively few men,

13312-498: The privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown. Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European sphere of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and New World that followed his first voyage are known as

13440-574: The resources of newly discovered lands". Despite a popular misconception to the contrary, nearly all educated Westerners of Columbus's time knew that the Earth is spherical , a concept that had been understood since antiquity . The techniques of celestial navigation , which uses the position of the Sun and the stars in the sky, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners. However Columbus made several errors in calculating

13568-399: The revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. He also would have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture in the new lands, and receive one-eighth ( ochavo ) of the profits. In 1500, during his third voyage to the Americas, Columbus was arrested and dismissed from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conducted a lengthy series of court cases against

13696-449: The same year the monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their dominion to provide him food and lodging at no cost. Columbus also dispatched his brother Bartholomew to the court of Henry VII of England to inquire whether the English crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early 1491. By that time, Columbus had retreated to La Rábida Friary , where

13824-539: The size of the Earth, the distance the continent extended to the east, and therefore the distance to the west to reach his goal. First, as far back as the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes had correctly computed the circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two remote locations. In the 1st century BC, Posidonius confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but Ptolemy's use of

13952-457: The smaller, old-fashioned units of distance led Columbus to underestimate the size of the Earth by about a third. Second, three cosmographical parameters determined the bounds of Columbus's enterprise: the distance across the ocean between Europe and Asia, which depended on the extent of the oikumene , i.e., the Eurasian land-mass stretching east–west between Spain and China; the circumference of

14080-423: The statement in the apocryphal book 2 Esdras ( 6:42 ) that "six parts [of the globe] are habitable and the seventh is covered with water." He was also aware of Marco Polo's claim that Japan (which he called "Cipangu") was some 2,414 km (1,500 mi) to the east of China ("Cathay"), and closer to the equator than it is. He was influenced by Toscanelli's idea that there were inhabited islands even farther to

14208-545: The subject of considerable research. There is evidence of trade routes starting as far north as the Mexico Central Plateau , and going down to the Pacific coast. These trade routes and cultural contacts then went on as far as Central America . These networks operated with various interruptions from pre-Olmec times and up to the Late Classical Period (600–900 CE). The earliest known civilization in Mesoamerica

14336-539: The time accepted Ptolemy's estimate that Eurasia spanned 180° longitude, rather than the actual 130° (to the Chinese mainland) or 150° (to Japan at the latitude of Spain). Columbus believed an even higher estimate, leaving a smaller percentage for water. In d'Ailly's Imago Mundi , Columbus read Marinus of Tyre 's estimate that the longitudinal span of Eurasia was 225° at the latitude of Rhodes . Some historians, such as Samuel Eliot Morison , have suggested that he followed

14464-543: The time of the establishment of the first permanent European colonies, around the late 16th to early 17th centuries, and are known primarily through archaeological research of the Americas and oral histories. Other civilizations, contemporaneous with the colonial period, were documented in European accounts of the time. For instance, the Maya civilization maintained written records, which were often destroyed by Christian Europeans such as Diego de Landa , who viewed them as pagan but sought to preserve native histories. Despite

14592-550: The visits to the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus. Mesoamerican is the adjective generally used to refer to that group of pre-Columbian cultures. This refers to an environmental area occupied by an assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology in the Americas for more than three thousand years. Between 2000 and 300 BCE, complex cultures began to form in Mesoamerica. Some matured into advanced pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations such as

14720-545: The ways of the Nahua civilization. Through political maneuvers and ferocious martial skills, they managed to rule Mexico as the head of the 'Triple Alliance' which included two other Aztec cities, Tetxcoco and Tlacopan . Latecomers to Mexico's central plateau , the Mexica thought of themselves, nevertheless, as heirs of the civilizations that had preceded them. For them, arts, sculpture, architecture, engraving, feather-mosaic work, and

14848-420: The wheel, but it was used solely as a toy. In addition, they used native copper , silver , and gold for metalworking. Archaic inscriptions on rocks and rock walls all over northern Mexico (especially in the state of Nuevo León ) demonstrate an early propensity for counting. Their number system was base 20 and included zero . These early count markings were associated with astronomical events and underscore

14976-704: The word tracing its origins to a Navajo word meaning "ancestor enemies". The Hohokam thrived in the Sonoran desert in what is now the U.S. state of Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora . The Hohokam were responsible for the construction of a series of irrigation canals that led to the successful establishment of Phoenix, Arizona via the Salt River Project . The Hohokam also established complex settlements such as Snaketown , which served as an important commercial trading center. After 1375 CE, Hohokam society collapsed and

15104-598: Was a carrack , the Santa María , owned and captained by Juan de la Cosa , and under Columbus's direct command. The other two were smaller caravels , the Pinta and the Niña , piloted by the Pinzón brothers . Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands. There he restocked provisions and made repairs then departed from San Sebastián de La Gomera on 6 September, for what turned out to be

15232-487: Was a Nahua republic and confederation in central Mexico. The Tlaxcalans fiercely resisted Aztec expansion during the Flower Wars ever since the Aztecs expelled them from Lake Texcoco . The Tlaxcalans would later ally with the Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés as an opportunity to liberate them from the Aztecs and managed to successfully conquer the Aztecs with the help of the conquistadors. The Spaniards would reward

15360-416: Was a time of intense flourishing of Maya civilized accomplishments. While the many Maya city-states never achieved political unity on the order of the central Mexican civilizations, they exerted tremendous intellectual influence upon Mexico and Central America. The Maya built some of the most elaborate cities on the continent and made innovations in mathematics, astronomy, and calendrics. The Maya also developed

15488-573: Was adopted in more temperate and sheltered regions, permitting a dramatic rise in population. After the migration or migrations, it was several thousand years before the first complex societies arose, the earliest emerging about seven to eight thousand years ago. As early as 5500 BCE, people in the Lower Mississippi Valley at Monte Sano and other sites in present-day Louisiana , Mississippi , and Florida were building complex earthwork mounds , probably for religious purposes. Beginning in

15616-458: Was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs , opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas . His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America. The name Christopher Columbus

15744-642: Was not a scholarly man. Yet he studied these books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them and came out with ideas about the world that were characteristically simple and strong and sometimes wrong ... Under the Mongol Empire 's hegemony over Asia and the Pax Mongolica , Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage on the Silk Road to India , parts of East Asia , including China and Maritime Southeast Asia , which were sources of valuable goods. With

15872-844: Was not from Genoa, but from the Aragon region of Spain or from Portugal. These competing hypotheses have been discounted by most scholars. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the wealthy Spinola , Centurione, and Di Negro families of Genoa. Later, he made a trip to the Greek island Chios in the Aegean Sea , then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe. He probably visited Bristol , England, and Galway , Ireland, where he may have visited St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church . It has been speculated he went to Iceland in 1477, though many scholars doubt this. It

16000-562: Was not until the nineteenth century that the work of people such as John Lloyd Stephens , Eduard Seler , and Alfred Maudslay , and institutions such as the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University , led to the reconsideration and criticism of the early European sources. Now, the scholarly study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific and multidisciplinary methodologies. The haplogroup most commonly associated with Indigenous Amerindian genetics

16128-489: Was rich in gold. Columbus, for his part, continued to the northern coast of Hispaniola , where he landed on 6 December. There, the Santa María ran aground on 25 December 1492 and had to be abandoned. The wreck was used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples. Columbus was received by the native cacique Guacanagari , who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including

16256-459: Was still imperfect at the time of his first voyage. By sailing due west from the Canary Islands during hurricane season , skirting the so-called horse latitudes of the mid-Atlantic, he risked being becalmed and running into a tropical cyclone , both of which he avoided by chance. By about 1484, Columbus proposed his planned voyage to King John II of Portugal . The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on

16384-538: Was the construction of complexes of large earthen mounds and grand plazas, continuing the mound-building traditions of earlier cultures. They grew maize and other crops intensively, participated in an extensive trade network, and had a complex stratified society. The Mississippians first appeared around 1000 CE, following and developing out of the less agriculturally intensive and less centralized Woodland period. The largest urban site of these people, Cahokia —located near modern East St. Louis, Illinois —may have reached

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