Aleksandra Bojović
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Publishing House PČELICA Kolubarska 4, Čačak, Serbia office@pcelica.rs www.pcelica.rs
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ontemporary witnesses noted that he was a mysterious and devout man, both intelligent and inquisitive. History remembers him as one of the greatest seafarers of all time. His name was Christopher Columbus and the following is the story of his adventurous life.
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Christopher Columbus
A Renaissance Child Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the Italian
city of Genoa. His father, Domenico Colombo, was a middle class weaver and merchant. However, that was not enough to secure his son anything more than an ordinary education.
As he grew up during the Renaissance1, a period in time known for a wide interest in arts and sciences, young Columbus managed to play a leading role in the events of the period. His inability to continue his education merely shifted his curiosity and intelligence towards a life of an adventurer. When he was only fourteen he set out on his first sea voyage. From that moment on, sailing high seas became his way of life. ยน The Renaissance is a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th centuries, considered to have been the bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history.
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Imaginative Geography Young Christopher didn’t spend his childhood in idleness
and amusement. He diligently studied Latin1 and learned it very well. But it was the stories that he heard from old sailors, about unknown distant rich lands, that sparked his curiosity and steered him towards studying geography. Thoughts on Courage You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Christopher Columbus
Many Renaissance explorers, seafarers and scientists believed that Earth was round like a ball, and not flat like a plate as the Catholic Church claimed. However, their geographic knowledge was largely guesswork, and full of imaginary diagrams of unknown places and continents. 4
1 People today don’t speak Latin. It is used only by the Catholic Church and in sciences, such as medicine and law.
At about this time, more modern maps showed that by travelling either east or west one could sail around the Earth. That meant that the great prize of reaching India could be achieved not only by travelling east, but also west, across the Atlantic Ocean. This was important, since the eastern route was restricted due to the Ottoman conquests. 5
A Pirate’s Adventure Between the ages of twenty and twenty-five Christopher
Columbus was a pirate. At that time, piracy wasn’t considered a crime. Armed ships would often attack one another, but in accordance with precisely defined rules of war.
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Even though piracy existed in Antiquity1, it was the advancements in shipbuilding that led to large-scale sea battles and robberies. The reason for this was the fact that ships became better equipped with weapons, capable of surviving long journeys and carrying heavy loads. There were two types of sea bandits or pirates: those who robbed for themselves and those who robbed in the name of specific countries, who equipped them with ships and weaponry. During the Renaissance period this occurrence was highly spread because ships, full of precious cargo, travelled back from long voyages. Such vessels were an appealing lure for pirate ships. Many pirates became so powerful and skilled at seafaring that rulers later commissioned and paid them to serve as their official navy. That’s how young Columbus acquired his primary knowledge of seafaring in a pirate crew. Antiquity is a time period that lasted from the 10th century B.C until the 5th century A.D.
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Aleksandra Bojović
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Publishing House PČELICA Kolubarska 4, Čačak, Serbia office@pcelica.rs www.pcelica.rs