Christopher Columbus

He was a Spanish explorer who after a lot of lobbying at the Spanish court, signed a contract with the King of Spain Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella with regard to exploration of new land .With the financial support from the royalty, he began his first voyage on October 12, 1492. He was in search of a sea route to Asia to in order to dominate the spice trade that was dominated by the Arabs and the Italians. But he, mistakenly landed at the Bahamas Archipelago which he called San Salvador and thought he had reached the East Indies .He therefore called the inhabitants indios.. After exploring the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola, Christopher left for Spain leaving 39 of his men behind in the island in the settlement of La Navidad. The main purpose of his second voyage on 24 September 1493 was to colonize the New World. Therefore with him went priest, farmers and soldiers. On 3 November 1493, he landed in Marie-Galante, which he named Santa Maria la Galante and then he reached Guadeloupe Santa Maria de Guadalupe de Extremadura. He then went about establishing new settlements like Puerto Rico, La Isabella, and Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica and then returned to Span. Christopher made his third voyage to the New World on 30 May 1498. He reached Tridad on 31 July and explored the mainland of South America and discovered the island of Chacachacare and Margarita Island, Tobago and Grenda. On his return to Span he was arrested for mismanagement in the newly founded regions. His fourth voyage on 11 May 1502, was mainly to discover the regions around the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. On 14th August his crew reached the American mainland Honduras and later proceeded to Almirante Bay, Panama. After establishing a garrison at the mouth of Rio Belen in January 1503, they managed to sail in the storm and stop at St.Ann's Bay, Jamaica. Later, after crossing many hurdles, the crew landed in Spain on November, 1504. He was imprisoned for being tyrannical governor in the New Found World and later died at the age of 55 in Valladolid without getting the claim of his contract from the Spanish Crown.