Age of Discovery and the New WorldTravel and discovery
First voyage of Christopher Columbus
Columbus’s three ships, fitted out by the Crown of Castile to find a western route to Asia, crossed the Atlantic and reached the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola.
- Date
- 3 August 1492 – 15 March 1493exact date · duration: ≈ 7 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Palos de la Fronteratoday: Palos de la Frontera, Spain · Western and Central Europe
- Route
- Palos de la Frontera → Atlantic off Tenerife → San Sebastián de La Gomera → San Salvador (Guanahani) → Northeast coast of Cuba → Off Cape Maisí → Cape Saint-Nicolas (Hispaniola) → Off Tortuga Island → Off Cap-Haïtien → Fort La Navidad → Off Monte Cristi → Off Cape Isabela → Off Cabo Francés Viejo → Off the Samaná Peninsula → Santa Maria Island (Azores) → Lisbon → Off Cape St. Vincent → Off Cape Santa Maria (Algarve) → Palos de la Frontera
- Participants
- Christopher Columbus, Crown of Castile
- Threads
- Age of Discovery and the New World
The Santa María, Pinta and Niña sailed from Palos on 3 August 1492, left La Gomera on 6 September after a stay in the Canary Islands, and sighted land on 12 October. To the end of his life Columbus believed that he had reached the fringes of Asia. After the Santa María was wrecked off Hispaniola, the fort of La Navidad was built there and garrisoned with 39 men — the first European settlement in the New World.
The return voyage, by way of the Azores and Lisbon, ended at Palos on 15 March 1493.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Fall of Granada2 January 1492 · Western and Central Europeafter the war the monarchs signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe with Columbus (17 April 1492)
Consequences
- Treaty of Tordesillas7 June 1494 · Western and Central Europedispute between Castile and Portugal over the new lands
Includes
- Columbus’s landfall on San Salvador12 October 1492 · Latin America
Related events
- Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295 · East AsiaMarco Polo’s descriptions of Cathay and Cipangu fed the search for a western route to Asia; Columbus’s annotated copy of Polo’s book is kept in Seville
- Discovery and settlement of Madeirabetween 1418 and 1419 – 1425 · Africabefore his voyage Columbus lived on Madeira and Porto Santo, where he married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo
- John Cabot’s voyage to North AmericaMay 1497 – 6 August 1497 · North Americalike Columbus, Cabot sought a western route to Asia; the Bristol merchant John Day’s letter about the voyage of the Matthew was apparently addressed to Columbus
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804 · Latin AmericaColumbus founded the first Spanish settlements on Hispaniola; the western part of the island became the French colony of Saint-Domingue, where the slaves rose in revolt in 1791
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Construction of the Moscow Kremlin walls and towers1485–1495
- Sudebnik of 1497September 1497
Africa
- Askia Muhammad’s pilgrimage to Meccabetween 1495 and 1497 – between 1497 and 1498
- Voyage of Bartolomeu Dias around the southern tip of Africabetween July and August 1487 – December 1488
North America
- John Cabot’s voyage to North AmericaMay 1497 – 6 August 1497
Latin America
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Voyages of Christopher Columbus
- Wikipedia (Russian): Первая экспедиция Христофора Колумба
- Wikipedia (Russian): Открытие Америки
- Morison S. E. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus. — Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.
- Wikidata: Q3771259