He explored the West Indies, South America and Central America, but died a disappointed man, feeling he had been mistreated by his patron, King Ferdinand of Spain.Ĭolumbus was likely born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Columbus was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century. Most of the Columbian lawsuits were settled by 1536, but the legal proceedings nearly dragged on until the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ famous voyage.On May 20, 1506, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain. Heirs of Columbus and the Spanish monarchy were in litigation until 1790.Īfter the death of Columbus, his heirs waged a lengthy legal battle with the Spanish crown, claiming that the monarchy short-changed them on money and profits due the explorer. It could be possible that, aptly, pieces of Columbus are both in the New World and the Old World. The Dominican Republic has refused to let the other remains be tested. Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of the explorer and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral. Even in death, Columbus continued to cross the Atlantic.įollowing his death in 1506, Columbus was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then moved to Seville. On the appointed night, the eclipse darkened the moon and turned it red, and the terrified islanders offered provisions and beseeched Columbus to ask his god for mercy. Knowing from his almanac that a lunar eclipse was coming on February 29, 1504, Columbus warned the islanders that his god was upset with their refusal of food and that the moon would “rise inflamed with wrath” as an expression of divine displeasure. The heavens that he relied on for navigation, however, would guide him safely once again. In February 1504, a desperate Columbus was stranded in Jamaica, abandoned by half his crew and denied food by the islanders. Luckily for him, he ran into the uncharted Americas. Columbus dramatically underestimated the earth’s circumference and the size of the oceans. Royal advisors in Spain raised similar concerns to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The experts told Columbus his calculations were wrong and that the voyage would take much longer than he thought. In Portugal, England and France, the response was the same: no. Three countries refused to back Columbus’ voyage.įor nearly a decade, Columbus lobbied European monarchies to bankroll his quest to discover a western sea route to Asia. While the United States commemorates Columbus-even though he never set foot on the North American mainland-with parades and a federal holiday, Leif Eriksson Day on October 9 receives little fanfare. Some historians even claim that Ireland’s Saint Brendan or other Celtic people crossed the Atlantic before Eriksson. That distinction is generally given to the Norse Viking Leif Eriksson, who is believed to have landed in present-day Newfoundland around 1000 A.D., almost five centuries before Columbus set sail.
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