Christopher Columbus, a Founder of The New World

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian trader, explorer and navigator. He was born in Genoa, Italy. In 1492, a new world had been founded by this man. Many people in Western of Europe want the shorter way to get to Asia. At that time, he didn’t have enough money to pay for the voyage. So he ask for the King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand II and Isabelle I to pay for this trip. His purposed of this trip was reached to Asia, where had plenty of gold, pearls and spices. Then Columbus thought he could get to Asia by sailing west. His journey has been through three voyages.

In August 3rd, 1492, Columbus and his sailors left Spain in three ships: Santa Maria, Pinta, Santa Clara. In October 12th, 1492, his crew landed on a small island in Bahamas called Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador Island because he claimed it as Spain. After searching the island they met Arawak and Taino whose Columbus called as Indians. Then they sailed to Cuba – the country of tobacco and Hispaniola and built Navidad, a fort with a name meant Christmas. It was the first European military bases in Western Hem. But he didn’t forget his main purpose that to find gold, so he took some Arawaks as prisoners and ordered them to lead him to take gold, but he failed.

In September 24th, 1493, Columbus left Spain to make Spanish colonies in New World. Explored some of the islands of Lesser Antilles, around Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba. After the first voyage, Columbus had developed his crew. His crew have 17 ships and 1200 sailors including soldiers, farmers and priests to convert natives to Christianity. Then he went back to Navidad but it had burnt down and 37 soldiers were buried and the rest disappeared.

The main reasons were diseases and fought with Arawak people. And while Columbus exploring Jamaica and Cuba, his soldiers stopped building fort and farms and asked Arawak people to give them food but didn’t work too much. Then they trying to steal and raped Arawak women. After every conflicts, the Arawak fought back but they’ve failed because lack of weapon. On his conquer, Columbus made people who greater than 14 years old to give him certain amount of gold every 3 months. If not, his man would cut off their hands and leave bleed to death. About 10000 people died because of that strict. Many tried to run away but can’t because Columbus had tons of dogs and hunt them down. On February, 1495, Columbus captured 1500 Taino for trade but they’ve died nearly half on their trip.

In 1498, to find a continent South-west of Cape Verde islands as King John II ordered. Queen Isabelle reminded Columbus that he should treat people on the island well to convert them to Christians. 3 ships straight to West Indies, 3 ships to Portugese island, Canary Islands and Cape Verde. After left Cape Verde, they sailed to the Northern Coast of South America and landed in Trinidad. He also explored more land in South America which now are called Tobago and Grenada. In August 19th, 1498, he and his crew returned to Hispaniola, many settlers were unhappy because they think they can have more gold in the New World. Columbus give settlers land in Hispaniola to keep them happy but he failed. The settlers sending complaints to Spain.

In 1499, Queen Isabelle sent Francisco de Bobadilla to Hispaniola and gave him all the power to do everything on the island. In 1500, he arrived and the first thing he did was arrested Columbus and sent him back to Spain. Finding America had made a root of a development of the Americas. From that period, many countries were created and lead to a developed continent as daytime. Nearly 10 years, Columbus had discovered a huge part of the world where we called the New World. After his conquer, people from Europe start to migrate to the New World for a new life and better live conditions. In 1506, Columbus died because of heart failure and arthristis in Spain. People will remember Columbus as a founder of the New World.

Works Cited:

1. Brym, R. J., & Lie, J. (2009). Sociology: Your compass for a new world (3rd Canadian ed.). Nelson Education.
2. Durkheim, E. (1982). The rules of sociological method. Simon and Schuster.
3. Giddens, A. (2018). Sociology. Polity Press.
4. Henslin, J. M. (2018). Essentials of sociology: A down-to-earth approach. Pearson.
5. Macionis, J. J., & Gerber, L. M. (2019). Sociology (9th ed.). Pearson.
6. Ritzer, G. (2018). Introduction to sociology. Sage Publications.
7. Schaefer, R. T. (2017). Sociology: A brief introduction (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
8. Shepard, J. M., & Greene, J. O. (2003). Sociology and you. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
9. Thio, A. (2018). Sociology: A brief introduction (13th ed.). Pearson.
10. Van Krieken, R., Habibis, D., Smith, P., Hutchins, B., Martin, G., & Maton, K. (2018). Sociology. Oxford University Press.