Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (c. 1451–1506) was a Genoese navigator who, sailing for the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, completed four transatlantic voyages and opened sustained European contact with the Caribbean and the Americas. After years at sea and persistent lobbying, he left Palos in August 1492 with the Santa María, Niña and Pinta, and on 12 October reached Guanahani in the Bahamas. He explored Cuba and Hispaniola, where he established La Navidad, and returned to Castile in 1493 with captives and reports of a western route to Asia. Three further voyages took him to the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad and the northern coast of South America, and the Central American coast. Appointed governor of the Indies, he was accused of misrule and removed in 1500; later voyages restored some of his privileges but not his former authority. He died in Valladolid in 1506, still convinced he had reached the Indies. His voyages triggered the Columbian exchange, European colonization and the catastrophic decline of Indigenous populations, while his own reputation remains contested.