The Most Famous Mistake in History
Christopher Columbus, the captain who reached first the New World, the two new continents, can be considered the luckiest discoverer in western civilization, because the territory he reached is the biggest in terms of size. This is abstract, of course, because many adventurers and settlers after that explored this enormous territory. Also we know how many peoples lived there - Indians (more than 200 tribes), Aztecs, Mayas, Inks. So the word "discovered" is relative in this case. Maybe we'd better say "discovered from the European point of view".
Most people think Columbus made a mistake in the east-west orientation, and that's how he ended on the opposite side of the globe - his original idea was to reach Asian India, a country which had many attractive things, but too far away for land-tradesmen. The truth is different - at the time of Columbus (second half of 15th century) the idea about the planet being a round sphere instead of flat surface was gaining more and more grounds. Christopher (whose Spanish name is strangely enough Cristobal Colon) believed in what would later become the postulates of Copernicus concerning the form of our planet. So he wanted to make a trip around the world and reach the Indies from the east. The only mistake he made was the scale. Trusting Ptolemaic view, he thought that the earth was much smaller than it actually is. And he also didn't know (neither did anybody) that there are two nice continents and an enormous ocean in between. So he started his voyage with the idea to circumnavigate the globe and thus reach India.
A child of poor wool tradesman from Genoa, Italy, Christopher's childhood dream was to live on sea. When he was 23 he took part in a big sea voyage - in the Mediterranean; two years later he saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time. He settled in Portugal and became a merchant sailor in the Portuguese fleet. His most significant voyage was to Iceland through Ireland.
The main reason European great powers wanted to find a water way to India was not the length and difficulty of journey, but the disappearance of the stable Mongolian state and the rise of the Muslim countries. That is why courts and wealthy people decided that investments in expeditions on sea are worthy. The latter made Columbus' job convincing the Spanish king and queen to finance the initiative easier. And yet he needed whole seven years to persuade them, provided that half of the expenses were given by Italian investors, which Columbus had found.
The prominent captain made all in all four voyages. The first is the most famous one, three enormous and famous ships set sails for going round the world. The names of the vessels were called Santa Maria (a two-mast carrack), Nina and Pinta (they were smaller than Santa Maria, from the type caravel).
After 29 days in the open sea, Columbus' crew caught sight of the island San Salvador. The first local people he met were from the tribe Arawak, extremely friendly and calm, which is probably where the concept of the "Noble Savage" originates. The crew explored Cuba and still at this point Columbus believed Himalayas are in front of him. His journey back is even more astounding than the first part - he didn't understand the course and dynamics of trade winds, so he started his way back on the same route which he used to come. He entered one of the most severe storms for many years (some say in the whole century), yet he made it to the Portuguese shore. One hundred caravels were lost in the enormous violent storm, but the entourage of Santa Maria - Nina and Pinta fortunately survived. In 1493 he launched another expedition, with 1200 people participating, to colonize the territories of Arawak tribe, and to further explore the unknown land. He passed near some island, which he called Dominica, later - another one Puerto Rico. At Hispanola started the first tension between locals and intruders, which escalated to murders. Columbus took 1800 Arawaks into slavery (first slaves from the new world) of which only 550 arrived healthy and alive. During this second voyage Columbus discloses himself in a rather negative light - he suggested several times in front of the monarch that slavery can become very profitable business; his other aim, which was more difficult to gain because of the already started arguments and quarrels between Europeans and locals: gold.
During his third voyage to the new continent, Columbus visited Trinidad. He explored the gulf between Venezuela and Trinidad. He returned to Hispaniola to discover that both locals and the recent Spanish settlers were not pleased with the status quo.
His fourth and last journey's aim was to find a short cut to the Indian Ocean. Storm badly damaged his ships, and he had to stay on the island of Jamaica for one year. To gain the respect and awe of the locals, (just like in a movie) he predicted a lunar eclipse by a German astronomer.
Even though Columbus will always be "the Discoverer of America" to most people, nowadays more and more scientists support the thesis that the first European to reach the New World was in fact Leifur Eriksson who went from Iceland to North America in 11th century.
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