Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Genoese navigator who crossed the Atlantic Ocean under the sponsorship of the Crown of Castile. After years at sea and residence in Portugal, he secured backing from Isabella I and Ferdinand II and, in 1492, reached islands in the Caribbean, initiating sustained contact between Europe and the Americas. He completed four voyages between 1492 and 1504, reaching the Caribbean, Central America, and the northern coast of South America. Appointed Admiral of the Ocean Sea and governor of the territories he encountered, he governed the Spanish settlement on Hispaniola. As governor, he administered a coercive labor-and-tribute system over the Taino and authorized the enslavement and shipment of Indigenous people to Spain; his rule was marked by violence against the Indigenous population, whose numbers collapsed steeply in these years. In 1500 he was arrested by a royal commissioner and removed from the governorship. He died at Valladolid in 1506, maintaining he had reached Asia.