Person1451 – 1506
Christopher Columbus
Also called: Cristóbal Colón, Cristoforo Colombo
Genoese navigator who, sponsored by Spain, crossed the Atlantic and reached the Americas in 1492
Where they went
2 related events
- 1
After Columbus’s voyages, crops, livestock, people and germs crossed between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Potatoes, maize and chili peppers spread worldwide, while epidemics devastated Indigenous American populations.
- 2
Spain and Portugal agreed to divide newly discovered lands along a meridian in the Atlantic — the west to Spain, the east to Portugal.
People who appear alongside
- Isabella I of Castile1451 – 1504
Queen of Castile who, ruling Spain with Ferdinand II of Aragon, conquered Granada and sponsored Columbus’s voyage
Themes this person appears in
- The Age of Discovery1415 – 1600
From Ceuta to the Manila galleons — two centuries in which European ships crossed the oceans and bound the world together by sea