Christopher Columbus: Life and Voyages in the Age of Exploration

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 CE and died in 1506 at the age of 54. He became famous during his lifetime as the man who discovered the ‘new world’ - understood as the Americas generally during the Age of Exploration. Since the 19th century, however, he has been credited with the discovery of North America, specifically the USA, owing to the highly romanticized “biography” of Columbus by the American author Washington Irving. Columbus never set foot on North America and never claimed to have; the understanding that he did all comes from Irving and is a complete myth. Although the continent’s discovery is regularly attributed to Columbus, it should strike people who make this claim as strange that it is not known as Columbia but as America! Columbus made four voyages and he explored the areas of the Caribbean, Cuba, Central America, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Bahamas. Christopher Columbus set out not to find a new world but to find a western sea route