Christopher Columbus was born in Italy. He was the son of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna Fontanarossa. With one sister and four brothers, Christopher was the oldest. He grew up along a seaport of west Genoa. He helped his father in the family business of processing and selling wool. Having grown up in a major seaport, as most young men who did, a seafaring career only came natural for him. By 14, he was serving as messenger, common sailor, and even a privateer as he proved himself to be a confident sailor. By 21 he had command of a ship on expedition to North Africa. By 23, he was hired as a sailor on his first long journey to the island of Khios, in the Aegean Sea. By 25, he was given the opportunity to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. This proved disasterous in that the fleet was attacked by French privateers off the tip of Portugal. Columbus’s ship was burned. His only escape was to swim 6 miles to the Portuguese coast. He eventually settled in Lisbon, Portugal, a large Genoese community of merchants and shipbuilders. He married into Portuguese nobility, the daughter of former Govenor of Porto Santo, a Portuguese possession off the northwest coast of Africa, in the Madeira Islands. Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, relatively poor but highly respected, gave Columbus a son Diego and died soon after.

After presenting his proposal of sailing east by going west, to King John II of Portugal, Christopher Columbus with his son moved to Spain when his proposal was denied. Not only was the adventure too expensive, Columbus was wrong about distances and measurements, and his plan contradicted the king’s commitment to finding an eastward route to Asia by traveling around Africa. Columbus’s idea to get to the east by sailing west was based upon geographers well established theory that there was only one body of water on the surface of the earth and that it connected Europe and Asia. Based on this, one could sail from the west to get to the east. Only the distance was in question.

It took ten years for Spain to decide to fund Columbus’s exploration only after Portugal had grown internationally. Portuguese explorers had discovered and settled Madeiras and Azores, occupied the Cape Verde Islands and had established trading posts in the Gulf of Guinea. And, by 1488, Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese navigator had fulfilled his King John II’s commitment by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa opening a sea route to the Far East. Spain felt compelled to rise to Portugal’s international growth and eventually sponsored Columbus’s travel.

During the period of 1500’s-1600’s, the Spanish Christians retoke Spain from the Muslims. This may be considered the beginnings of Spain becoming a world power. Other notable events that took place including the Spanish Inquisition were more significantly the acquisition of foreign lands, all claimed in the name of Queen Isabella of Spain. Spain had acquired a huge colonial empire in the Americas. They became a dominant force by having achieved ruling power across Europe. They also acquired many islands in the Philippines. Spreading its Spanish culture, language and religion, far and wide, Spain had become a super world power.

By 1588 Spain had acquired the West Indies, Cuba, Florida, Mexico, Central America, a large part of South America and the Philippines. Christopher Columbus was not the only explorer to have claimed foreign lands for Spain. Other explorers included Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who claimed Mexico in 1540 and Francisco Pizarro who gave leeway to Spanish colonization of lands in South America in the mid 1530’s by conquering the Inca Empire. Other explorers such as Vasco Nunez Balboa, Ferdinand Magellan and Hernando De Soto, eventually laid claim to Latin America for Spain.

Motivated by Portugal’s achievements and their kings denial of his proposal, to sail east by going west, Christopher Columbus in 1492 initiated the creation of the Spanish Empire. In an attempt to find a quicker route to India, than that of Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, he set sail west, intended to arrive east. Instead, he continued along his miscalculated chart which took him further west, never reaching east to India, rather the Americas. On October 12, 1492, he encountered islands which became known as the West Indies. Convinced he’d reached India, he called the native of the lands, Indians. Within the next days, with the assistance of natives, he further explored and claimed other islands in the west, such as Cuba and Hispaniola.

Christopher Columbus returned to Spain in the spring of 1493 giving his report that the islands were perfect for colonization. He was sent back with 17 ships in the fall of 1500. His four journeys sparked the establishment of the Spanish Empire, and eventually the New World. Yet, in Columbus’s mind, as well as those he had convinced, he insist he had achieved his goal of reaching east by going west. Thus, in the name of Spain, Christopher Columbus was the first explorer to have claimed foreign lands for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, creating the onset of the Spanish Empire.