Колумб

Восточное окружное управление образования

Департамента образования г. Москвы

Государственное образовательное учреждение

Центр образования №1927

Научно-практическая конференция учащихся

«Открытие»

ПРОЕКТНАЯ РАБОТА

Ученика 5 класса «А»

Иванова Михаила

Тема: «Открытие Америки Христофором Колумбом»

Руководитель проекта:

Иванова Н.В.

г. Москва

Contents

I. The main introduction.

II. Christopher Columbus.

     1.2 Biography.

     2.2 Preparations for a Great Journey.

     3.2 Four Great Voyages.

     4.2 A hero or a villain?

III. The Conclusion.

IV. The List of the used Literature.

I. The main introduction.

    In my report I want to tell you about a great discoverer. He was called Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, Cristobal Colon in Spanish and today Americans call him Christopher Columbus. World wide, he’s called the discoverer of America. Some people might wonder why. After all, Columbus didn’t set our in search of new continents and he never realized that he had found any. Moreover, he wasn’t the first European to set foot in the western Hemisphere. Long before his time Vikings probably reached the New World. Historians also believed that in the 14th century, Portuguese and English fishing boats crossed the Atlantic Ocean. And landed in Newfoundland and Labrador. But these contacts didn’t last long and didn’t change anything. Only Columbus’s voyages resulted in permanent links between the Eastern and western Hemispheres Columbus’s historic landing on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 was a turning point in the world history. His historic landing on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 was a turning point. That’s why it was interesting for me to find much more information about this great person.

II. Christopher Columbus.

1.2 Biography.

          Columbus lived in the perfect place at the perfect time for the role he was destined to play in history. He was born in 1451 in Genoa. As a boy, Columbus helped his father in his wool-weaving business. His father soon pushed him into a business career. At the age of 14 Christopher began sailing on trading ships in the Mediterranean. When he was 25 years old, on his first voyage in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal, his ship was attacked by pirates. The ship sank, but Columbus held onto a floating oar until he reached the Portuguese shore.

2.2 Preparations for a Great Journey.

    Columbus stayed in Portugal for about 10 years. He joined his brother’s mapmaking business. He also worked as a seagoing businessman buying and selling goods.

    At that time the Otto man Turks had conquered much of southeastern Europe and they controlled Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), a major trade centre between Europe and Asia. This made it difficult for Europeans to import the Asian goods they wanted – gold, jewels, silks, perfumes and spices. A land journey was risky and expensive.

   Europeans wanted a safe sea route to allow trade with the countries of the Far East – India, China, Japan and the Indies.

    The Portuguese were trying to reach the Far East by sailing around the southern tip of Africa. Columbus thought he had a better route and he tried to “sell” his idea to the king of Portugal. Columbus claimed that a ship could reach the East by sailing west. He was right but he also made a very important mistake. He underestimated the size of the Earth.

    In 1485, after the king of Portugal refused to finance Columbus’s expedition, Columbus and his son travelled to Spain to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for ships and sailors. Columbus promised them wealth and new territory. But Isabella and Ferdinand could not afford to equip him for the voyage while the Spanish were fighting the Moors. Columbus had to wait about 7 years.

   Finally in 1492 the Spanish conquered Granada, the last Moorish stronghold. Isabella was then able to give more thought to Columbus’s idea. Legend says that the Queen offered to pawn her jewels to finance the trip. But this sacrifice was not necessary. The money came from the national treasury and some of Columbus’s wealthy supporters. Columbus didn’t want to take the risk for nothing. He asked for a good salary, a percentage of the riches his discoveries brought to Spain, the right to be governor of any lands he might find, and the title of the Admiral of Ocean Sea. Columbus asked for so much that Ferdinand got angry and almost rejected the arrangement. But, in the end, they made an agreement that was very generous to Columbus.

3.2 Four Great Voyages.

   For his first voyage, Columbus had three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. The entire crew of all three ships numbered about 90. The ships sailed from the Canary Islands on September 6, 1492. Weeks went by, ant the sailors became frightened. They begged Columbus to turn back; there were even whispers of mutiny. Columbus wrote in his journal, “I comforted them with great promises of land and riches”. On October 10, Columbus and his crew agreed to sail on for 3 more days and then turn around if no land was seen.

   Two days later, at night, the sailors saw light in the darkness and then white sand shining in the moonlight. On the 12 of October Columbus’s ships were approaching an island in the Bahamas, an island that Columbus named San Salvador.

  When dawn came, Columbus and some of his men came ashore in small boats. They placed a Spanish flag in the ground and declared the island a Spanish territory. They were greeted by timid but friendly people who wore no clothes. Because Columbus thought he had landed on an island in the Indies near Japan or China, he called these natives Indians.

  The three ships spent a few days at San Salvador and then sailed on to Cuba and Hispaniola (where Haiti and the Dominican Republic are now located). There the Santa Maria was wrecked. Columbus built a fort on the island and left 39 men there, then the Nina and Pinta sat sail for Spain. They took with them some of their findings-trinkets, plants, birds… and several New Word natives. The voyage home was extremely rough, and some of the Indians died. On March 15, Columbus’s ships arrived safely in Spain.

    After his first voyage, Columbus was showered with honours. He was now to be titled “Don” and he had the right to sit in the presence of the king and queen. For his second expedition, he was given 17 ships and about 1,500 men. When his fleet reached Hispaniola he found me he had left there dead and the fort burned. Still, Columbus stuck stubbornly to his idea to found a colony. He began to build a settlement which he named La Isabella. The town – the first European settlement in the New World – lived only 5 years.

    During these years Columbus made one more voyage from Spain to West Indies and that time he finally reached the mainland of South America. But his colony was in trouble. The Spanish colonists had expected to find gold and riches. Instead they found hard work, unhealthy climate and constant danger. Ferdinand and Isabella got reports that Columbus had ordered the execution Spaniards who rebelled against him, refused to give supplies to those who displeased him and enslaved Indians.

    The king’s representative came from Spain to settle the trouble in the colony. He put Columbus and his brothers in chains and sent them back to Spain. On board, the captain offered to unlock Columbus’s chains, but Columbus refused the offer.

   When he arrived in Spain, the king and queen freed him, but they replaced him as governor of Hispaniola.

In an attempt to regain his good name, Columbus began his fourth and last voyage. In 1502, his four ships sailed along the east coast of Central America. But by then the Admiral was only one of several captains exploring the Indies.

  During his last years, Columbus had a comfortable in come from his share of the gold that was found in Hispaniola. But he was ill and in great pain.

  Columbus died in 1506 and he was buried in Seville. Even after death he continued to travel. In 1542, his bones were shipped to Santo Doming to rest with honour in the cathedral. Then his remains were moved to Havana and in 1899 again to Seville. But were

they? Some say that the wrong bones were moved from Santo Doming and that admiral still rests on his beloved island of Hispaniola.

4.2 A hero or a villain?

  The consequences of Columbus’s voyages were most trade for the native peoples of the Americas. As Europeans took over the New World, Native Americans lost their lives by the millions. They died from European illnesses or were killed in battles with colonists.

  Those who survived were forced to live like prisoners in reservations. So today, when Americans honour the bravery and the genius of Columbus, they also remember the pain that resulted from his voyages.

  Was Columbus a hero or a villain? Probably both. He was certainly ambitious. He could work hard, take risks, and accomplish something important. (However, many would say) he was also greedy and he wanted too much in return for his efforts. He was so persistent that he was often stubborn. Nothing could make him admit that he had not reached the Far East. Admitting that would have meant his expeditions failed. Most disturbing, however, is the evidence that the brilliant sailor was harsh, even cruel, in dealing with his crew, the colonists in Hispaniola and the Native Americans.

III. Conclusion.

   But still, Columbus continues to be admired for his courage, self-confidence, ability, and, perhaps most of all, his persistence. As Joaquin Miller said in his poem about Columbus: He gained a world; he gave that world its grandest lesson: On ‘Sail on’.

1. IV. The List of the used Literature.
3. И. П. Магидович, В. И. Магидович. Очерки по истории географических открытий. т. II. М., «Просвещение», 1983.
4. Путешествия Христофора Колумба. М. Географгиз. 1956
5. Верлинден Ч., Матис Г. Покорители Америки. Колумб, Кортес. Ростов-на-Дону: Феникс, 1997
6. Журнал Speak Out. Издательство «Глосса Пресс» 5/2002
7. Я.М. Свет. Колумб. М. Веста. 1992