Christopher Columbus

Table Of Contents

Introduction by Koren Bakshi

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live. Cristopher Columbus is one of those people.

I chose to prepare this research project on Cristopher Columbus for several reasons. To begin with, I have always wondered how people on journeys at sea survive (mentally and physically). In addition, I want to know how people got to a high ranked status in the old days.

There are a few things that I already know about Cristopher Columbus. Firstly, I know that he was the one to discover America. In addition, I know that Columbus came from a Jewish family who were forced to convert as a result of the rulers’ decree.

I expect to learn new and interesting things about Cristopher Columbus. First and foremost, I expect to find out about Columbus’s journey to discover America. Also, I want to learn about his way of life in the old days and how different it was from our lives. Finally, I would like to discover what motivated him into going into the unknown.

Cristopher Columbus has left his mark on the world. I am looking forward to finding out more about him.

Introduction by Aviv Hevroni

Throughout history, there have been people who influenced the way we live. Christopher Columbus is one of these people.

I chose to prepare this research project on Columbus for several reasons. To begin with, Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, but he was the first one who discovered America and advertised that it existed. Secondly, America is a very important continent. It’s culture was spread all over the world and without it the world would’ve been very different.

There are several things that I already know about Christopher Columbus. Firstly, I know that he was an Italian explorer and navigator who crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition, I know that he discovered America which led to other discoveries.

I expect to learn new and interesting things about Columbus. First and foremost, I expect to find out about one of his adventures while discovering America. Also, I want to learn about his life. Finally, I would like to discover who he was and how he got involved in discovering a whole new place.

Christopher Columbus has left his mark in the world. I’m looking forward to finding out more about him.

BIOGRAPHY

Christopher Columbus was born between 25 August and 31 October 1451 in Genoa, Italy. Little is known about the origin of Columbus, but Some experts claim that he was from a family of martyred Jews who immigrated to Italy from Spain in the riots of 1391. Columbus expressed in his writing a broad and in-depth knowledge of the Old Testament (Bible), which was not acceptable among people of his class those days. In addition, most of his people and close aides were converted Jews. Columbus lived in Genoa with his family, his father was named Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and Savona and he also owned a cheese stand. His mother was named Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers and a sister — Bartolomeo, Giovanni and Giacomo and Bianchinetta.

In 1470, the Columbus family moved to Savona (a city in Italy), where Domenico took over a tavern and in the same year Christopher was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of René of Anjou (the duke of Anjou) to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola families of Genoa. Later, he made a trip to Chios, an Aegean island then ruled by Genoa, and returned back to Italy with financial independence. In May 1476, he took part in an armed group who was sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe. He probably stopped in Bristol, England, and Galway, Ireland. He may have also gone to Iceland in 1477. It is known that in the autumn of 1477, he sailed on a Portuguese ship from Galway to Lisbon

where he found his brother Bartolomeo, and they continued trading for the Centurione family.

Columbus based himself in Lisbon from 1477 to 1485. In 1478 Columbus married Filipa Moniz Perestrello, daughter of the Porto Santo governor and Portuguese nobleman of Lombard origin Bartolomeu Perestrello and  The two had a child, Diego Columbus who was born in the year of 1479, Columbus also had another child out of marriage(Ferdinand Columbus)  who was from a mistress called Beatriz Enríquez de Arana.

Since Christopher Columbus was born in the port city of Genoa, it was not surprising that he became a navigator. Although he was largely self-taught through reading, he learned in Prince Henry’s School of Navigation in Portugal.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans wanted to find sea routes to the Far East. Columbus wanted to find a new route to India, China, Japan and the Spice Islands. He knew that If he could reach these lands, he would be able to bring back rich cargoes. While Columbus was sailing west, he realized that the world was round, so instead of sailing east around the coast of Africa, (as other explorers at the time were doing) he knew he would still reach his destination.

During his life Columbus had many achievements such as, first voyage (1492–1493)-On
October 12, 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus made landfall in what is now the Bahamas. Columbus and his ships landed on an island that the native Lucayan people called Guanahani.

Columbus renamed it San Salvador. on October 29, 1492 the expedition landed in Cuba and stayed there until November and on November 22 ,the captain of the Pinta ship decided to stay in Cuba and leave the expedition ,on December when they decided to go back to Spain during the way the Santa maria(the ship that Columbus wasn’t on that also traveled with him back to Spain) sank and all the people in the ship found themselves dead and Columbus returned to Spain only with his ship and 100 people that went on the mission, they were only 22 getting back to Spain.

Second voyage (1943-1946) -Columbus left from Cádiz in Spain for his second voyage on September 24, 1493, with 17 ships and about 1200 men. His aim was to conquer the Taíno tribe and colonies the region. The second voyage brought European livestock (horses, sheep, and cattle) and settlers to America for the first time. Third Voyage (1498-1500)-Columbus left the port of Sanlucar in southern Spain on May 30, 1498 with six ships, bound for the New World on his third voyage. After stopping at the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, the fleet arrived at Gomera in the Canary Islands on June 19.

Fourth Voyage (1502-1505)-Christopher Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean.

On May 11, 1502, four old ships and 140 men under Columbus’s command put to sea from the port of Cadiz. At age fifty-one, Columbus was sick, but felt he had one more voyage left in him.

Columbus also produced two books during his later years. Book of Privileges (1502) detailing and documenting the rewards from the Spanish Crown to which he believed he and his heirs were entitled

Book of Prophecies (1505)– in which he considered his achievements as an explorer but a fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the context of Christian eschatology.

Evan 500 years later Columbus’s voyages are still considered as some of the most important events in world history, kickstarting modern globalism and resulting in commercial, economic, social, and political changes. There was a massive exchange of animals, plants, fungi, diseases, technologies, mineral wealth and ideas. Exposed to old world diseases, the indigenous populations of the New world collapsed and were largely replaced by Europeans and Africans who brought with them new methods of farming, business, governance, and religious worship. Columbus’s efforts brought the Americas to the attention of Europe at a time ripe for Europe to act upon. Columbus’s claim to fame isn’t that he got to America first, it’s that he stayed.

During a violent storm on his first return voyage, Columbus, then 41, suffered an attack of what was believed at the time to be gout. In subsequent years, he was plagued with what was thought to be influenza and other fevers, bleeding from the eyes, temporary blindness and prolonged attacks of gout. The attacks increased in duration and severity, sometimes leaving Columbus bedridden for months at a time, and culminated in his death 14 years later, on 20 May 1506, aged 54, Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain.

Our Figure’s Influence On Us:

Christopher Columbus said many influential quotes in his life, we chose a few that affected us the most.

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – meaning that if you take a risk, make a decision, you need to stand by it and don’t look back. It changed our attitude regarding setting goals, making decisions, risks and standing by them even if we make a mistake. There is a saying “if you try and fail. Congratulations most people don’t even try.” I (Koren Bakshi) can tell from personal experience that when I heard this quote by Columbus, I decided to be more confident in making decisions and that was the best decision I have ever made.

“Riches don’t make a man rich, they only make him busier.” – we chose to add this quote because it showed us that “Riches” makes you richer but also makes you busier, causing you to enjoy less the money you make because you are always stressed and you don’t have the time or the mood to enjoy the money and chill with your family. During our age where we are almost breaking into the “real” world right after high-school, we think it’s crucial for every teenager to remember and know this quote because it can make your life different from a wealthy unhappy man to a reasonable paid happy man. At the end of the day money isn’t everything in life!

“Life has more imagination than we carry in our dreams.” – this quote had the most effect on us. This quote as we see it is that there is always going to be a person who will make the “impossible”, things we can’t imagine even in our dreams, look at life now for an example who thought 300 years ago that men will fly in the sky? Who thought that it was possible? So, the biggest life lesson we are taking from this quote is that it’s okay to dream big, in fact it’s recommended but if you think you can achieve your dream, you should focus most of your time and energy trying to achieve it like the saying “The bigger you dream, the higher you get.”

OUR INTERVIEW WITH “Gilad Ashkenazi”

We chose to interview Gilad Ashkenazi. He is a history teacher,  He works at Gimnasia Efraim Katzir.

There are several reasons why we chose to interview this person. First of all, Gilad is a person with extensive knowledge and last year we were privileged to study with him and learn some of that knowledge.

Moreover, although he does not teach geography, he really likes to learn and talk about cultures of countries and special places and we thought that he will help us see clearly Columbus’s influence on the world.

Q:  What do you think when you hear the name Christopher Columbus?

A: “Discovery of America – this discovery is the feature that makes him so special. Every random person that you ask, “who discovered America?” will tell you Columbus.”

Q: When did you first hear about Christopher Columbus?

A:” I first heard about Columbus in elementary school. Around second grade, I remember that in one of my first geography lessons was about him.”

Q: What is your position regarding the fact that because America was discovered before Columbus then his achievement (as the person who discovered American) shouldn’t be an achievement?

A: “In my opinion the mistake of coronating Columbus as the “discoverer of America” ​​must be taught especially in light of the one who mistakenly found it while on his way to India. Which by the way is the reason why the natives are called Indians.”

Q: Which of Columbus’ voyages did you like best and why?

A: “The voyages that are told as stories of heroism have a lot of pain and sacrifice, so it is hard for me to choose a beloved voyage.  If I am not mistaken in his last voyage even a ship of an entire crew sank completely and no trace of it remains.”

Q: Do you think his travels have historical significance?

A:  “For certainly it is true that if Columbus had not discovered or sought to discover other continents it is possible that America as we know it today would have been a completely different continent and without the United States as we know it today.”

Q: How do you think the world would have been different without Christopher Columbus?

A: ” I don’t think the world would have been different. Because if it hadn’t been Columbus it would have been another European who would have discovered American. In this case and in other cases in history man himself has a partial influence and really it could be any person that exists and even you as long as they would not yet discover America.”

Q: Why do you think Columbus is considered as one of history’s finest explorers?

A: ” I think Columbus is considered as one of history’s finest explorers because if Columbus wouldn’t have discovered America then a lot would have been different for example. Today the USA is one of strongest nations in the world if not the strongest, and if Columbus wouldn’t have discovered America then USA might have not existed today and without the USA a lot would have changed today. As I told you before If Columbus had found India instead of America, it is possible that the USA as we know today would have been India”

Q: Do you think your way of life today would have changed if Columbus had not discovered America, and if so, how would it have changed?

A:” On the one hand not, because as I said if it was not Columbus it would have been another European. That is, one way or another European culture would have taken over America. On the other hand, it is possible that without Columbus’ mistake he would have discovered India and it is possible that India would have become an empire.”

Q: How do you think Columbus affected the world we live in today? (Social, political, economic)

A: “Columbus himself is just a screw in the mechanism by which the white man perceived himself as superior to the others and his desire to conquer areas to increase his power and enslave the non-white man to his perception and in other words apparently Columbus was the one who caused the first skin racism.”

Q:  How would you describe Columbus in one word?

A: “Conqueror – His great conquest throughout America greatly affected our world we currently live in because if Columbus had not conquered America and there was no European migration there then there would not be many phenomena related to our world today and even in the most basic things like popular language in some countries (most southern countries America speaks Spanish because of the Spanish whites’ migration to America and the same goes for the British to the US).”

Q: Is there anything else you would like to expand or add on Columbus?

A: “Yes, I would like to sum up this interview by saying that although Columbus discovered America and it is of course an impressive achievement by all accounts but anyone could have done it if he did not exist and it did not matter if it was before the time he discovered or after.”

Presentation

Reflection-

We found the preparation of this project worthwhile for several reasons.

Firstly, we got to learn about a person whose contribution to this world is more than words could describe. We saw how he overcame his obstacles and even when he was about to give up he kept on going.
Moreover, we developed and acquired different skills and we got to work with our friends.

We learnt many things while working on the project. The most important thing we learned was how to work as a group. We saw some of the difficulties in working as a group and we overcame them and learned from them.

We also learned how to prepare a presentation and present it, how to interview a knowledgeable person and what questions to ask him and how to do research about a person.

We developed a number of skills during our work on this project.
First, we developed our ability to do research about a person, from researching and finding the important information from many different sources to interviewing people about him and asking them the right questions.
In addition, we developed our presentation skills, we learned the highlights of making a good presentation and prepared a presentation about our subject and presented it in front of an audience.

We enjoyed working together in a group for several reasons.

Firstly, in our opinion, there’s nothing that is better than working with friends and of course it makes our project progress more fun.

As well as the fun in working with friends, we found the project easier when we divided our project into tasks so each of us contributed his part.

Also, there is an old saying that says, ‘two minds are better than one’. As we advanced in the project each member checked the other person’s work and responded with his own opinion and it helped us to look at our work from different perspectives and it made our project better than it was before.

On the one hand, there were things we enjoyed while preparing this project.  We most enjoyed working on the project as a group, we got to learn together about people’s lifestyles a few hundred years ago and Columbus’s travels. We also got to learn new information about the members of our group. Furthermore, We enjoyed presenting to our classmates our project which we worked hard on. We also enjoyed “Our figures’ influence on me” because we got to express our opinions and our feelings about Columbus and what we could learn from him.

On the other hand, there were things we enjoyed less while working on the project. Columbus (who we did our project on) was born a few hundred years ago and because he was born so long ago, we had a lot of difficulties finding information about him and someone to interview about him.

In conclusion, we are grateful that we had the opportunity to prepare this project.the project gave us an opportunity to learn about a very interesting person Christopher Columbus, and to acquire and develop many different skills.

Bibliography –

1. https://www.biography.com/explorer/christopher-columbus

2. https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/christopher-columbus-0#:~:text=In%20the%2015th%20and%2016th,cargoes%20of%20silks%20and%20spices

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

4. https://biography.yourdictionary.com/answers/timelines/christopher-columbus-timeline.html

5. Video about Columbus- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yoVsZfypQ

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPz-kqiUHZI&ab_channel=KingRichard3 -a movie based on Columbus’ life

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E9T6UWaDRA&ab_channel=NativeAmericanHistory

Appendix

In this part we included pictures and videos we wanted to include in the project and the project’s manual.

ENGLISH PROJECT

TOPIC :  “PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE”

DUE DATE:  February 1^ST.

Throughout history, there have been people who have influenced the way we live and who left their mark on the world.  What would our world look like today without famous figures such as Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg or Christopher Columbus?

In this project, you are going to choose a famous personality who has left a mark on the world and who you are interested in finding more about.

You will gather information and do research in order to prepare your project.

You can prepare your project alone or in groups of two or three.

Your project will be typed and organized in the following way:

1) THE COVER PAGE

It will state the name of the figure you have chosen. You should include a picture.  You will list the names of the people in your group, the name of your teacher and the date on which you submit the project.  The cover page should be prepared in a neat and aesthetic way.

2)   TABLE OF CONTENTS

You will prepare this page after you have completed the project.  Next to each unit, you MUST write the member of the group who was responsible for its preparation.

3)  INTRODUCTION

In this section you will do the following..

(a) explain why you chose this figure

(b) explain what you already know about this figure

(c) explain what you expect to learn.

Each member of the group must prepare his/her own introduction on a separate page in which his/her thoughts are expressed.  This must be written in paragraphs, with an introduction, body and conclusion.  Use the following structure.

4)  BIOGRAPHY

In this section, you will write the BIOGRAPHY of the person you have chosen.  A biography is the story of a person’s life.  This story should include the important events in the person’s life beginning with his or her birth and include information about the early life, family, education, what inspired him or her to make their mark on the world, his or her achievements, how he or she contributed to our society, ending with their death (if applicable).  The Biography should be at least two pages long.

All the sources you use MUST be recorded in the BIBLIOGRAPHY section of your project, SO DON’T FORGET TO RECORD YOUR SOURCES AS YOU WORK !!!!

5) MY/OUR FIGURE’S INFLUENCE ON ME/US

In this section, you will look for a famous quotation that your figure said (or that was said about him or her) and that you connect to. Print a colored picture (A4 size) of your figure.  Prepare a “bubble” of the famous saying of your figure that you especially connect to and print it as well.  We will hang both the picture and quotation on the wall of your classroom.

6)  INTERVIEW

In this section you will meet with a person who can enlighten you with their opinions, thoughts and knowledge regarding this figure. This person MUST be knowledgeable regarding your subject. You will write an introduction in which you explain…

(a)  who you are interviewing

(b)  why you decided to interview this person.

Then you will then write out the questions and answers in the following manner:

Q: ……………………………………………………………….?

A: ……………………………………………………………..?

You can ask as many Yes-No questions as you wish, however, you must make sure that you have at least 8 WH questions.  You can include a photo of this event. Use the following structure.

7) PRESENTATION

In this section you will make this person better known among your classmates by preparing a presentation for them.   This presentation should be approximately 10 minutes long.  You will give a lecture to the class in which you will tell about the major events in your figure’s life, how he or she contributed to society and why you chose to do your project on this person.  You can prepare a poster or a power point presentation with the main events in your figure’s life as a visual aid.

8) REFLECTIVE WRITING

This is the final section of our project.  In this section you will reflect upon all the work you have done and prepare a reflection.  In this section you will work together and do the following.

(a) express your feelings about the project

(b) express your feelings  about working together in a group

(c) express your feelings about what you learnt

(d) describe what you enjoyed more and enjoyed less.

Use the following structure to prepare the Reflection.

9) BIBLIOGRAPHY

In this section you will list the sources you used. You will number each source separately, giving the name of the book, the name of the author, and the name of the publisher. If you have used an Internet source, then give the site and the name of the article.  You MUST have at least THREE sources.

10) APPENDIX

This is the section in which you put all the material that you used to prepare your project. You must include…

1. a) the drafts of your work with my corrections.

1. b) material and photos that you didn’t put into the body of the project but that you want to include.