unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), Genoese navigator, sought westward routes to Asia but instead encountered the Americas. Sponsored by Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella, his 1492 voyage aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María reached the Bahamas, initiating European exploration and colonization. Columbus made four voyages, opening transatlantic exchange of goods, cultures, and diseases—the “Columbian Exchange.” Though hailed as a daring explorer, his governance in Hispaniola was marked by brutality, exploitation, and enslavement of Indigenous peoples. His legacy remains contested: visionary of maritime expansion, yet emblematic of conquest’s violence. Columbus symbolizes both discovery and devastation, a figure bridging worlds and histories.
“Riches don’t make a man rich, they only make him busier.”
