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Timeline: Columbus's Voyages to the Americas 1295 Italian explorer Marco Polo returns to Europe after traveling throughout Asia for more than two decades. His epic journey, which he describes in The Travels of Marco Polo, triggers great interest in the riches of China and the Indies. 1415 An armada led by the Portuguese prince known as Henry the Navigator sacks the coastal city of Ceuta, in what is now Morocco. Valuable spices discovered in that Muslim-occupied city encourage Henry to infiltrate the trade networks of North Africa and trace them back to their sources in the Far East. Under his leadership, Portugal becomes the world's leading naval power. 1484 A commission appointed by King John II of Portugal rejects Columbus's scheme to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Far East. 1488 Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias rounds the southern tip of Africa at what is later named the Cape of Good Hope, named for the optimism generated by its having opened an eastern sea route to China and the Indies. 1492 On January 2, the Muslim emir in Granada—the last Moorish stronghold in Europe—surrenders to Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand. That ends the centuries-long reconquista, or campaign to expel the Moors, North African Muslims who conquered Spain in the 8th century. With the financial burden of the war lifted, the Spanish crown is able to devote funds to overseas exploration. Shortly after the surrender, Isabella and Ferdinand agree to fund Columbus's project. Columbus leaves Spain on August 3 with three ships—the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria—and a crew of about 90 men. On October 12, Columbus and his crew reach a north Caribbean island he names San Salvador. The men are the first Europeans known to have reached the Americas since Leif Ericson, an Icelandic explorer who sailed to Newfoundland, Canada, at the turn of the 11th century. On December 25, the Santa Maria becomes shipwrecked off the coast of Hispaniola. With only two small ships remaining, Columbus orders 39 of his men to remain on the island while he returns to Spain for reinforcements. They use the wreckage from the Santa Maria to construct a small settlement, which Columbus names La Navidad, Spanish for Christmas. 1493 In March, Columbus returns to Spain, where he is greeted as a hero. Word of his voyage quickly spreads throughout Europe, and a second fleet of Spanish ships is immediately assembled. In September, Columbus again sails west in an attempt to reach Asia. His second voyage is much larger than the first, consisting of 17 ships and more than 1,200 men. 1495 Before returning to Spain, Columbus and his men capture hundreds of Indians to be shipped to Spain and sold as slaves. Two hundred of the Indians die en route to Spain; Isabella, a harsh critic of slavery, orders the rest of them to be returned to the New World. 1498 In May, Columbus begins his third voyage to the Americas. He first lands on the island of Trinidad, and then sails to what is now Venezuela, where he and his crew become the first Europeans to set foot in South America. His third tour ends in 1500, when he is arrested on charges of mismanagement as governor of Hispaniola and brought back to Spain. The Spanish monarchs set Columbus free upon his return. 1502 After convincing Isabella to fund another voyage, on the condition that he refrain from capturing slaves or traveling to Hispaniola, Columbus in May begins his final and most far- reaching journey to the New World. He travels all over the Caribbean in a futile search for the cities of East Asia, making it as far west as the Isthmus of Panama. 1506 On May 20, Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain, convinced to the end that he had discovered a western route to Asia. 1521 By rounding the southern tip of South America and reaching the Philippines, Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan achieves Columbus's dream of discovering a western route to Asia. Magellan dies in the Philippines in April, but his crew goes on to complete its circumnavigation of the Earth the following year. Citation Information MLA Chicago Manual of Style “Columbus's Voyages to the Americas - Timeline.” Issues & Controversies in American History. Infobase Publishing, 15 Feb. 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2013