Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in either Genoa or in the territory of Genoese. He was born to Domenico Columbus and Suzanna Fontanarossa. Columbus' father was a wool weaver and his mother father was a wool weaver, so traditionally Columbus should have also become a wool weaver. Except that he had other dreams. The era in which Columbus grew up in was a popular time for sea exploration, and it was natural that Columbus gain a love for the sea by listening to the story of sailors. With living in a port city he had an unlimited access to story telling sailors.
             Columbus came from a respectable family that also had limited means, but coming from an Italian craftsman he would have been able to attend school of the Italian craft guilds. This would have offered Columbus some rudimentary reading and writing, but his education level is unknown. As a boy Columbus worked with his father in wool processing and selling, and at the age of fourteen Columbus would began his seagoing career. He probably served in various ships in various jobs including messenger, common sailor, and perhaps even as a twenty one year old privateer.
             In 1474 Columbus was hired as a sailor on a ship bound for the island of khíos in the Aegean Sea, which is an arm in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. This was his first longest voyage, and this voyage also allowed for Columbus to become economically independent after spending a year on the island. In August of 1476 Columbus had his first opportunity to leave the Mediterranean Sea when a Genoese commercial expedition of five ships set sail for England, but on the voyage the fleet was attacked by French privateers off Cape Saint Vincent on the southwestern tip of Portugal. Columbus was one of the unlucky ones whose ship was burned, and had no escape except to swim the six miles to the shore of Portugal's coast by cling to wreckage. After regaining his strength in the port city of Lagos made his...