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Pleasant_Skill2956 t1_ixh4t6q wrote

Cristoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus) was born in Genoa, Italy to Genoese parents. The Spaniards have been trying to invent stories for centuries to be able to claim it

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Jesus_Tyrone t1_ixhgng3 wrote

If you actually got deep into that information you would find out that there is no reliable evidence that he was born in Genoa. The thesis was overshadow buy the patriotic Italian sentiment during the unification of the country.

They say he was born in a regular poor family but he knew multiple languages and had a lot of influence himself before the voyages. There is no record of an address either.

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gneccofes t1_ixil4r2 wrote

He literally wrote in his will that he was born in Genoa

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Crapedj t1_ixiokay wrote

There is literally Columbus father family house in the city of Genua and several documents about Columbus father living in genua and being from genua, what do you mean?

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Pleasant_Skill2956 t1_ixhi22n wrote

In Italy there is all the evidence, only for the Spaniards "strangely" it is doubted. And it is in fact much more probable that it is the Spaniards who invent stories given that he is the most important person in Spanish history and therefore they do not accept that he was born in Italy

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belokas t1_ixhro66 wrote

There has been almost zero evidence for that. No reason to claim otherwise. He himself never said he was Italian, or rather Genoese, he wrote countless of letters and diaries but never a word in Italian.

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gneccofes t1_ixil826 wrote

He wrote in his will that he was born in Genoa

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belokas t1_ixiqrhu wrote

As far as I know (not much in fact) the will has been disputed, but my point here is that it's baseless to claim Columbus was Italian, when we at most can attest his birthplace (and even "Genova" could be both the city and the Republic of Genoa, so there are different cities in Liguria who claim to be his birthplace) But my point is that he basically lived his whole life in the Iberian peninsula, and never really gave any hints about being part of a different nationality. Also "nations" and national identity can't be intended in the modern sense here. Another thing is that, in his will he calls himself Colon not Colombo, as the Genoese theory claims his name should be. I think that's still a valid hypothesis, but it's far from being a historical proven fact.

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Tom1380 t1_ixj9cwi wrote

There are 2, and they're 7km away from each other

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tsaimaitreya t1_ixhpssr wrote

You aren't technically wrong but these claims are made out of regional pride. Many regions have claims to be the authentic homeland of Columbus, like Galicia, Catalonia or Mallorca. Bona fide spanish nationalists have no problem with him being italian at all, as he was still serving Spain. Italians doing great service to the spanish crown was a common sight these days (Andrea Doria, Spinola, Farnesio, the marquis of Pescara...)

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gneccofes t1_ixiksfc wrote

Italy didn't exist at the time and his real name was Cristoffa Corombo. Cristoforo Colombo is the Italian translation

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Pleasant_Skill2956 t1_ixjjuoa wrote

The concept of Italy is 3000 years old, the current political state did not exist but to say that it was born in Italy is 100% correct. His original name is Cristoforo Colombo , the rest are translations

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kaubojdzord t1_ixjn9fy wrote

Cristoffa Corombo is name in Ligurian language, which Columbus probably spoke natively as he was from Genoa. Most Italians didn't speak Italian until the unification, they spoke their regional languages, like Ligurian.

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gneccofes t1_ixjnlbw wrote

What you said is simply untrue. Columbus would've never identified as an Italian, he identified as a Genoese. His native tongue was Genoese, hence his original name was Cristoffa Corombo. Cristoforo Colombo is the Italian translation.

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