Bartholomew Columbus (1461-1515) was an Italian explorer from Genoa and the younger brother of Christopher Columbus. In 1496, he founded the city of Santo Domingo, the current capital of the Dominican Republic.
Biography[]
Bartholomew Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa in 1461, the brother of Christopher Columbus. He worked as a mapmaker in Lisbon, Portugal during the 1470s, and he failed to court England or France for their support in sending an expedition to the Indies from a western rather than an eastern route. By the time that he reached Spain again in 1493, his brother was already on his second voyage to the Americas, and he later accompanied him back to the New World. He founded the city of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola between 1496 and 1498, but both of them were imprisoned by Francisco de Bobadilla before being sent back to Spain in 1500. The Columbus brothers later returned to the New World, and they were defeated by local Native Americans at the Belen River. After Christopher's death, Bartholomew returned to the Antilles in 1509 with his nephew Diego Colon. He later returned to Spain, and he died in 1515.