Bartholomew Columbus was a Genoese explorer and the younger brother of Christopher Columbus. Born in the Republic of Genoa, in the 1470s Bartholomew was a mapmaker in Lisbon, the principal center of cartography of the time, and conceived with his brother the "Enterprise of the Indies", a scheme to reach the Orient and its lucrative spice trade by a western rather than an eastern route. In the late 1480s Bartholomew took up residence in France and his brother in Spain, to persuade their respective monarchs—Charles VIII of France, and Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon—to back the scheme. When word arrived in 1493 that his brother had succeeded, Bartholomew returned to Spain, where he missed Christopher, who had already left on the second voyage of his four to the "New World". Funded by the crown, Bartholomew Columbus traveled to Hispaniola in 1494 to meet his brother. After captaining one of the ships he remained on the island for six and a half years, serving as governor with the title of Adelantado during his brother's absences. He founded the city of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola between 1496 and 1498, which is now the capital of the Dominican Republic. He was imprisoned together with Christopher and another brother, Giacomo, by Francisco de Bobadilla and returned to Spain in December 1500. After the royal pardon of Christopher Columbus, Bartholomew Columbus accompanied him on the last of his New World voyages. Wikipedia [ - ]

Bartholomew Columbus was a Genoese explorer and the younger brother of Christopher... [ + ]