CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. BIRTHPLACE AND ORIGIN. THE 2 MOST LIKELY THEORIES .

HOW LIKELY IS THE THEORY THAT, IT WAS BORN ON THE ISLAND OF CHIOS? ***WHERE DID HE DISCOVER THE THEORIES AND MAPS, THAT CONVINCED HIM A CONTINENT EXISTED BEYOND THE ATLANTIC? A UNIQUE AND EXTRAORDINARILY FASCINATING STORY FOLLOWS. Stefasnosotiriou.wordpress.com INTRODUCTION * The Theory of Columbus's Chian origin and Its historiographical fate. * Why did the theory that Columbus originated from the island of Chios fail to attract the attention of later European historiography and come to be regarded as neglected by researchers? * After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Greek world ceased to function as the political center shaping global developments. Many Greek scholars left Constantinople and moved to northern Italy, providing the initial and significant intellectual impetus for the Renaissance. At the same time, Byzantine soldiers enlisted in large numbers as mercenaries in Western states, mainly in the central and north Italian city-states, while Greek sailors initially manned the fleets of the Venetians and the Genoese, and later those of the Spanish and the Portuguese. In the sources of the period after 15 century, most of these individuals are recorded under Latin names and are identified as being of Italian, Spain or Ottoman origin, a fact that complicates the identification of their ethnic background. Greek lands remained under Ottoman rule particularly, for approximately seven centuries, and within this context no organized research developed concerning the Greek Diaspora presence in the West. As a result, the possible Chian dimension of Columbus's origin was overlooked. * It was not until 1892, during the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, that the Italian Lawyer & Archivist Ugo Salvagnini presented research based primarily on French archives systematically (and later on other European sources), placing Chios for the first time in the "race" of Columbus's possible birthplaces. * In 1944, Seraphim Kanoutas, an American lawyer & archivist, continued Salvagnini's work, seeking to strengthen the related argumentation. * More recently, 1982, the academic Ruth G. Wolper continued the research, for the National Geohraphic scientific community, bringing Columbus closer to Chios, though not conclusively.