Vocabulary.

• MODERN AGE: the period of European history between the 15^th and 18^th centuries. It began with the the Conquest of Constantinople in 1453 or the Discovery of America in 1492 and finished with the French Revolution in 1789.

• CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: robably born in the Republic of Genoa (Italy), he ‘discovered’ America 12^th October 1492 and was Viceroy and Governor of the Indies. Having being rejected his project by Portugal, at first he received the support of the franciscans of the monastery of Santa Maria of the Rábida in Cádiz, then he signed a contract with the Catholic Monarchs: the Capitulations of Santa Fe. With three caravels: the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa María, after a stopover in the Canary Islands, at 2 a.m. on October 12^th, a sailor by the name of Rodrigo de Triana shouted, ‘Tierra!’. In the 3^rd trip of the four that he did, he was dismissed of his positions due to his dishonest behavior (he hid the existence of some pearl banks to the Crown). Chained, unsuccessful and very ill, the 20^th  May 1506, aged probably 54, he died in Valladolid.