Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 - 1506) was an Italian explorer who made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to the widespread European awareness of the American continents. His voyages were funded by Queen Isabella I of Castile and initiated the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Columbus spent his early career apprenticing and working as a business agent in Genoa and Portugal. He died in Valladolid, Spain at age 55 still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia, though he had actually reached the Americas.