Christopher Columbus

Day 226 / 365

We have all read about Christopher Columbus as being the guy that discovered America. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, and although he did stumble on to America in one of his voyages, he didn’t mean to do that. He was actually looking to get to India

Columbus had been sailing since he was quite young. As a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. The ship got attacked by pirates and sank. Columbus was, however, able to survive by floating to shore on a piece of scrap wood.

Now, why did Columbus want to sail to India? People in Europe depended on trade with Asia for spices. But the route to Asia by land was next to impossible. The explorers solved this problem by sailing across the African coast. But Columbus had a different plan. He thought it would be easier to sail the opposite direction, and that his route would save a lot of time.

It took some persuasion, but he got the Spanish monarchs to sponsor his voyage. He found the American Subcontinent, and there he found the native tribal people. He thought he was in India, which is why he referred to the people as Indians. He enslaved some of these people and brought them back to Spain. Back then the American continent was known as the “New World”, and Columbus’s discovery led to the exploration and exploitation of the American continent by the Europeans.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The Dead Sea