Untitled Document
 Christopher
Columbus is one of the best-known of all explorers. He is famous for
his voyage in 1492. He discovered America while
he was looking for a way to sail to Asia. He was not
the first European to find North America. The Vikings had come to
northern North America hundreds of years earlier. However, Columbus
is important because his explorations made Europeans
much more aware of the New World. Also, it helped encourage more exploration
of North and South America in the 1500s. So, are you ready to meet
the great explorer this week?
Christopher Columbus was born in Italy around 1451. Even though he
didn't go to school as a child, he knew that the Earth was round.
He was dreaming of setting sail and finding mountains of gold on
the other side of the world. Young Columbus realized that if he was going
to make his dreams come true, he would have
to learn to read and write.
During his studies, he learned of another adventurer Marco Polo. He
had traveled east and discovered India and China 200 years earlier.
Marco Polo had returned to Italy with exotic spices, silks and all kinds
of new things.
Christopher Columbus thought that since the world was round, he could
sail west to India and China and find the same treasures that Marco
Polo had. Columbus asked Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain
to help his plan. In return, he promised to bring back gold,
spices and silks. Columbus was granted permission and sailed on
August 3, 1492. He led an expedition of three ships:
the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
 Two
months later, at dawn on October 12, he made landfall in what we know
today as the Bahamas. Columbus thought he had arrived in Asia. Since
the land didn't look like the
China he had read about, he decided it had to be India!
Columbus and his three ships then sailed on to Cuba. Still confused, Columbus thought
that he had arrived in Japan! But in fact, he had landed on
the outer edges of a continent that Europeans
had no idea existed. There had never
been any reports of a landmass in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean. That's why Columbus thought he had arrived in
India and Japan!
 Columbus
made 4 voyages to what eventually became known as
the "New World" and later the Americas.
It wasn't until his third trip that he discovered the mainland of South America
and actually stepped onto a continent. Christopher Columbus never
understood that he had discovered the Americas.
When he died in 1506, he thought that he had set foot in Asia rather than
in a new world. |
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