Their first stop was the Canary Islands where they collected supplies before settling out across the Atlantic on 6 September of the same year. Columbus left Palos in Spain on 3 August 1492 with ninety men and three small ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.Finally Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain agreed to back his voyage of exploration. Columbus approached the monarchs of Portugal, England, France and Spain seeking support for his plan.When he landed in the Americas he was convinced he was actually in the East Indies and so called the native people Indians. He believed he could do this by sailing west. Columbus hoped to find a new route east.Since the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the old Silk Route, along which silk, spices and other luxury items had been traded for centuries, had become difficult and costly to use. People in Europe wanted to find a new route to the Indies, which was the name they gave to the Far East.The first European to reach the North American coastline was the Norseman Leif Ericson who landed in Newfoundland c1000 AD. An estimated 100 million people were living there already, a number roughly equal to the population of Europe at that time. Columbus did not discover the Americas.He was the first European to land on the South American mainland. Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator and explorer whose voyages to the Americas led to the Spanish colonisation of the New World.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
Categories |