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Cristoforo Colombo
Europeans were interested in exploration before Columbus' journey because they were eager to establish new trade routes. Over the preceding centuries, sophisticated trade routes had developed around the world. There was the Silk Road that took goods between China and Europe. The Middle East was linked with India, Southeast Asia and with the east coast of Africa. However, because of the failure of Christians to dominate the Middle East in the Crusades, Muslim lands were often hostile to European traders. This spurred exploration in search of new trade routes, and new resources. Europeans had been exposed to many Eastern goods -- silk and spices were in particular demand -- but the political dimensions of long-distance trade made the acquisition of Eastern goods an uncertain proposition. One of the major reasons for exploration was the emerging idea that the world was round and therefore by sailing westward across the Atlantic, Europeans could reach Asia and India.
Columbus was one of many explorers who was interested in pursuing the route to India. Portuguese sailors had developed better ships, and pushed further out into the Atlantic. Doing so allowed them to explore the west coast of Africa, and when they went westerward into...
Columbus was from Genoa, a powerful city-state known for its maritime prowess and its wealth. Columbus convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his voyage westward.
Other cultural factors contributed to the voyage as well. Spain was starting to become a powerful Catholic state, and the voyage presented an opportunity for Spain to express its growing power, particularly vis-a-vis Portugal, which was ahead of Spain in terms of exploration at the time. Columbus would ultimately be the one to sail westward until he reached land. There were many at the time who felt that the Earth was round, but few believed there were undiscovered continents, even though the entire coast of Africa had yet to be explored. Columbus, sailing for Spain with three ships, set sail.
Columbus landed in the Caribbean, officially discovering the Americas for Europeans, and in doing so became a hero to Europeans. His status as hero derives from being the first to demonstrate the existence of a western land -- originally mistaken for India -- and for opening up the area for European trade. European kingdoms earned massive economic gains from this discovery, thereby improving European quality of…
References
Kennedy, Cohen & Piehl -- Chapter 1
Biography. (2014). Chrisopher Columbus. Biography.com Retrieved November 8, 2014 from http://www.biography.com/people/christopher-columbus-9254209#synopsis
224). The truth about Columbus, Vizenor asserts, is that he was "an untrue concoction, the ruse of his own representation. He is the overstated adventurer, to be sure," and moreover Columbus is the "master of neocolonial celebrations in a constitutional democracy" (Vizenor, 225). The author of this article in the peer-reviewed journal Boundary 2 quotes from the book The Devastation of the Indies (by Bartolome de Las Casas): "Here those Christians
Christopher Columbus, Mariner by S. Morison. Samuel Morison turned a personal life interest into a passion as he studied the life and journeys of Christopher Columbus. Morison believed that given the expedition which Columbus undertook, and the misinformation on which he based his journey that Columbus qualifies as one of the greatest explorers and sailors of all time (Morison, p. 4). While the modern view of Columbus has been rewritten and
Irving's book "A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" cannot be considered as an adequate authentic source because he put the book together speedily and impulsively, in the process sacrificing the deliberation needed for creating an accurate, reliable, and original work, as preferred by historians. Irving was even persuaded from time to time, perhaps to recompense for the impracticality of undertaking comprehensive and far-reaching research, to fully
When Christopher Columbus set foot on Hispaniola, he encountered a civilization entirely different from his own. Although Columbus seems to be in awe and even respectful of the indigenous people, he is ultimately arrogant and ignorant in the assumption that converting to Christianity would make their lives better. In fact, Columbus’s statements are ironic given he seems to admire the generosity, kindness, and trusting nature of the people while simultaneously
legend of Christopher Columbus has lasted for five decades and he still remains a very controversial and mysterious figure who has been described severally as one of the world's greatest mariners of all times, a mystic, a visionary genius, an inexperienced entrepreneur, an unsuccessful administrator, and a wicked and selfish imperialist[footnoteRef:1]. He was a master admiral and navigator of Italian origin whose four main transatlantic voyages of 1492-1493, 1493-1496,
Native Americans Before Christopher Columbus discovered the United States of America, and people from all over the globe including Europe, Asia and Africa migrate to inhabit the New World, it was already home to a group of people. This group of people is known as Native Americans or American Indians. These Native Americans lived as hunter-gatherer societies, with tribes living on pieces of lands as a community, using them for agriculture.