Christopher Columbus Mistake

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Exploration is something that is driven by a thirst for knowledge and discoveries. It is hard to explain why these people that search for new worlds are willing to risk their life and their ship crews. In the dawn of the fifteenth century a new age of exploration accured that would change the way people lived and interacted with one another for centuries to come. The series of events and conditions that existed in the old world that made it possible and desirable to explore the New World were how Christopher Columbus by mistake discovered the Caribbean islands, King Henry the seventh sent out John Cabot to look for the northwest passage, and the Columbian Exchange, which led to a new sea route in which explored can trade goods, peoples, …show more content…

On page 36 it states how the Portuguese and other experts at the time believed that it was impossible to sail west across the Atlantic to Asia. Christopher Columbus thought otherwise because on page36 it also claims how he believed that the world was a giant sphere, which theoretically sailing to the East Indies was very possible. Christopher Columbus mis calculated the route very drastically. He believed that it was approximately 2500 miles away, which in fact Japan is calculated to be 11,000 miles away (36). Most Europeans were very skeptical about his exploration due to the fact that they felt he was going very blindly about this, but in 1492 Christopher Columbus won financial support from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. They saw this as a gamble, because they saw it as a small loss if things don’t pan out, but a huge gain if they …show more content…

Exploration was in full effect and sailors were hungry for new knowledge. King Henry the seventh wanted a piece of all these discoveries, so he sent out John Cabot to discover the Northwest Passage to the Indies, which would be across the North Atlantic (39). The sad part is that when he set sail looking for the passage, no one ever heard anything from him again (39). John Cabot did find Newfoundland which encouraged him to sail west. Three thousand miles south the Expeditions of Spain landed on the north coast of South America (39). In 1500 Pedro Alvars Cabral (a Portuguese explore) landed on the east coast of Brazil. There is a surge of explores landing on the new world. Taking what John Cabot and Christopher Columbus discovered, it unveiled different ways for Europeans to discover a new world. Ferdinand Magellan was the first explore to actually discover how much water was in the world when he led an expedition sponsored by King Charles I (39). Magellan explorations was a complete disaster due to how he got killed by Philippine tribesmen, he started with five ships with about 250 people and returned with 18 (39). The data he retrieved led people to believe that they can sail across the west to get to the East

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