Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa. He was born circa 1450. He grew up learning to sail on the Mediterranean. Columbus came up with what was at the time a radical idea that you could sail West away from Europe and reach the East. Columbus though that this would make for a much more efficient trade route for spices from the spice islands and silk from the Far East. He presented his plans to John the second king of Portugal who dismissed him. Instead of giving up he brought his ideas  King John's rivals King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. They supplied Columbus with three ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. It took five weeks for Columbus and his ships to reach land this happened on the second of October in 1492. The land he had discovered was not in fact an island of the Far East but in fact an island which is located in the Caribbean. He claimed the land for Spain calling it San Salvador. Columbus returned many times to the Americas, and was appointed Governor but was eventually sent home in disgrace for cruelty to the locals. Columbus always believed that the land he had discovered was part of the Far East which was why the natives were called Indians. it was some time later that a map maker by the name of Amerigo Vespucci realized it was a whole new continent.