How Did Christopher Columbus Progress

Christopher Columbus was a Spanish Italian navigator who sailed westward across the Atlantic Ocean on search of a shorter route to Asia. He did reach land but not in Asia, what we know now to be North America and the Caribbean.

Even though Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, his sea travels brought him to Lisbon, Portugal, where he settled with his married brother around 1479.

Based on the information of his travels, he believed that the earth was 25 percent smaller than it was thought, and composed mostly of land. Therefore, the fastest way to reach Asia would be by sailing westward across the Atlantic. He submited his theories in 1484 to John II, King of Portugal. The King passed on the petition to the Royal Maritime commission, who rejected Columbus due to other ships already rounding the tip of Africa at the time.

Columbus then moved to

The three ships were the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria; Columbus would command the Santa Maria, the largest of the three ships. Once underway, they stopped briefly on the Canary islands to repair the Pinta’s. They set sail August 6 due West, but changed course on October 12 to a south-western direction. The Crew was for many months unhappy with their captain, who seemed almost uncertain of where he was going. But things changed once signs of land appeared - land was sighted on October12, landing the ships on Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas. To the islanders who did not understand Columbus, he claimed the land in the name of Spain, naming it San Salvador. Other landings were made on the islands of Cuba. Española(which is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) all mistakenly believed to be in Asian waters. After wrecking the Santa Maria off the coast of Española, the crew used salvaged materials to build a makeshift fort there called La Navidad. They then sailed home, arriving in Spain March of