What did he 'discover'?Īfter sailing across the Atlantic Ocean for 10 weeks, land was sighted by a sailor called Rodrigo Bernajo (although Columbus himself took the credit for this). The ships were small, between 15 and 36 metres long. The third, the Santa Maria, was a nao – a larger square-rigged ship.
Two, the Nina and the Pinta were caravels – small ships with triangular sails. In 1492 Columbus set sail from Palos in Spain with three ships. Columbus knew that the world was round and realised that by sailing west - instead of east around the coast of Africa, as other explorers at the time were doing - he would still reach his destination.
If he could reach these lands, he would be able to bring back rich cargoes of silks and spices. Columbus wanted to find a new route to India, China, Japan and the Spice Islands. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans wanted to find sea routes to the Far East. Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Spain, agreed to finance him. He then moved to Lisbon, Portugal, to gain support for a journey he was planning to find new trade routes to the Far East. As a young lad he went to sea and became an experienced sailor. Where was Christopher Columbus born?Ĭolumbus was born in the Italian seaport of Genoa in 1451, to a family of wool weavers. He never got close to what is now called the United States. On his subsequent voyages he went farther south, to Central and South America. He was the first European to sight the Bahamas archipelago and then the island later named Hispaniola, now split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In actual fact, Columbus did not discover North America. Explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) is known for his 1492 ‘discovery’ of the New World of the Americas on board his ship Santa Maria.
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