Christopher Columbus was a talented navigator and explorer who sailed in the service of Spain. With his courage and intelligence, he significantly contributed to the world. Christopher was born in 1451 and died at the age of 55 on May 20, 1506. He was born to Domenico Columbus, a wool weaver, and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo. He also had a sister named Bianchinetta. In those times the son usually took over the father’s job, especially if the business was going well. Columbus was determined to go his own way and be a sailor, even though that disturbed his father momentously. Eventually, his father learned to accept Columbus being a sailor and even used it to his advantage by Columbus sailing his cloth to the market. …show more content…
Muslim nations had blocked the land route from western Europe, and the Europeans wanted to trade goods from Asia including spices and silk. In 1488, Bartholomew Dias tried to find the route, but he only got as far as the tip of Africa, with no further progress up the coast. By then, Columbus heard rumors from other sailors that it was possible to reach Asia by sailing west. Since, Columbus was an adventurous, courageous sailor, he hoped to make such a voyage himself. The idea of such a voyage was drastic because no one at those times knew how big the world really was. No one recognized how far it would be, or how long it would take to get to the other side of the world. Scholars had presented several different ideas about how long the world was. In the end, it turned out that they all had underestimated the Earth’s size, believing it to be much smaller than it