How Did Christopher Columbus Changed The World

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Christopher Columbus was an explorer and navigator born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in 1492, he hoped to reach eastern Asia. He thought he had reached Asia when he landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea. In fact he had opened up to Europeans a new world with two continents—North America and South America—and many islands. During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of a few European nations sent expeditions out in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “Age of Discovery.” Starting in about 1420, Portuguese ships sailed the African coast, carrying spices, gold, slaves and other goods from Africa and Asia to Europe. …show more content…

Before Indians had been living there long before Columbus came and even before that Vikings had sailed Greenland and Newfoundland in the 11th century. Christopher Columbus started a new surge in exploration after he went on his expeditions. Columbus’s explorations also took a huge toll on the natives who lived there. They brought diseases that killed off many of the indians and they also had a huge impact on the environment. They started to extract natural resources from the earth. Columbus changed the world because he introduced the Europeans to America. He also was one of the reasons that the United States, Mexico and Canada were founded. He started a new surge in exploration and inspired many people to go out on their own adventures and expeditions. Once people realized that the world was not flat they went out to explore places that had never been explored before. This is one of the many reasons that the Age of Exploration