|
Explorer's Week - Meet History's Explorers!
|
October 14 2008 |
|
 |
 |
|
Go East by Sailing West: Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus - Like many early explorers, Columbus began searching for one thing, and found another. Born into a family of weavers, Columbus sought to escape his ordinary life by dreaming of adventure and exploration. Strongly influenced by the writings of the famed explorer, Marco Polo, Columbus learned of a world beyond his native land.
In 1492, Columbus first set foot in the new world on what is now the Bahamas - no one knows for sure - but many scholars think it was the small island of San Salvador. Columbus made two other expeditions to the New World, but upon his death, Columbus still believed he had discovered a new route to Asia or, The West Indies, as he called it. It stuck, and that's why native inhabitants are still referred to as Indians. Many people around the world credit Columbus as the first European to discover the American continents, but that honor was taken by a Viking explorer 500 years earlier named Leif Erickson.
|
|
|
