Yet that's what Christopher Columbus did on four separate sea voyages from Europe starting in the late 1400s. He sailed West from Europe - across the Atlantic Ocean - thinking that by sailing West across the ocean he would find a direct route East to Asia. He thought that his sea route - traveling West to go East - would actually be a shortcut to Asia from Europe!

Why did that make sense? And how did Christopher Columbus manage to convince King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his journeys?

Scientists and geographers in Columbus' time had come to believe that the earth was round. They no longer believed it was flat and that by sailing too far you could sail off the edge! But, they didn't know very much at all about the earth's geography. They didn't know how big around the earth was, how far Asia was from Europe, and even how many oceans there were on the earth.

Columbus - and many other people in his time - believed that the earth had only one body of water, the Atlantic Ocean. So, they thought, if a sailor could just travel across the Atlantic, he would arrive at the other side of the earth, Asia, without having to take the long and dangerous route over land going East from Europe.

It seemed like a good idea. And so in 1492, Columbus set out from Spain leading three ships, the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa Maria. After 36 days of sailing, the ships reached land. Today, we believe that Columbus reached an island in the Bahamas, southeast of what is now the United States of America. But Columbus thought he had arrived in Asia and was standing on one of the Indies Islands! In fact, a few days later, when he traveled on to what is now Cuba, he believed he was on the coast of China.

Today, we know that Columbus had some pretty outlandish ideas about geography! But he had made a good guess about traveling. He was right that it is possible to travel from Europe to Asia by traveling West. He just didn't travel nearly far enough!

Christopher Columbus did open the 'New World' up for exploration by European traders. Soon, traders from Spain, Portugal, England, and France, were claiming parts of North, Central, and South America for their own. To them, this New World was so valuable, it more than made up for the trade route to Asia that Columbus never found.

What do other people think about Columbus and his voyages? And how did different people react to each other when they first came into contact during the 1400s and 1500s? You can learn more at this exhibit from the Library of Congress in Washington DC: http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html

Study Questions:

1. Learn more about Columbus' voyages using the library, an encyclopedia, or the Internet. Write a 2-page paper about what you learn.

2. Is there a sea route going West from Europe to Asia? Using a world map, trace a sea route as it would have existed in Columbus' time. How much farther would Columbus have had to go?

Check out past Trade Topics entries!