Today's American continent is based on the explorer Americo. Vespucci was named, but its discoverer was actually the Italian navigator Columbus . Americans named the second Monday of October every year " Columbus Day " to commemorate the discovery of the Americas.
Columbus is a legendary figure, born in 1451 in Italy in Genoa , his father is an ordinary textile worker. Columbus showed a strong interest in the sea since he was a child. Because he had not received a formal education, he taught himself the knowledge of geographical navigation. When he grew up, he served in the Portuguese army and gained some sailing experience. He gradually grew into an experienced and skilled sailor. He also studied Latin and read Marco. Polo's description of rich Asia.
In the late 15th century, when the Portuguese were exploring their own maritime expeditions along the coast of Africa, Columbus developed his own plan of maritime expedition. He plans to sail westward from Western Europe , with his destinations being China, Japan and India in the East. Columbus had extraordinary courage. He believed that the earth was round, so he boldly imagined that he could start from any point, even if he was traveling in the opposite direction, he would eventually return to his original position. But Columbus mistakenly estimated the size of the earth, the distance between land and oceans, and thought that the distance from Western Europe through the Atlantic Ocean to Japan was less than 5,000 kilometers. He did not expect that there would be land between Europe and Asia.
sailing to the New World
Columbus' plan was not supported in Portugal. The Portuguese had mastered the route to Asia bypassing the southern tip of Africa, so he turned to Spain. Spaniards also want to go to Asia to find wealth and need to open up their own routes on the sea. Columbus's sailing plan aroused the interest of Queen of Spain. She awarded Columbus the title of "Commander of the Ocean Fleet" and provided manpower and material resources to fund his voyage expeditions in this unknown sea or long-distance sea, and also promised to share 10% of the profits to him.
1492 On August 3, 1492, Columbus led 90 sailors and "Santa Maria" to wait for a small fleet of sailboats, setting sail from the Atlantic Ocean toward Asia in Columbus's mind. The sailing was smooth, but after passing by week, I saw only the endless ocean, and I couldn't even see the shadow of the land. The more uneasy the sailors were. To comfort everyone, Columbus lied to them about the distance of the sailing.
I saw birds on October 7, but I still didn’t see the land, and Columbus himself was worried. Because according to his plan, he should have arrived in Japan. On October 9, he told everyone that if he still had less than land within three days, he would return. Three days passed, and just when everyone was almost desperate, on the 12th, Ling Zhan’s observation officer saw a black dot at the distance between the water and the sky, which became larger and larger. It turned out to be an island. The lookout immediately shouted loudly, "Land! Land!", that was exactly an island in Bahamas today - Columbus named it San Salvador ( Spanish means "savior").
This is a major moment for human history, because the discovery of the new continent in the Americas has broken through the closure that has been experienced between the old and new continents for countless centuries. After the ship landed, Columbus and his crew got ashore. When they found a group of natives with tea brown skin, naked body, and eccentric languages, he called them Indians because he firmly believed they belonged to the Pacific East Indies. Then, Columbus continued his sailing, reaching Cuban and Haitian , and then returned to Spain.
This is his first voyage and discovery of the American continent. But in fact he "arrived by chance". Columbus estimated that the voyage was thousands of miles less than the actual distance, so the supplies he brought were far from reaching Asia. If he hadn't encountered a new continent that had never been recorded on the map when he was three-quarters away from his goal, he would have been buried in the vast sea. Until his death, Columbus never knew where the new continent he had discovered was on the earth, and how important his discovery was in human history.
When Columbus returned to Spain for the first voyage, he was once welcomed by a triumphant hero. In the following 12 years, Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean three times. He discovered more islands in the Caribbean region, and also visited the northern shore of South America, but never found any shadows of China and India. Columbus gradually lost the trust of the Spanish King and eventually died of depression.
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