Christopher Columbus

Exploration

Christopher Columbus

300-400 years ago a great deal of the world was undiscoveried. But now

there seems little more to explore, the wild north was conquered, the

jungle was conquered too. And it seems that all the pages of the great

book called “The Earth” has been filled in, but exploration still goes on.

In the 15th century people knew only 3 continents: Europe, Asia and

Africa. They knew nothing about America. The man who was thought to be the

discoverier of America was born in 1451 in Italy. His name was Cristopher

Columbus.

Knowing that the earth was round he desided to reach India by sailing to

the west. It was very difficult for him to organize an expedition as

nobody wanted to help him. At last the Spanish government gave him some

money. In the 1492 he sailed with 3 small ships in to the Atlantic ocean.

They had been sailing for more than 2 months and at last they saw land.

Columbus was certain that the lands he discoveried were part of India and

he called these islands “The West Indias”. He made 3 voyagers to America.

His last voyage was made in 1502-1504. After that, seriously ill, he

remained in Spain until his death. He died believing that Cuba was part of

Asia. Colum-buse\'s voyagers gave Europe first important knowledge of the

new world. Many places have been named in his honour. America however was

named after another explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Americus Vespucius (or Amerigo Vespucci, as the name is spelled in

Italian) was born in Florence, Italy, in 1454. He was in Spain at the time

of Columbus\' first and second voyages. In a letter, written in 1504 and

printed in 1505, he claimed to have made four voyages, on the first of

which, in 1497, he explored the South American coast. This would make him

the first European to land on the American continent, for at that time

Columbus had only reached the outlying islands. Most scholars reject

Vespucius\' version of this voyage. Vespucius perhaps did accompany a

Spanish expedition that of Alonzo de Ojeda to South America in 1499, and

in 1501 and 1503 he probably went with Portuguese expeditions. Probably he

never commanded an expedition himself and, of course, was not the first

person to set foot on the continents to which his name is given. Vespucius

died in Seville, Spain, in 1512.