Page 90 - 100 Events That Made History
P. 90
In 1492, Italian sailor Christopher
Atlantic hoping to reach India. Instead
Columbus Columbus sailed west across the
he found the Americas—by accident!
reaches the He was the first European to land
there for almost 500 years.
Americas
How the Americas came
to be colonized by Europe
West to India
Christopher Columbus thought
he could find a sea route to
Asia by sailing west. Since
Constantinople had fallen
to the Ottoman empire in
1453, the land route to Asia
involved passing through
hostile Muslim territory.
Ferdinand and Isabella
of Spain, who had recently
kicked the MUSLIMS out
of their country, agreed
to fund Columbus.
Columbus’s first voyage
Columbus set off in summer 1492 with three
ships, the SANTA MARIA, Pinta, and Niña, and
90 men. After five long weeks at sea, a lookout
on the Pinta sighted land. They anchored on an
island in the Bahamas, inhabited by the Arawak
people. Columbus claimed the land for Spain,
and established a colony on Hispaniola
(modern-day Haiti).
What came before…
In 1002, Viking explorer In 1498, Portuguese explorer
LEIF ERICSSON sailed west from VASCO DA GAMA became the
Greenland and reached what first European to reach
was probably Newfoundland, India by sea. His route took
Canada. He founded a colony him around Africa to the
called Vinland. Indian Ocean.
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