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Columbus 1452 - 1506 Italian Navigator |
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Christopher Columbus was born at Genova. He went to sea at an early age,
and in 1478 he settled in Portugal.
Believing that Asia could be reached by sailing westward, he sought financial assistance unsuccessfully for some years, but finally secured patronage of the King and Queen of Spain. While Columbus set out from Spain to find a westward route to Asia, he found America instead, thus becoming the first historically important European discoverer of the New World. His three ships - the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the Pinta - departed on August 3, 1492 from Spain; they sighted land on October 12. In his four voyages he failed to find a passage to Asia; for this reason he was overshadowed in his own time by Vasco da Gama who opened a sea route to India. |
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www links : Biography
Columbus: Man and Myth |