Christopher Columbus is one of the most famous discovers in history. He is given the credit for finding the continent of North America.  Actually he may have been the first European to find this continent but there were others here ahead of him and many more had actually been here hundreds of years before.  Leaf Erikson was a Norwegian sailor who came earlier.  The Norwegians have a joke that Columbus used Erikson's maps. The Norwegians had actually colonized parts of northern Canada early in the 10th century. 

No matter who was first Columbus did open the world to discovery. Following his adventures came new villages of pilgrims.  That part is important and a very good reason to remember this important man.

Columbus was born in Italy in 1451 . His family was weavers and this gave him the opportunity to become familiar with the royal families of Europe.  Although he was a good weaver he really wanted to become a sailor.  He was well educated and could not believe that the world was flat as was the beliefs of the people of his time. They thought that since so many huge ships and crews went to sea and never returned that they had gotten too close to the edge of the earth and feel off.  To us this seems silly but we have to remember that back then there were no phones, satellites, or rockets.  They had no communication with people of other lands across the seas except from the brave sailors who would try to find new routes to other countries.


Columbus really wanted to sail and explore and knowing that the kings and queens of Europe were interested in gold and spices he was able to talk to the King and Queen of Spain and get them interested in finding a new route to Asia where those things were available.  They gave him 3 ships and the money to support them for a year. We know these ships as the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria. 
In 1792 Columbus sailed West in an attempt to find India.  After 3 months at sea they found land.  Many historians have tried to figure out exactly where Columbus and his crew landed.  The best scholars believer is it was somewhere near the Spice Islands.  When Columbus returned to Spain he was a hero.  And was able to return to the West 3 more times.  He always believed that he had found India.  It was not until much later that people found that on one account he was right!  The earth was round.  You never fell off the earth.  But he was also wrong.  He had not found India.  But in fact a new land. Land that is now known as North America.

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Interested in learning more? 
 Here are some good links you might like to check out. 

http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/c-Columbus/columbus.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/c/columbus.shtml

http://caribbean-connection.com/christopher-columbus/index.html  -this site is extensive and has
links off site so be careful.

Want a special project to try?  How about making a quadrant?  This site has the directions
on how to do that and information on what it is and what it does. 
http://www.kyes-world.com/quadindex.htm

Teachers: Need a Columbus project for your older students?  This is a great site on
how to make a game board for Columbus explorations.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/Cardboard/Board/C/Columbus.html

A Columbus word search at: http://www.thepotters.com/puzzles/kids/columbus.html

Columbus lost many ships in his voyages.  This site gives you a chance to learn
about them and best of all it is interactive. 
http://www.shipsofdiscovery.org/columbus.htm