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Christopher Columbus : The Causes And Reasons Of Christopher Columbus

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Exploration has been the main curiosity of man since the beginning of time. This trait was especially evident in Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer born in 1451.Columbus would then grow up to have an idea to find a better oceanic route to Asia from Europe. However, Columbus had to receive support for this voyage. Due to the fact that the Portuguese and English governments did not wish to support Columbus on his endeavours, he struggled to find the support he needed for his voyage. Finally, in 1492, Columbus found this support from Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. The Spanish monarchs hired Columbus because of their interest in strengthening Spanish commercial prospects in other places, Columbus and the …show more content…

Another reason the Spanish monarchs wanted a part of Columbus’ voyage was to spread Catholicism to far places in hopes of gaining a larger following of Catholicism. Columbus, being a devout follower of the Catholic religion, approved of this because he also wanted to spread the religion. Also, at the time of Columbus’ expedition, Spain’s “Reconquista”, the expulsion of Jews and Muslims, was complete, the Spanish turned their focus to exploring and conquering other parts of the world while spreading the Catholic religion. The Spanish, with Columbus’ help, saw an opportunity with the expedition to begin this exploration and conquest. When Columbus found the Americas instead of the passage to Asia, this gave the Spanish monarchs even more of a reason to begin exploration and conquest of these new lands. This was another driving factor of the Spanish monarchs support for Columbus. Another reason the Spanish monarchs were supportive of Columbus’ ideas for sailing West was because they saw an opportunity to earn more money in the west with exportation of the goods that Spain was abundant with. Instead, while Columbus was sailing west, he found the Americas and this changed European life forever. Columbus didn’t bring much gold or riches back from his voyage, but he did bring back goods that the Europeans had

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