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Christopher Columbus Legacy Essay

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In grade school, we are taught that Christopher Columbus was the man who discovered America. Now that we are older, we have learned more in depth about him as a person and explorer. Not only did he set sail Westward in search of new findings, but that he would claim them as his own, eventually they would be inherited by his eldest son, and the generations after (Columbus, Journal, paragraph 1). Columbus did leave a legacy, nonetheless like every story, there are many obstacles that lay ahead.
Christopher Columbus was finally able to fulfill his dream of sailing when he received the opportunity to travel to India by the King and Queen of Spain. The Royal family wanted Columbus to better understand the society of the people in India to be able …show more content…

The ships saw numerous types of birds such as a grajao or a water-wagtail, land birds, and pelicans, they ran into vegetation, and a few sea animals like a crab and a whale (Columbus, Journal, paragraph 8-14). As they encountered these animals they should have changed their course of action to follow them to see if the land was truly close by. At one point, the Admiral and crew believed they saw land and asked to differ from the original path to investigate. They traveled twenty-one and a half leagues out of their way and found nothing but lied to the crew and told them they had only traveled half the distance (Columbus, Journal, paragraph 18). Columbus and each ship Captain kept lying to their crew about how far they actually had traveled to attempt to keep their spirits high. If the crew started to believe they were never going to find land and that the winds would not pick up to take them back to Spain to return home, what could they believe in? As leaders, Columbus and the other Captains, had to keep their sailors in high spirits then again they would figure it out.
Finally, Columbus and his men found land between October 11-12, 1492 (Columbus, Journal, paragraph 27-29). While they believed that the land they found was the new continent they were in search for, they were wrong. Once on the island Columbus observed the

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