What Were the Causes and Consequences of 1492- the Year Columbus ‘Discovered America

Christopher Columbus sailed to America in 1492. His voyage let Europe know about America, which had many consequences. I’m examining why Christopher Columbus went and the consequences of his ‘discovery’

Columbus wanted to find a new, quicker and easier trade route to the East, particularly India and China whose produce was in much demand in Europe. By finding Asia, he would become rich.

Many people were starting to be convinced that the world was round and not flat by heading west instead of east but still reaching the same destination Columbus hoped to prove that the world was round. He especially wanted to convince the Spanish University of this. This would bring him fame and a title.

During his voyage he also wanted to show that there were no such things as sea monsters.

Columbus was a very religious man and believed that God had to take on this task so that he could help to spread Christianity.

These ambitions made Columbus very determined to make the voyage eventually asking the Spanish Court for finance.

At the time Spain was both rich and powerful it was looking for a way to increase this making it an empire. One major way was to control the trade routes in the East; the other was to colonize new lands leading it to become an empire. Spain was also keen to spread the word of Christianity. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand were therefore willing to invest especially as their own personal wealth would increase too.

The honor Spain would receive if Columbus was successful would be enormous making Spain an essential power so that the other countries would have to negotiate with Spain in order to maintain their economies.

Columbus set sail and as was usual at the time used the stars to navigate. He however made errors with his calculations two of the most important being he intended to go to Asia but ended up in America and his miscalculation of the size of the earth. He estimated that it was much smaller than it actually is from this he...