Christopher Columbus (1451-1506 CE), from the Italian city of Genoa, long dreamt of making his fortune in the spice trade. With the closure of the eastern Mediterranean spice route by the Ottoman Turks, Columbus became obsessed with the idea of finding a western route to the Orient. Repeated, and persistent, approaches to rulers on the Iberian Peninsula finally paid off when Queen Isabella of Castile decided to fund a small expedition in 1492. The rest is history.
Some recommended online lectures and websites
- The European Voyages of Exploration: The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
- Christopher Columbus (Wikipedia)
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied in this unit.