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Christopher Columbus: Western Europe
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Christopher Columbus was a trader and explorer. He was born in 1451 and died May 20, 1506 in Valladolid. He was once called the first European to find America, though it is known now that the Vikings did this earlier.
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Who was Christopher Columbus, and why did he sail under the flag of Spain, rather than Italy? Didn't he and the missionaries force the conversion of the Amerinds or Native Americans, morally reprehensible for bringing disease that wiped out whole tribes, and did not he go back to Europe rich from his plunder? Besides, the Italian navigator, Amerigo, from which America gets its name reached America before Columbus, so Columbus ought not be honored in the first place as the discoverer of America. This is what is being broadcast in high and low places.
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One of the most optimistic advocates of the western route was Christopher Columbus (see Columbus, Christopher). For years he begged the courts of Portugal, England, France, and Spain for a grant of ships and men to prove that Asia lay only a few thousand miles west of Europe.
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During Christopher's life, explorers stayed close to the known lands of Europe and Africa. They did not sail into the Atlantic Ocean because it was unknown and uncharted. The ocean was thousands of miles wide, and there were no landmarks to guide ships.
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