Christopher columbus small biography of arnold

Christopher Columbus, the son of a respected weaver and local politician, was born in Genoa. He worked in his father's business, but chose to go to sea at age 14.

10 Things You May Not Know About Christopher Columbus

Columbus sailed throughout the Mediterranean and one day was shipwrecked off the coast of Portugal. Making his way to Lisbon, he joined a brother and worked as a chart maker.

During the second half of the 15th century, Portugal was the great Western center of explorers and adventurers, and the staging area for the quest to find an ocean path to the East.

During his years in Portugal, Columbus heard tales from sailors about lands beyond the known world's western extremity. Educated people of the day recognized that the earth was a sphere, but no European was aware of the existence of the American continents and the Pacific Ocean. Columbus became one of the few voices to call for sailing west to reach the lucrative markets of China and Japan.

His idea was given a hearing by the Portuguese king, John I