Why was it best that columbus sailed west to the indies? can u plz help me? this is very important!!! thanks?
91865
Christopher Columbus was really sailing for India for their spices, silk, and other goods to trade.  When he ran into Hispanola, he thought he had landed in India, and thus he called the people there Indians.
740343
French colonization of North America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_colonization_of_the_Americas and Dutch colonization of North America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_colonization_of_the_Americas#North_America\n\nGood Luck!!!
357397
Christopher Columbus (October 30, 1451? – 20 May 1506) was an explorer and trader, who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12, 1492 under the flag of Castile. History places great significance on his landing in America in 1492, with the entire period of the history of the Americas before this date usually known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event, Columbus Day, being celebrated in many parts of America. Although there is evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-Atlantic Ocean European contact, Columbus is commonly credited as the first European to see the Americas because of the profound impact his contact wrought on history. His voyage marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization of the Americas.\n\nIt is generally assumed he was Genoese. However there is no solid evidence of this and historians claim he could have been born in other places, from the Crown of Aragón to the Kingdoms of Galicia or Portugal, or in the Greek island of Chios, among others. His birthname is also unknown; see the section on Columbus' national origin for a discussion of his origin and names.
33939
well there was this guy named captain john smith and he sent a bunch of people to america (he paid for there ship and their supplies and all that stuff) to find gold and siver and find a easy way to trade with china and japan.then when they didnt find any thing they figured there has to be a way to make money.so they made a glass factory.and that made a little money.but then they found tobaco in virgina (which was where they were at in america) and they started to sell that and that made tons of money (they didnt know it was bad though).so then these people in america found out that they needed help so they went over to china and started taking people and selling them to help the people get the tobaco. (the people that brought the slaves over where called the dutches)and then 200 years later in the 1800's the south thought slavery was wrong and the north thought it wasnt so then they got into a fight and eventually slavery was mostly ended. (any question about this you dont get e-mail me at cool_dude6490@yahoo.com)
234968
Technically, the term West Indies doesn't actually refer to a specific place. But rather to the people of the Caribbean islands and some parts of South America, who were joined together by Colonial governments. Is that what you're referring to?
754944
okay first really read the Encarta passage (where I got two of the answers)the answers because if your teacher asks you where you got em or why the causes were SO important you won't know! Also anytime you have a history paper or anything history,science or political go to Encarta!!! IT has saved me hours of fact finding time!I couldn't find the rest but they should be in your text book! good luck.\na)Spread of the Plantation System\nb)Africans as the Labor Source
19546
There were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus's voyage to what Europeans called the "New World" set the stage for the later European colonization of the Americas, with millions of emigrants (willing and unwilling) from the "Old World" eventually resettling in the Americas. While the population of Old World peoples in the Americas steadily grew in the centuries after Columbus, the population of the American indigenous peoples plummeted. The extent and causes of this population decline have long been the subject of controversy and debate, which became particularly widespread in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus's famous voyage, with a number of people claiming that the natives of the Americas have been the victims of genocide.\n\nEstimates of how many people were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived have varied tremendously; in the 20th century scholarly estimates ranged from a low of 8.4 million to a high of 112.5 million persons. Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, precise pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain; estimates are often produced by extrapolation from comparatively small bits of data. In 1976, geographer William Denevan used various estimates to derive a "consensus count" of about 54 million people, although some recent estimates are lower than that.\n\nHistorian David Henige, representing a minority opinion, has argued that many population figures are the result of arbitrary formulas selectively applied to numbers from unreliable historical sources. He believes there is not enough solid evidence to produce population numbers that have any real meaning, and characterizes the modern trend of high estimates as "pseudo-scientific number-crunching."\n\nThis population debate has often had ideological underpinnings. Low estimates were sometimes reflective of European notions of their own cultural and racial superiority, as historian Francis Jennings has argued: "Scholarly wisdom long held that Indians were so inferior in mind and works that they could not possibly have created or sustained large populations." At the other end of the spectrum, some have argued that contemporary estimates of a high pre-Columbian indigenous population are rooted in a bias against aspects of Western civilization and/or Christianity. Robert Royal writes that "estimates of pre-Columbian population figures have become heavily politicized with scholars who are particularly critical of Europe often favoring wildly higher figures."\n\nSince civilizations rose and fell in the Americas before Columbus arrived, the indigenous population in 1492 was not necessarily at a high point, and may have already been in decline. Indigenous populations in most areas of the Americas reached a nadir by the early twentieth century, and in a number of cases started to climb again.
168777
Columbus wanted to prove you could sail to the far east by sailing west, that the world was round.\n\nAnd, he didn't discover America. He thought we was in India.\n\nColumbus was the prototype of a Politician: he headed off not knowing where he was going, arrived not knowing were he was, and did it all on borrowed money.
1104410
Ok sweetie, first of all ignore the ignorants, they are partially right but they still don't know how to answer the question. Ok here we go.\n\nAmerigo Vespucci or Américo Vespucio in spanish (see the relationship?) was an italian explorer that in 1501 arrived in what now is Guyana (North of "South" América) he sailed through the Amazona River and ended up in Patagonia (The very south of the American Continent).\n\nAmérico was the first European that realized that this was a new CONTINENT instead of Asia (What they thought at the begining, that's why we call our natives Indians because that was the destination of Columbus). The news spreaded rapidly over Europe and in 1507 a publication of a map made by the German Martin Waldseemüller using the description given by amerigo (Américo) showed the new land name as AMERICUS (In Latin) or América (Spanish because Americo was with the Spanish explorers) in honor of Americo.\n\nThe actual concept of América is the name of what people call North Central and South America which at the end and technically AND CORRECTLY speaking is the name of the whole land that starts in Canada and ends in Argentina. Back then, and, some countries now call americans refering to all people of the new continent (Not only the USA).\n\nNow in the USA, This country was called in honor to that name and also was the first country that became independent from a European authority.\n\nBeing called United States of America means States unified in a land called America which means in some kind of selfish and honorable way that the name of USA is America.\n\nThe only thing I ask you to do is please know and spread the word because there's people that really don't know how they became what they are, and yes, you can and should refer to American or americans to all people in the new continent and the nationality of the USA citizens, but you have to explain when you mean which one. To finish my answer is that everybody that know the difference and knows how to explain it is right and everybody in this WHOLE CONTINENT is an AMERICAN, the north, central and south definitions came after.\n\nThanks for letting me finally explain this to everybody. It took me a long time to figure the why's and the how's (I was born in the USA but raised in Venezuela so it helped expand my mind and knowledge).\n\nTootles
109043
*Pondering that* Actually his goals were the Indies and further into the east, not japan itself.\n\nn the 15th and 16th centuries, the Europeans wanted to find sea routes to the East. Columbus wanted to find a new route to the Far East, to India, China, Japan and the Spice Islands. If he could reach these lands, he would be able to bring back rich cargoes of silks and spices. Columbus knew that the world was round and realised that by sailing west, instead of east around the coast of Africa, as other explorers at the time were doing, he would still reach the East and the rich Spice Islands.\n\nWhy is because the know caravan routes through the middle east were both long via land and even longer via the sea going around africa. A new route there would not only be easier, but lest costly in the terms of time and money (bribes, tolls, tarrifs ect).\n\nFor more see the links...
979135
The proclamation closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. It was meant to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. However the colonists could not help but feel a strong resentment when what they viewed to be their prize was snatched away from them. The proclamation stated that "all lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists." I think the colonists would have been really upset to hear that. The url below is where i found my answer... after alot of reading
348194
He might not be the hero that people think he he was.\nProof of the vikings landing there before him might have survived.\nThe Pilgrim Fathers might have not bothered to colonise.\nThe Indigenous people may have divided the land with a tribal influence, instead of The United States.\nLord Cornwallis would have stayed at home and grown old.\nBoston Harbour would not have had a tea party.\nPlace names in America would not have been taken from Europe,ie, New York, New Jersey, LIVERPOOL, and would have all been Indian.\nImmigrants are and have been the life blood of the Americas and also the biggest perceived problem for the future, save terrorism.and if Columbus had not landed, you would be a far different person than you are today.\nGod Bless America.
23030
Well he sure is recognised now.  \nBut he didnt get much recognition back then because he never actually completed the voyage around the planet.  He was killed by natives when they stopped in the Philippines Islands and never returned to Spain.  Eighteen of his approximate 250 crew members and one of the 5 ships in his fleet did return to Spain in 1522, and were the first to circumnavigated the globe.
1037680
I think specialdark answered this one quite nicely. Columbus gets all the accolades because he was a white, Christian, European male of the species. The fact that people of another race had already been living here for at least 10,000 years is thus made a moot point. As a student and scholar of History, I must confess that I am not always proud of how historians have recorded such "discoveries" and other assorted feats of humankind. Revisionist history can be quite nauseating, even "politically correct," but the simple fact is that Columbus did not "discover" America.
442993
Christopher Columbus was the first to make the new land known to the rest of the world.  At that time, Europe was the area of the world where all information spread from. Also, Europe was in the Age of Exploration. The countries or should I say empires were looking for new routes to Asia to avoid import taxes which were common in ports on the Mediterranean Sea. This was the usual route most traders took in reaching Asia.  Christopher Columbus believed he had reached Asia until the time he died. Later explorers were the ones who realized he had landed in a new world. The Vikings were in North America much earlier, but their main concern was food, and the only record we have of their being in North America was found in the Sagas they wrote.
1016086
na\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies
799852
1).  "Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son FERNANDO, he left Cádiz, Spain on May 11, 1502, with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos. "\n\n2).  "Ferdinand Columbus (Italian: Fernando Colombo, Spanish: Fernando Colón, Córdoba, Spain, 15 August? 1488 - Sevilla, Spain, 1539) was the second son of Christopher Columbus. His mother was Beatriz Enriquez de Harana, whom his father never married, but who was Columbus' constant companion in later life.\n\nFernando was born in Cordoba, and spent his early years there with his mother. After Columbus's triumphant return from his first voyage, Fernando was appointed a page to the Spanish crown prince Don Juan, but transferred to the service of Queen Isabella following the young prince's untimely death.\n\nBetween the ages of 13 and 15, Fernando was a crewmember on Columbus' fourth voyage to the New World. After his father's death, Fernando accompanied his older brother Diego to the New World in 1509 upon Diego's appointment as governor of Hispaniola. But Fernando preferred a more settled life, and returned to Spain a few months later."\n\nHope that's enough (  :