A Journey with Christopher Columbus

A Journey with Christopher Columbus — page 1 — Introduction The Old World Meets the New The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus first landed on a Caribbean island on October 12 1492 A few days later Columbus made an entry in his journal He said he was searching for a village where our Indians inform us we shall find much gold Columbus’s journal about his voyage to the New World is known as a primary source Primary sources are documents and objects that make up the raw materials of history Other primary sources from Columbus’s era include drawings and paintings tools trade goods clothing and diaries written by people who lived at the same time as Columbus Columbus wrote this letter in November 1493 to describe his second voyage to the New World Because we can read his words we know what he saw and thought hundreds of years ago even though he can’t tell us in person 4

A Journey with Christopher Columbus — page 2 — Columbus’s original journal in which he described his experience exploring the New World no longer exists But another colonist Bartolomé de Las Casas wrote his own version of the events That text pictured includes direct quotations and summaries of Columbus’s words That history is the version of Columbus’s words that modern scholars use The value of primary sources can be seen in the sentence Columbus wrote in his journal He called the Native people Indians because he believed he was in India Columbus never knew Hispaniola modern Dominican Republic and Haiti is in the Caribbean Sea thousands of miles from India When Columbus mentions gold he reveals an important reason for his journey Columbus was driven by dreams of wealth and power During the four voyages Columbus made to the New World between 1492 and 1504 his goals were finding gold and spreading his religious views Although Columbus visited the New World more than five hundred years ago his journal opens a window on his journeys Taken together the primary sources of the era provide a snapshot of a distant time After people of the Old World came face-to-face with those of the new neither world would ever be the same 5

A Journey with Christopher Columbus — page 3 — This sixteenth-century painting shows the harbor of Genoa Italy where Columbus was born By the time this art was created the age of exploration was well under way This painting is not considered a primary source because it was not made at the time of the event Chapter 1 The Dreams of an Explorer Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa Italy Genoa was a port city on the Mediterranean Ocean where ocean exploration was a way of life Explorers regularly sailed from Genoa to a chain of islands called the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal Spices Silk and Gems Some in Genoa grew rich buying and selling goods Traders shipped wool from England cloth from Belgium and glass artwork from Venice Italy The richest traders bought and sold spices silk gold gems and pearls These were imported from 6

A Journey with Christopher Columbus — page 4 — the East modern-day India China Japan and Indonesia Traders of items such as silk and spices faced a problem There was no sea route between Europe and the East The goods were brought to Europe in camel caravans The camels walked nose to tail along a 4,000-mile 6,437-kilometer web of paths called the Silk Road The route connected China and India to ports on the Mediterranean in eastern Europe The Silk Road was dangerous Traders faced sandstorms in the deserts and snowstorms in the mountains Parts of the route were controlled by bandits Plus in the 1450s new leaders in eastern Europe made it even harder for western Europeans to travel the Silk Road That inspired explorers to seek a water route to the East Glassware such as this cup made in Venice Italy was traded through Genoa in the fifteenth century 7

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