Any idea why did Christopher Columbus thought he had discovered India when he had actually discovered America?

Question

Columbus accidently discovered America as he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean. But he meant to travel across the Indian Ocean for the country India. As he arrived at the land of America, why did he think it was India? Any geographical reasons...? And some websites I can check out for this question..? Any clue and idea would be greatly appreciated~!

Answer 1

Because he was a dumba$$, native killing, non-sailing, slave trader. Why in the world we have a holiday named after him is
beyond comprehension.


;-(

Answer 2

first of all, Columbus did not "discover" anything expect a venue for Spain to get rich and slay/enslave indigenous people. The Americas were discovered 10,000s of years ago by those generally referred to as Indians.

He wasn't even the first European to cross the Atlantic; the Vikings beat him by 500+ years, and others may have, too (even Africans may have beat him). Indians also crossed to Europe about 60 BCE.

Columbus did not recognize that different scales of measurement measured differently (one mile does not equal a kilometer, for instance). In those days, everyone had their own system, their own figures for estimating the same global circumference. Columbus read an Arabic (if memory serves) figure and said, "that doesn't seem so far," not recognizing that an Arab mile (well, not a mile, but you get the idea) was far longer than an Italian mile.

As others have pointed out, India was not yet India, "in dios" meant "with god" or thereabouts.

Answer 3

This is because Columbus was desperate to get to India as India was the ultimate destination for explorers/traders/imperialist powers, it was known as the "Golden Bird" and Columbus was trying to get to it. Though Vasco Da Gama the Portuguese explorer had already found a way to it via the Cape Of Good Hope in South Africa, Columbus wanted to find a way opposite Da Gama's route. Since Columbus did not know that a big block of land was in his way i.e. The Americas, he thought he would reach "The Indies" with much ease. "The Indies" refers to modern South-East Asia comprising of the Indian Subcontinent. Instead he landed on the unknown shores of The Caribbean and North America and that is why the natives of North America are called Red "Indians" and the Caribbean Islands are called The "West Indies".

Having said that America is not named after Columbus but after Amerigo Vaspucci the Italian Explorer.
Amazing :)

ab

Answer 4

At that time, people were toiling with the idea that the world is not flat, and it could be round. Columbus thought that by going in the opposite direction, he could actually take a short cut and reach India faster. They had no idea of the distances involved.

When he finally found land mass, he thought that he has arrived in India and he called the natives Indians. We know it was a mistake, we all know that it is a mistake, but we continue to call these American native people, Indians, even though they have nothing to do with India or Indians.

Answer 5

At the time, nobody knew America existed. Columbus was headed for "the Indies", which was a general term for what we now call east Asia (China and Japan). Since he (along with everyone else) knew the world was round, it was theoretically possible to sail west from Europe and arrive at Asia -- provided nothing was in your way, like an entirely unknown continent.

What Columbus knew about the Indies he had read from Marco Polo: the people there had darker skin than Europeans, but not as dark as Africans; and there were many islands off the coast. So when Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, the people and land there were similar to what Marco Polo had described. Since he expected to find Asia, he was convinced that he had done so.

Answer 6

At that time, cartography was not very accurate, and scolars were arguing about how big the earth was, especailly since various reference were using unit of length of different size, that were still all called the same. From those confused references, Columbus thought that the earth was about 60% of the size it actually has, so by the time he crossed the atlantic, he was pretty sure he had reached the east coast of asia.
He actually died still thinking that what he had found was not a new continent, but a route to go to asia.

Answer 7

He actually meant to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, as he did, but he didn't expect to find another continent between him and India. Coincidentally, (mis)calculations of the curvature of the earth predicted that he would find India exactly where he found America, and therefore when he landed after just the right distance traveled, he thought he must be in India.

Answer 8

Plenty of info. and website on this question already. However, I don't think C.C. miscalculated the curvature of the earth, since it was appoximated with great accuracy by Eratosthenes in 230 B.C.! He gave the term Indian to the native Americans as a tribute to himself and his quest for a western passage to India. Discovering for the rest of the world a "New World" trumps anything else he was trying to prove! There still exists doubt on whether C.C. was actually trying to find India! He may have already known about the "New World" and named the natives "indians" as to make a more believable story.

Answer 9

Columbus didn't think he arrived in India when he arrived in America. This is just a story that's told now. Back then India wasn't known as India, it was known as Hindustan. And he didn't "discover" either place, since both places had already been "discovered" by the people living there.
When Columbus arrived in Santo Domingo and the other islands of the Gulf of Mexico, he met people whose natrual goodness put his Christianity to shame, and he wrote of them as "indios", that is, "in God". He also noted, "such gentle people could easily be conquored by a small force of soldiers" In fact, he did just that, enslaving the people and terrorizing them to bring him gold and ever more gold.

Answer 10

Hi. He expected to hit India first. That's why native Americans were called "Indians" before the days of mutual respect.

Answer 11

Columbus had a significantly incorrect value for the earth's circumference, so thought that he had gone much farther around the globe than he had. His voyage was long before accurate clocks permitted a proper reckoning of longitude.