why did christopher columbus set sail?

Answer 1

He was financed by the Monarchs of Spain to find a route to the East Indies.

Answer 2

Add silk and opium to the spices from the East :

"Europe had long enjoyed a safe passage to China and India— sources of valued goods such as silk, spices and opiates— under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"). With the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453, the land route to Asia became more difficult. The Ottoman conquest of Egypt similarly impeded the Red Sea route. Portuguese sailors took to traveling south around Africa to Asia. The Columbus brothers had a different idea. By the 1480s, they had developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the "Ocean Sea," i.e., the Atlantic."

"Spain, [...] having completed an expensive war, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in trade with the East Indies."

"Navigational hypotheses" in "Christopher Columbus", Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Navigational_hypotheses

Answer 3

When Marco Polo came back from China, he brought with him many memories that eventually became a book:
Lou devisament dou Monde (The description of the world) written by Rusticello Of Pise and Marco. The book was not a huge hit but by the 15th century, a guy (can't remember his name) edited and implemented Polo's book. Whoever has read the book will tell you about all the health in India and China. The European countries had access to India and China through many roads (the silk roads) but the fall of Byzantium meant that business would only be carried by the muslims (foes in politics and now in business as well).
Almost everybody knew that the Earth was round but the question was Is it possible to go through the "mar Oceania" (the atlantic). C.Columbus, who knew M.Polo's accounts very well (he had a copy of the book in the Santa Maria) believed it could be done in xdays, therefore, he decided to go. The king of Spain thought it be good for them to be in international trade. If Columbus was wrong, it would not have cost them to much anyway.

Answer 4

He was trying to find a new route to China and India. Hostile nations controlled the areas that trade ships had to sail to get to the far east. But the entire western hemisphere was just a blank spot on the maps of the day. It was accepted at this point that the world was round, so Columbus decided to go west, and see if he could get to the far east that way, and bypass the enemy.

Instead he discovered an entire new world. Oops.

Answer 5

He was looking for a shorter route to the Malaysian area, where many spices come from. He thought it would be shorter than going around the south end of Africa, because he did have a good number for the size of the earth.

Answer 6

To try and find a new trade route to India, I believe. The Cape of Good Hope wasn't a nice way to go and they didn't have the Suez Canal.

Answer 7

He was chasing a chimp on a raft. Apparently Columbus was amused by chimps and when he saw one sailing out of the harbour he just couldn't resist. What a prankster!

Answer 8

Fame,Fortune and God.he wanted to reach india for spices by going west rather than east so he didnt have to pay the mongols to let traders through their land.

Answer 9

Pieces of Eight...Pieces of Eight... Pieces of Eight ..... Waaaahh...Pretty Polly !

OK, now we have got the dead parrot sketch off our chests, I will attempt to correct 500 years of b*llcr*p !

Christobal Colon was a shady character, so shady that we are not even sure who he was, or where he came from. There are various possibilities, Spain, around Sevilla or Grenada, maybe Corsica, many favour Genoa, in Italy.

What history does recount is that, having tried his pitch in various wealthy circles and royal courts around Europe he ended up in Barcelona, in 1492, trying his pitch on Isabella, and for a second attempt with Ferdinand, having failed to convince him at Salamanca in 1487.

What is not told is that Colon knew perfectly well that there was no direct approach to the Indies by going west on an equitorial route. And how did he know that ?

The story that he hailed from Genoa had it's primary roots in the fact that, as a young man, he sailed with Genovese vessels and acquired his basic seamanship skills at quite an early age, Colon himself claimed to have gone to see at the age of ten years.

We also know that he studied the writings of Marinus of Tyre, the probable origin of the root word Marine. Marinus was one of the last of the truly super ancient race of Master mariners known cryptically as 'The Sea People', also the ancestors of the Marinus' own Phoenicians.

Much of what has been written about, and by, the Phoenicians has, for obscure reasons, been suppressed. The fact that there circumnavigated the entire African continent over 3,500 years for one ! Secondly that they reached the Americas in pre-Roman times is clear, establishing tin mines in the continental USA and Canada, and hauling hundreds of thousands of tonnes back to Europe to underpin the 'Bronze Age'. It is an interesting detail of history that someone once calculated that Europe lacked about two thirds of the necessary raw material to account for all the bronze used during this period. It is only by adding the prodigious quantities that have been calculated to have been mined in North America that the numbers make any sense whatsoever.

So...back to the scurrilous Colon. What was his motivation for trying to get some, anyone, to finance his promoted 'western route to the Indies'.

Back to the beginning, it was gold, and it was land. Whilst we may not be quite sure what Colon was, we do know, for sure, what he wasn't....he wasn't stupid. He knew that the fast track to fortune and fame was material riches and land holdings, preferably vast on both counts. The chances of acquiring either by legal means in Europe were more or less nil, so the only way was to get out there amongst the 'primitives' and steal theirs.

His ventures here in my adopted homeland are very telling. He attempted to force the native Tainos to tell him where they got their gold from, they refused to the end to tell him, and he ordered them to be slaughtered. And he expropriated all their land.

The same tale applies in every land he claimed for the crown of Castille, and those claimed by his successors.

Thieves to the last man.

Answer 10

it was NOT to prove that the world was not flat, by 1492 most people already knew this. it was to find a quicker and safer route to asia to trade in spices etc