Voyages of Columbus Travel Guide — Things to Do, Food & Hotels
1492–1504 voyages to the Americas; beginning of the Columbian exchange
About Voyages of Columbus
—Journal of the First Voyage In the Middle Ages, trade betweenEuropeandAsiafollowed theSilk Roadthrough the Byzantine Empire and Mongolian lands. As theMongol Empirecrumbled, and theOttoman Empireseized the Byzantine capitalConstantinoplein 1453, European Christians were encouraged to find new ways of commerce. Columbus was born inGenoa(seeMedieval and Renaissance Italy). He toured Europe for seven years to find a sponsor for his voyage, and was turned down by many royal courts, untilSpainbacked him up. A modern misconception says that the skepticism was based in a belief that Earth was flat. However, scholars of the 15th century were well aware that Earth was round; the disagreement was about its size. SinceAncient Greece, there were accurate estimates that Earth's circumference was about
Voyages of Columbus Travel Guide Sections
Our comprehensive guide covers 5 sections including: