I. Christopher Columbus: Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451. He was inspired by merchants and sailors. As a teenager he joined the crew of a merchant ship. In his early twenties he settled in Lisbon with his brother, making maps for a living. He later married a woman whose father had connections with the captains of Henry the Navigator's ship. The couple settled in Madeira while Columbus visited several trading posts on the west coast of Africa. During his sailing trips, Columbus read some books that stimulated his curiosity, such as Natural History, written by Pliny. He also had copies of Marco Polo and D'Ailly. One of the major influences in Columbus' time was Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who believed that the journey west was only 1/3 of the globe. He had a map made in Lisbon. When Columbus learned of that map, he asked for a copy and began planning a voyage so he could demonstrate theoretical geography. A) Columbus discovers America: since Columbus began to think about a journey to the west, he proposed it before the Portuguese court, which ultimately rejected the proposal, explaining that such a journey would have been too long, as well as too expensive. Subsequently, he tried the Spanish court. For several years the idea was rejected for the same reasons until finally, in 1492, the Spanish Isabella and Ferdinand approved this journey. First expedition: On August 3 of that year he took off from the Spanish port of Paolos with three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, with almost 90 crew members. This journey, never attempted before, needed God to be at the side of the sailors on board: Columbus himself, Amerigo Vespucci and Verrazzano... After six days he landed in the Canary Islands, where he rested his ships. Columbus sailed southwest, and... in the middle of the map... and after sixty-four days of sailing, the ships advanced to what is now Cape San Rocco, on August 16, 1501, on the Brazilian coast. Vespucci described it as if it were heaven on earth. From August 1501 to June 1502, Amerigo had traveled in the Southern Hemisphere and over 3300 miles. Then he thought that all these lands he had come across could only be one continent (land) and not just a stream of islands. He returned to Lisbon, and landed in July 1502 with a triumphant expedition. Works Cited Vespucci was “introduced to the vibrant Florentine cultural societies of the Renaissance” (Masini, 1998, p. 5). Vespucci was “introduced to the vibrant Florentine cultural societies of the Renaissance” (Masini, 1998, p. 5). Renaissance” (Masini, 1998, p. 5) that the distance between Europe and the eastern shore of Asia was short, indeed, that Spain was closer to China in the west than in the east” (Morgan, October 2009)