COLUMBUS EXPLORES NEW

LANDS

What was Columbus

looking for when he

set sail across the

Atlantic Ocean?What did he find?

Today our planet may not seem vast. People vacation all over the world.

Flying across oceans can take just a few

hours. But it was a different story 500

years ago.

The date was August 3. The year was 1492.

Christopher Columbus was about to make

a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. He wanted to find a shorter route from

Europe to Asia. Leaving Spain with three ships, he had high hopes for success.

On October 12, Columbus and his crew spotted land. It was an

island. Columbus called it San Salvador,

and that’s what we call it today.

During the next few weeks, Columbus traveled around the islands of the Caribbean Sea. Even though these

islands are close to North America, Columbus thought they were off the coast of

Asia!

In March 1493, Columbus and his crew returned to Spain. But he wasn’t finished traveling! He made three more voyages across the Atlantic Ocean,, and no two

were alike. During his second voyage, he explored other areas in the Caribbean.

He visited the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and Puerto Rico.

During Columbus’s third voyage, in 1498,

he landed in South America. By this time

he knew he wasn’t near Asia.

Nor

South America

North America

ASIA

COLUMBUS

On Columbus’s fourth and final voyage,

in the early 1500s, he traveled along the

coast of Central America.

South America

North America

Central America

To remember Columbus’s discoveries in the New World, we have a holiday called Columbus Day. On this day we

think about how Columbus forever changed life in North and South

America.