Columbus+presents+his+project+in+Portugal

   **by Elena González and Claudia Forte** 


 Some people thought Christopher Columbus was trying to prove the world was round, but this is not true. Most people already knew the Earth was round. he wanted to find a shorter way to get to get to the Indies by ship, he also wanted to be famous.



His project consisted in finding a new and shorter trading rout to Asia, to obtain silk an species, surrounding the Atlantic Ocean. But his calculation was wrong, he thought the Earth was smaller than it really is. He thought it was only two weeks long to reach Asia from Spain, when it lasted more than one month to get to America (he though he had reach Asia).


 First he went to Portugal and he asked the prince of Portugal, [|Prince Henry the Navigator], if he could support his project but he didn`t want to help him because he was supporting other expeditions and he though it wasn't a good inversion. So Christopher Columbus presented his idea to [|King John II], the king of France, but this king didn't support his expedition either. So he thought in Spain and he went there to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (The Catholic Monarchs) but they had to think it some time because they were expelling the Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. When the war was over, the Catholic Monarch decided to lend Columbus to have a chance even with all their advisors and seamen telling them it was impossible. They gave him three ships for his voyage (La Niña,Santa Maria and La Pinta) and they gave him by sailors some prisioners; but it was very dangerous, so they said to the prissioners that when they return to Spain, they will not be prissioners.