The year was 1492. The salty wind blew through the sails of three wooden ships. The sky was clear and blue.

A man stood at the front of the biggest ship. His name was Christopher Columbus. His eyes looked out across the sea.

He had been sailing for weeks. His men were tired, some were scared, but Columbus believed he was close to land.

He thought he would find a new way to reach Asia. He had no idea that he was about to land

somewhere very different. He did not know his voyage would change history forever.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the city of Genoa, in what is now Italy.

His real name in Italian was Christophoro Colombo.

His father was a wool weaver.

Columbus helped in his father's shop when he was a boy.

But Columbus didn't want to weave wool. He dreamed of sailing.

As a teenager, he started working

on ships. He learned to sail, he learned how to read maps. He even survived a shipwreck

and swam to shore. At that time, people in Europe wanted spices, silk, and gold from Asia.

But traveling east to Asia was hard and dangerous. The land route was long. There were many problems along the way.

Some people began to wonder, what if there was a faster way to Asia by sea?

Columbus had a bold idea. He believed he could sail west across the Atlantic Ocean and reach Asia that way.

Most people thought the trip was too long. They didn't

think it would work. But Columbus believed the earth was round. He thought Asia was much closer

than it really was. Columbus did not know that a huge continent, North and South America,

lay in his path. Columbus needed money to go on his journey.

He asked the kings of Portugal and England for help.

They said no.

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