Why was Columbus looking for a new route to Asia?

Answer 1

This answer is only vaguely correct. The truth is that Islam had decimated the silk road, killing and enslaving up to half of the population along its route because they were Christians. It was not safe to travel east. Spain had just kicked the Moors out of Spain after 700 years of occupation and were attempting to reestablish trade with old contacts; but by a different route.

The established route from Europe to China and the Indies was slow, dangerous, costly, and occupied by Islamic and other empires unfriendly to Christian Europeans. A water route was thought more likely to be secure, more effective, and by his own calculations much shorter and therefore quicker.

Answer 2

Because when Columbus left Asia he would come back with spices and they would get robbed on the way back if they went around India and Africa. Those waters were controlled by other nations who wanted to profit from merchants sailing through their waters. The land route was even more perilous (still is!)

Answer 3

He thought that a sea route to the Indies would open up a significant new trade relationship between Europe and that part of the world, because a sea route could very well be faster and safer than the overland routes then used.