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He was looking for a water route to Asia. The Silk Road was long, dangerous, and expensive so water route would be faster and get more things to Europe.
Columbus had a contract with the Spanish crown to find a water route to Asia. The explorers of his time were looking for a water route because bringing the goods from Asia using the Silk Road was long, dangerous, and expensive. People wanted the silks, perfume, and spices but getting them to Europe was a problem.
The explorers of his time were seeking a water route to Asia. The land routes were long, dangerous, and expensive so to find a water route meant that the goods from India and China could reach Europe faster and with less expense.
They wanted a route to Asia. The Silk Road was long, expensive, and dangerous.
After Marco Polo returned from China and introduced Europe to the spices, silks, and perfumes people wanted these items and more. The Silk Road was a dangerous long route so a water route would be a good thing. The person or country who found a passage to Asia would gain in wealth.
He wanted to find an all-water route to Asia by sailing west. He was right that one might reach Asia by sailing west but he did not know that the continents of North and South America lay between Europe and Asia. What he accomplished was of far greater significance in the long run.
Colombus died believing he had found an all-water route to Asia. He never knew.
The search for water route to Asia was for a faster transportation route. The Silk Road had two main trails, a northern route and a southern route. Transporting goods along either of the routes was dangerous and took a long time. Only limited quantities of goods could be traded using this transportation method. A sea route would allow the goods to be transported more quickly and at higher quantities.
The men like Columbus weren't out for adventure, but riches and a route to Asia. If they could get to Asia by a water route they would be unbelievably rich and awarded. The Silk Road was dangerous, long, expensive, and goods often didn't to Europe.
It took Christopher Columbus a total of four voyages spanning from 1492 to 1502 to realize that he had not discovered a direct sea route to Asia. Instead, he had stumbled upon the Americas.
No. He and the other Europeans all ready knew about Asia. That is why he wanted to find a water route to Asia. People had been going over land to India and China for 200 years to bring back goods, but this took a long time and was very dangerous. Marco Polo and his father took 4 years to get to China in 1278, so finding a water route to China/India would pay off for the person who did it and the people who paid for the trip. This is the whole reason why they wanted to find one so they could get rich.
If navigable, the discovery of a Northwest Passage would have provided a more direct and efficient trade route to China than Europeans possessed at the time. Before the Suez and Panama canals were created, trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was only facilitated by long journeys past the southernmost reaches of Africa and South America, resulting in voyages that were many months long. The Northwest passage would have made these trips much more efficient and provided instant boosts to traders' profitability.