cHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

            Christopher Columbus changed the world. He took the world of the late middle ages, and set it on it's path to becoming the world we live in today. This man might not have been the first person to set foot on American soil, but he certainly did "discover" America for Europeans, Africans, and Asians. If Columbus did not travel try to find a new root to Asia, the world would not have known North and South America existed for a long time. Not much is known about Columbus" personal life. We do know he had at least two sons, and that he was married. Genoa, Italy is the best guess that anyone has for his birth place. Countries all over the world have tried to claim the great explorer. Some writers have said that he was a converted Jew, or a "converso." One writer even claimed that Columbus was born in America and then travelled to Europe. These myths are just a few of the hundreds of stories told about where he was born. The same amount of confusion has been raised about his real name. Almost each country has their own name for him. The French know him as Colomb, the Spanish spell his name Cristobal, and the Latin Americans call him Colon. Today, most people have begun to know him as Christopher Columbus, as one of the countries he discovered, America, knows him as. .
             We all know the children's rhyme, "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." But why, why did he want to sail across this vast unexplored, deathly dangerous ocean? Many have said that he set out to prove that the earth was round, but in fact it is entirely untrue that he set out to prove this. Towards the end of the 15th Century, almost everyone had accepted the fact that the earth was a sphere. If this wasn't the reason that Christopher sail the ocean blue. why did he? One reason that he made the dangerous voyage was he was determined that the trip would spread the Christian faith. He believed that he had a duty because of his name, which means Christ barrier, that he needed to spread Christianity to the rest of the world.