1.“The Ages of Exploration.” Ages of Exploration, exploration.marinersmuseum.org/subject/christopher-columbus/.
Summary: Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia.
Statement: This article discusses Christopher Columbus’s early life and what inspired him to travel around the world. Because Europeans had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia, it made trade more expensive. Hearing this Columbus decided and planed a journey to the west to see if there was another route.
2. “Christopher Columbus.” Crucibleteachnotes.html, Charles Pennell, www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/c-Columbus/columbus.html.
Summary: After five centuries, Columbus still remains a mysterious and controversial figure who has been described by many as one of the greatest mariners in history, a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist.
Statement: This article discusses how there are many different opinions about Christopher Columbus. Some people think that he is a hero for sailing to the west and discovering America. On the other hand some people thought he was not a hero, because of how he treated the Native Americans.
3. Knight, Kevin. “Christopher Columbus.” CATHOLIC LIBRARY: Sublimus Dei (1537), 2017, www.newadvent.org/cathen/04140a.htm. Summary: His family was respectable. The early education of Columbus was not the greatest. Columbus wrote a letter to King Ferdinand says that he began to navigate at the age of fourteen in 1493, he was said to have been on the sea twenty-three years, which would make him nineteen when he first became a mariner.
Statement: The article talks about the early life of Christopher Columbus. It summarized how Christopher Columbus persuaded the king, and how he sailed to the west. It also summarizes many of his journeys through the Caribbean islands.
4. Sue, Caryl. “Columbus Makes Landfall in the Caribbean.” National Geographic Society, National Geographic, 3 Sept. 2014, www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/oct12/columbus-makes-landfall-caribbean/.
Summary: On October 12, 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in what is now the Bahamas. At that time, native Lucayan Taino people lived there. Columbus describes the island as “very flat, with very green trees,” and a “very large lake in the middle.”
Statement: This article describes the first islands Christopher Columbus arrived at. It tells us what the islands looked like, and what Christopher Columbus thought of it. It also describes what kind of people lived there.