It is useless to stand behind and point fingers, the key is innovation.

Christopher Columbus was a dreamer, a famous Italian navigator, and a pioneer of great geographical discoveries. Born August or October 1451 in Genoa, Italy, died May 20, 1506 in Valladolid, Spain.

Columbus was born into a working-class family in Genoa, of Jewish descent. He had read "The Travels of Marco Polo" and was very longing for India and China. When he grew up, he became a captain and was a skilled navigator. When Columbus was young, he was a believer in the theory of the circle of the earth. He was an admirer of Marco Polo, who once sat in prison in Genoa, and was determined to be a navigator. He was convinced that a practical sea route to East Asia could be found from the Atlantic Ocean in the west.

He is determined to make this dream a reality. He successively requested funds from the kings of Portugal, Spain, England, France and other countries to realize his plan to sail westward and reach the eastern countries, but all were rejected. He finally persuaded Queen Isabella I and financed his expedition. Between 1492 and 1502, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean four times with the support of the King of Spain and reached the American continent, and he also became a famous navigator in history.

At that time, the theory of the circle of the earth was very popular, and Columbus believed it. He successively requested funds from the kings of Portugal, Spain, England, France and other countries to realize his plan to sail westward and reach the eastern countries, but all were rejected. On the one hand, the theory of the circle of the earth is not very complete, and many people do not believe it and regard Columbus as a charlatan. Once, on a special review committee on Columbus's plan in Spain, a committee member asked Columbus: Even if the earth is round, you can reach the east by sailing westward and return to the port of departure, then there must be a section of voyage that climbs uphill from below the earth , how can the sailboat climb up? Columbus, who is eloquent and eloquent, can only speak at a loss. On the other hand, at that time, in addition to traditional silk, porcelain, and tea, the most important things that Western countries needed for Eastern material wealth were spices and gold. Among them, spices are essential materials for Europeans' daily life and diet and cooking. They are in great demand and are not produced locally. At that time, these commodities were mainly transported by the traditional sea and land transport. The vested interests dealing in these commodities also strongly opposed Columbus' plans to open new routes.

Columbus has been lobbying for more than ten years to realize his dreams and plans. It was not until 1492 that the Queen of Spain saw a hero with a discerning eye, and she persuaded the king to even give out her own money to finance Columbus, so that Columbus's plan could be implemented.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus was dispatched by the king of Spain, with credentials to the Indian monarch and the Chinese emperor, and led three sailboats of about 100 tons. They left the Atlantic Ocean from the port of Baros, Spain, and headed westward. . After seventy days and nights of arduous voyage, land was finally discovered in the early morning of October 12, 1492. Columbus thought he had reached India. It was later known that the land on which Columbus landed belonged to the Bahamas Islands in what is now the Central American Paparian Sea, and he named it San Salvador at that time. On March 15, 1493, Columbus returned to Spain. After that he repeated his westward voyage three times, and landed on many coasts of America. Until his death in 1506, he believed that he had arrived in India. Later, an Italian scholar named Amerigo, after more investigation, realized that the places Columbus arrived were not India, but a new continent that was previously unknown. Columbus discovered the New World. However, this continent was named after the person who confirmed that it was a new continent: Amelia Yago. Later, various criticisms continued to arise as to who first discovered America. The conclusion of Columbus' discovery of the New World is indisputable. This is because at that time, people in Europe, even Asia, and the entire old continent of Africa did not know that there was this continent on the other side of the Atlantic. As for who was the first to reach the Americas, it is another question, because the Native Americans themselves migrated from Asia in ancient times. It is very possible that the first civil aviation from China and Oceania will reach the Americas, but none of these changes the fact that Columbus discovered the New World.

Columbus' voyage was the beginning of the age of great seafaring. The opening of new routes changed the course of world history. The influence of Columbus's act of creating an era on human society and civilization undoubtedly occupies a pivotal position in human history. His evaluation will be different in each subsequent historical era, but the impact of his creation of a new era will be different. is beyond doubt. It ushered in a new era of development and colonization in the New World. At that time, the population of Europe was expanding. With this discovery, Europeans had two new continents to settle in, and there were mineral resources and raw materials that could transform the European economy.

This discovery led to the destruction of American Indian civilization. In the long run, it has also led to the emergence of new countries in the Western Hemisphere. These nations were very different from the various Indian tribes who had settled in the region, and they greatly influenced the nations of the Old World. It shifted the route of overseas trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast. Since then, the West finally emerged from the darkness of the Middle Ages and began to rise in the world with an unstoppable trend, and in the following centuries, it achieved maritime dominance. A brand-new industrial civilization has become the mainstream of world economic development.

Isabella had promised Columbus that he could be governor of any land he found. But he was incompetent as an administrator and was eventually dismissed and sent back to Spain in shackles. In Spain he was soon released, but he was not placed in any further official positions. But until his death, he was quite wealthy.

Columbus said: Even the simple ones need to be discovered and confirmed. It is useless to stand behind and point fingers, the key is innovation.