Why is it said that the voyages of Christopher Columbus were exceptional in world history?

               Christopher Columbus was born in 1451, in the Italian city of Genoa. Little is known about his childhood, apart from the fact that his father was a weaver. Columbus later became a great sailor and navigator. Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct sea route west from Europe to Asia, but he never could. Instead, he accidentally stumbled upon ‘the Americas’. Those voyages initiated the permanent European colonization of the American continent.

               Columbus proposed the idea of reaching the East Indies by sailing westward. This idea received a positive nod from the Spanish Crown, as it could open up a new sea route to begin spice trade with Asia. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the American continent. Though Columbus intended to reach Japan in Asia, he landed on an island in the Bahamas. He named the island ‘San Salvador’. During his next three voyages, he visited the Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming all of it for Spain.