Christopher Columbus
Columbus was born in the Italian town of Genoa in 1451. In his memoirs he wrote that he became a sailor at the age of ten. When he was older, he and his brother came up with a plan in which he would sail to the west, across the Atlantic Ocean, to reach Asia. He hoped to find a faster route to the spice islands and China.
For this plan he needed money and ships, so he tried to sell the idea to Venice, Genoa and to the kings of England and Portugal. He was out of luck, because they felt that his financial demands were too high and they all believed that it would be impossible to travel the full distance. Sailors would simply run out of supplies.
It seemed that the king and queen of Spain were his last chance to make his dream come true. It is said that king
Ferdinand personally convinced his queen to support the expedition. They lent Columbus three ships: the Santa
Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. They also supported him with money for supplies.