Columbus sailing to India & China by going West? What blocked going East?

American Minute ^ | August 3, 2019 | Bill Federer

[Perseverando]

"There are but 155 years left ... at which time ... the world will come to an end," wrote Christopher Columbus in his book Libro de Las Profecias, composed in 1502 between his 3rd and 4th voyages.

Columbus continued:

"... The sign which convinces me that our Lord is hastening the end of the world is the preaching of the Gospel recently in so many lands."

Though his predictions were off, Columbus' writings revealed his motivation for setting sail on his first voyage AUGUST 3, 1492, with the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria.

He sought to find a sea route to India and China as the Islamic Ottoman Turks had closed off the land routes 40 years earlier.

The background of the Islamic state occupying large areas of Europe began when Muslim crusaders, called "Moors," invaded Spain in 711 AD.

The Muslim commander was named Ṭāriq ibn Ziyad. He landed, with his 80,000-man Umayyad army, at a place where there was a large mount, for which the Arabic word is "jabal."

The place took his name "Jabal Ṭāriq," or as it was later pronounced "Gibraltar."

Moorish cavalry, wielding curved scimitar swords, "went through all places like a desolating storm."

The Mozarabic Chronicle, 754 AD, recorded that thousands of churches were burned and: "God alone knows the number of the slain."

https://files.constantcontact.com/766c6672201/0b2a8324-3afc-4071-832a-973555bca5d5.jpg

In 846 AD, just 46 years after Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome's old St. Peter's Basilica, 11,000 Muslims on 73 ships invaded Rome and sacked the Basilica.

They looted the historic basilica and desecrated the grave of St. Peter.

Invaders then trashed the remains of St. Paul, which were in the historic church, San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul's outside the Walls.)

[Perseverando]

Time for another American history lesson from American Minute.

Lots of info on the Islamic jihad against Europe in the article.

[TexasGator]

There was no Suez canal.

[BobL]

“Columbus sailing to India & China by going West? What blocked going East?”

Maybe a wild guess here, but I suspect that the Panama Canal had not been fully completed and certified for ocean-going ships by 1492, and therefore North, Central, and South American kind of stood in Chris’s way to reaching ‘the Orient’.

[rktman]

For more on this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3769102/posts

Some folks hate history. Wonder why?

[1Old Pro]

Maybe a wild guess here, but I suspect that the Panama Canal had not been fully completed and certified for ocean-going ships by 1492, and therefore North, Central, and South American kind of stood in Chris’s way to reaching ‘the Orient’.

Columbus was an idiot, if he flew it would have been much faster.

[al_c]

What blocked going East?

Land. It's hard to sail over land.

[House Atreides]

Columbus was an idiot, if he flew it would have been much faster.
*******************************************
Or taken the train.

[al_c]

Maybe a wild guess here, but I suspect that the Panama Canal had not been fully completed and certified for ocean-going ships by 1492, and therefore North, Central, and South American kind of stood in Chris’s way to reaching ‘the Orient’.

But they didn't know about the North and South American continents. They thought it was a straight shot to 'the Orient'.

[Fido969]

Or taken the train.

Yes, the train is much more comfortable than flying.

[DEPcom]

That reminds me of my essay I wrote for my final in Western History. The instructor Jeffery Herf (who like Islam) ask what did Islam contribute to the West.

I stated the discovery of America…

He was very surprise with my response but took it as a logical response. Got an A on the final.

[morphing libertarian]

May I add: till Henry Hudson, the Dutch and Brits thought they could go north and east along Russia to China. But each year they ran into ice, even in the summer. Some years they got further than others. Then they counted on Hudson to find the northwest passage on America.

[Unassuaged]

I think they are saying “Why not go around Africa instead”.
The eastern routes were blocked by hostile powers.

[livius]

This is something nobody ever mentions....there were hundreds of thousands of Europeans captured and enslaved by the Muslims and goods valued in the millions were carried off by the Muslims. They effectively shut down the Mediterranean. Mohammed was nothing but a bandit warlord and so were all of his followers.

[arthurus]

History and biography is all I read any more. I feel my time is wasted if I don’t learn something from what I read. This from the man who in his youth read every SF classic and pulp F&SF he could find.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Or set off on his next adventure - to the Sun - at night.

[arthurus]

Vasco Da Gama went East to India. It was generally believed by those seriously contemplating such things that going East around Africa was a longer route than going west straight across the ocean to Cathay. Alas, Cathay turned out to be New Jersey.

[thoughtomator]

hauling boats over stretches of land was a thing even back when

wouldn’t have been an impossible task to drag it into the Red Sea

[logi_cal869]

Disregarding the rhetorical nature of the question and the fact that the article fails to mention, I read all of the comments.

I'm appalled that no one remembers that the Earth was flat in 1492.

This highlights why he didn't go 'east':

[nwrep]

History and biography is all I read any more.

Kudos to you. Have you read "The Muslim Discovery of Europe" by Bernard Lewis? An extraordinary book, an eye-opener.

[morphing libertarian]

Over The Edge of the World. Magellan’s actual chronicler provides a lot of the content.

1491 America before columbus