Did Columbus end his life as a rich man?
Columbus died in 1506, a lonely and disappointed man. He died still believing that he had found a new route to the East Indies. Although on his fourth voyage he landed on the South American mainland, he never did set foot on the mainland of North America. Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan: The first to sail around the world Columbus landed in the ‘new world’ of the Americas in 1492. Explorers coming after him in the 16th century brought the news to Europe that the Pacific Ocean lay beyond the western coast of America. Suddenly people began to understand that they could reach the East by sailing westwards from Europe. Why did they want to get to the East? Europeans wanted silks, gems and spices from the East. At the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama had found a route from Europe to India by sailing round the southern tip of Africa, but people thought there might be another route. Who was Magellan? Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sailor. He wanted to
