Christopher Columbus, born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451 to a weaver, first went to sea at the age of fourteen. As a young man, he settled in Portugal and married a woman of noble background. After his wife’s death in 1485, Columbus and his young son Diego moved to Spain. Like all learned men of his time, Columbus knew the world was round. He theorized that since the earth was a sphere, a ship could eventually reach the Far East from the opposite direction. He thought to establish trade routes to Asia in this manner, but he was not aware of the American continent in-between. After 4 voyages to America, he died on May 20 1506, disappointed that he had never found the route to the East and convinced he had landed in Asia rather than a new world.