--- title: Explorers: around Africa and Columbus — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Explorers: around Africa and Columbus», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In the 1400s Europeans wanted spices, silk and gold from Asia, but the land routes were long and controlled by others, so sailors wi --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Explorers: around Africa and Columbus # Explorers: around Africa and Columbus Lesson 26 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/0/) — In the 1400s Europeans wanted spices, silk and gold from Asia, but the land routes were long and controlled by others, so sailors with new ships and the compass tried to get there by sea. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/1/) — Portuguese sailors crept down the coast of Africa in small, handy ships called caravels, mapping as they went, until Vasco da Gama reached India by sea in 1498. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/2/) — Christopher Columbus had another plan: sail west to reach Asia; he knew the Earth was round, like everyone educated, but he thought it was much smaller than it is, a bit like setting off to walk to the next town and finding a whole country in the way. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/3/) — In 1492 he reached the Caribbean, home to the Taíno and millions of other people, and plants, animals and diseases began to cross the Atlantic both ways. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/4/) — Long before him, Vikings had reached North America around the year 1000, and Chinese fleets under Zheng He had sailed as far as East Africa in the early 1400s. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/5/) — Europeans sailed into the unknown mostly to reach the spices, silk and gold of Asia by sea, because the land routes were long and controlled by others. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/6/) — Prince Henry of Portugal sent sailors down the coast of Africa in caravels, small handy ships, though he did not sail on these voyages himself. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/7/) — In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa and reached India by sea, and Portugal grew rich from the spice trade. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/8/) — From 1405 to 1433 the Chinese admiral Zheng He led huge fleets across the Indian Ocean as far as East Africa. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/9/) — Christopher Columbus, from Genoa in Italy, believed he could reach Asia by sailing west, and Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain paid for his voyage. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/10/) — Educated people already knew the Earth was round; Columbus's mistake was thinking it was much smaller than it is. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/12/) — Columbus thought he was near Asia, in the lands then called the Indies, so he called the people he met Indians. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/13/) — The first people Columbus met were the Taíno, who farmed, fished and made hammocks and canoes; within a few decades most of them had died from disease, forced labour and violence. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/14/) — Columbus was a brave, skilful sailor but also a harsh governor who enslaved native people, and many places now also mark Indigenous Peoples' Day. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/15/) — In the Columbian Exchange horses, cows and wheat went to the Americas, while potatoes, maize, tomatoes and chocolate came to Europe. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/16/) — The Americas are named after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who realised this was a New World and not Asia. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/17/) — In 1494 Spain and Portugal agreed a line on the map, the Treaty of Tordesillas, splitting new lands between them without asking the people who lived there, which is why Brazil speaks Portuguese. - ← previous: [Printing, the Renaissance and the Reformation](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/25-printing-the-renaissance-and-the-reformation/) - next →: [Explorers: Magellan around the world, and the people already there](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/27-explorers-magellan-around-the-world-and-the-people-already-there/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)