Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
Columbus was an ambitious man, and in the 1480s, he began to make plans for an epic voyage.
The idea was to travel to Asia westward across the Atlantic.
Perhaps he could find a new sea route to China.
There were strong financial incentives to establish a new route.
After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, trade between Europe and Asia became more expensive and politically complicated.
But there was still high demand for goods.
This was one of the inspirations for the Age of Discovery.
European merchants became explorers and set off on sea voyages in the hopes of finding new routes.
Heading east, some of the main sea routes were under the control of Arab traders.
That's why people like Columbus were thinking about going west instead, unaware that the Americas stood in the way.
Before setting off, there were a couple of practical issues that needed to be dealt with.
Firstly, Columbus had to work out a route.
This involved careful study of maps and nautical calculations.
The other problem was funding.
The expedition would be time consuming and expensive.
Initially, Columbus approached King John II of Portugal and requested financial assistance.
But the king was not impressed by Columbus's plan.
He had drastically underestimated the distance between Europe and Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic.
According to some accounts, Columbus then received further rejections from Genoa and Venice.
The Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, also said no for the time being.
Showing 1801–1820 of 2,981 · page 91 of 150
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