Why did Columbus call the lands he found the West Indies?
1 Answer
May 21, 2018
He thought he had found land in east Asia.
Explanation:
Columbus did not know that there were continents between Europe and Asia. When he set sail, he was trying to reach Asia by sailing west from Europe instead of sailing around Africa. He hoped that this route would be shorter.
"The Indies" was a generic label used by Europeans to describe all of the lands of east Asia. So when Columbus found land that he thought was part of Asia but which other Europeans didn't know about, he called them the West Indies.
