the age of discovery: after marco polo, the scattered tribes of the world had three reasons to travel to conduct business, to wage war and to mix with new people. intent converting the orient to christianity, christopher columbus, an italian navigator and admirer of marco polo convinced the spanish court to finance a brief voyage around the globe. columbus underestimated the distance by more than 8.000 miles and had no idea that the continent in the way. in 1492, after 70 days at sea, despite fair weather and easy sailing, the worried crew began to mutiny. columbus himself thought that he has sailed past japan. 2 am. on october 12, a sailor named rodrigo de triana caught a glimpse of a at moon. as dawn uncovered the n discovered white by sullen on the coast, columbus and his landing party set great explorer salvador island even to in never realized, foot san bahamas. believing he had reached india, the his dying day that he had discovered a new continent.