Explain why, in search of a way to India, H. Columbus went west, not east.

To the east, India could be reached by the first route by land and the second by the seas and oceans (Atlantic and Indian) around Africa. The first option did not work at the end of the 15th century, since control over the trade routes of caravans was controlled by two Muslim states that did not favor merchants from Europe: the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk state.

The Portuguese sailed around India, and at the time of the start of Columbus’s expedition in 1492, they only reached the southern shores of Africa, so Columbus decided to sail from Kadiskiy Bay westward to the islands of the Caribbean Sea, which seemed to him part of India.