Question

When did Christopher Columbus discover the West Indies?
(A) 1455 AD
(B) 1492 AD
(C) 1139 AD
(D) 1556 AD

Answer 1

Hint: Christopher Columbus, the enthusiastic traveller who went on four transatlantic voyages, is said to have discovered a number of places in the 15th century. The West Indies are a topographically diverse chain of islands comprising 7,000 islands or islets extending over 3,000 kilometres.

Complete answer:
Christopher Columbus was an Italian traveller who was an enthusiastic explorer who undertook four transatlantic voyages, paving the way for extensive exploration of European and American regions which were yet to be discovered. His passion for discovery led to finding a number of lands that are officially the continents and countries today.

Columbus made four complete voyages between Spain and the Americas during the years from 1492 to 1504. Christopher Columbus is the first European ever to have registered his arrival at the islands of the 'Bahamas' in 1492, which Columbus believed to be a part of Asia, but was actually part of the Americas. Later on, Europeans started to use the name ‘West Indies’ to differentiate this area from two lands are the original "Indies" (or India) and the East Indies that belonged to Southern Asia.

To find the year of this discovery, let us examine each option carefully;
Option (A) 1455 AD is incorrect. This is because Christopher had just been born in the year 1451 AD, so 1455 is too early for him to have travelled on his own. Nonetheless, he has claimed to have been on voyages since the age of 10. But by 1455 AD, the young boy of 4 or 5 did not yet discover the West Indies. So this option is wrong.

Option (B) 1492 AD is correct. Around this time of the 15th century, Christopher had peaked in discoveries of foreign lands. According to the history of the West Indies, he indeed discovered it in the year 1492 AD. So this is the correct answer.

Option (C) 1139 AD is incorrect. This is because the so-called discoverer Christopher Columbus did not come into existence till centuries after the 1100s. So, clearly, this is the incorrect answer.

Option (D) 1556 AD is incorrect. Christopher was said to have died in the year 1506 AD, so it is not possible for him to have discovered a new territory like the West Indies at the time. Hence he had to have discovered this region much earlier. So we can reject this option as well.

Therefore the correct answer is option (B) 1492 AD.

Note: The Caribbean islands are also known as the West Indies at times. On Christopher’s journey to find another way to reach Asia, Christopher Columbus believed he had arrived in the Indies (which he believed to be Asia). Instead, he had only arrived in the Caribbean (that belongs to America). To address Columbus' error, the Caribbean has renamed the West Indies.