Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. From a very young age, he dreamed of going to sea. By his early teens, he finally did so, aboard a merchant ship in the Mediterranean. As an adult, Columbus believed that there was an easier way to get to the Indies in the east and that was by traveling west on the Ocean Sea. After many failed attempts to get funding, he finally convinced the king and queen of Spain to pay for his voyage. On October 12, 1492, Columbus landed in the New World (the Americas) becoming the first European to do so. Columbus and his voyage changed both the Old and New Worlds forever.