conjecture that fits a narrative nicely: Colombus never really intended to go to India. He suspected all along that there were other continents to the West, bu

conjecture that fits a narrative nicely: Colombus never really intended to go to India. He suspected all along that there were other continents to the West, but that he was unable to "pitch" the case for that to his investors (the Spanish monarchs). In order to fund his expedition he had to convince his investors that they would get good return on their investment, and the easiest way to do that was to sell it as a trade route expedition to India, which was already well known to be lucrative with desirable import goods like tea, pepper, and silk. Colombus knew he wasn't going on a suicide mission. He would have never agreed to that, being a (mostly) rational man motivated by fame and fortune as much as anything else. He was just very savvy at _navigating_ the political and economic climate of his era. You wanna get that seed round funding? You gotta tell the investors what they want to hear.