Columbus reaches the Americas

What was discovered

Columbus, seeking a westward route to Asia, reached an island in the Bahamas and then Cuba and Hispaniola. It inaugurated permanent contact between Europe and America, with global demographic, ecological and political consequences.

Coordinates of San Salvador Island, the most widely accepted identification of Guanahaní (Samana Cay has also been proposed). First sustained European contact; America was inhabited by tens of millions of people with complex civilisations, and the Norse had arrived c. 1000. Columbus died believing he had reached Asia.

What it led to

• European conquest and colonisation of America
• The Columbian Exchange of crops, animals and diseases
• Demographic collapse of Indigenous populations
• The Atlantic economy and the slave trade
• The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

Built on

• Geography of Ptolemy and Toscanelli
• Madeira, the Azores and the volta do mar
• Reconquest of Granada

Made possible

• Columbian exchange1493-1600
• Early globalisation
• American silver and the world economy

Links

Sources✓ verified 2026-09-25

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus