Was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer, citizen
of the Republic of Geonoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of
Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and
his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola,
initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. In the context of emerging
western imperialism and economic competition between European kingdoms through
the establishment of trade routes and colonies, Columbus' proposal to reach the
East Indies by sailing westward, eventually received the support of the Spanish
Crown, which saw in it a chance to enter the spice trade with Asia through a
new westward route. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan
as he had intended, Columbus landed in a New World, landing in the Bahamas
archipelago, on an island he named San Salvador. Over the course of three more
voyages, Columbus visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the
Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming them for the Spanish
Empire. Though Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the
Americas (having been preceded by the Norse expedition led by Leif Ericson in
the 11th century), his voyages led to the first lasting European contact with
the Americas, inaugurating a period of European exploration, conquest, and colonization
that lasted for several centuries. They had, therefore, an enormous impact in
the historical development of the modern Western world. Columbus himself saw
his accomplishments primarily in the light of spreading the Christian
religion.[4] Never admitting that he had reached a continent previously unknown
to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called
the inhabitants of the lands he visited indios (Spanish for
"Indians"). Columbus' strained relationship with the Spanish crown
and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and
dismissal as governor of the settlements on the island of Hispaniola in 1500,
and later to protracted litigation over the benefits which Columbus and his
heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.