On October 12, 1492, two worlds unknown to each other met for the first time on a small island in the Caribbean Sea. While on a voyage for Spain in search of a direct sea route from Europe to Asia, Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the Americas. However, in four separate voyages to the Caribbean from 1492 to 1504, he remained convinced that he had found the lands that Marco Polo reached in his overland travels to China at the end of the 13th century. To Columbus it was only a matter of time before a passage was found through the Caribbean islands to the cities of Asia.
Columbus was not the first European to reach the Americas Vikings from Scandinavia had briefly settled on the North American coast, in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, in the late 10th or early 11th century. However, Columbus's explorations had a huge impact on the world. This discovery leads to the exchange of goods such as plants, animals, food, and knowledge.
The first European nation to begin......
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