Christopher Columbus
Explore Christopher Columbus — the Genoese navigator whose 1492 voyage opened the Americas to European contact, triggering the Columbian Exchange and colonial conquest.
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was the Genoese navigator whose 1492 voyage across the Atlantic — intended to find a western route to Asia — instead initiated sustained European contact with the Americas. This event was one of the most consequential in world history, launching the Columbian Exchange, European colonialism, and the interconnected global world we inhabit today.
Columbus's plan was based on a significant geographical error: he dramatically underestimated the size of the Earth, believing Asia was roughly where the Americas actually are. Had the Americas not existed, his ships would have run out of supplies long before reaching Asia. His landfall in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, was therefore a monumental accident — he went to his grave insisting he had reached Asia.
Columbus's legacy is deeply contested. He was an audacious navigator who sailed into the unknown with extraordinary courage. He was also a brutal colonial governor who enslaved indigenous peoples, imposed horrific punishments, and initiated a system of exploitation that devastated the Taíno population of Hispaniola. The world he opened up experienced both unprecedented cultural exchange and unprecedented human suffering. His voyages cannot be understood simply as 'discovery' — they were the beginning of a colonial project whose consequences continue to shape the world.