Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator who sailed for Spain and led the 1492 expedition that reached the Caribbean, beginning sustained European colonization of the Americas.

Genoa: A historic port city in northwestern Italy and the birthplace traditionally attributed to Columbus. Columbus grew up in this maritime city before pursuing voyages for foreign rulers.
Santa María: The largest of the three ships on Columbus's first transatlantic voyage, serving as its flagship. It carried Columbus across the Atlantic before wrecking on Hispaniola.
First voyage of Christopher Columbus: The 1492–1493 Spanish expedition that crossed the Atlantic and reached Caribbean islands. This voyage established the route and initiated sustained Spanish encounters with the Americas.
Columbian exchange: The transfer of plants, animals, people, diseases, and ideas between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after 1492. Columbus's voyages opened sustained transatlantic exchange, with profound and unequal effects.
Leif Erikson: A Norse explorer associated with a voyage to North America around the year 1000. His earlier arrival challenges claims that Columbus was the first European to reach the Americas.
Atlantic Ocean: The ocean separating the Americas from Europe and Africa. Columbus's westward route crossed this ocean, whose geography shaped his plans.
Niña: A caravel that accompanied Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. Its return voyage helped carry news of the expedition back to Spain.
Second voyage of Christopher Columbus: A 1493–1496 expedition that established a Spanish colony in the Caribbean and explored nearby islands. Its larger fleet turned the first voyage's claims into a settlement and colonial presence.
Spanish colonization of the Americas: Spain's conquest, settlement, and political control of territories across the Americas. Columbus's Caribbean foothold became an early base for this broader imperial expansion.
Zheng He: A Chinese admiral who led large state-sponsored maritime expeditions across the Indian Ocean in the early fifteenth century. His voyages offer a different model of long-distance exploration before Columbus's Atlantic crossings.

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