Columbus reaches the Americas
Seeking a western route to Asia, Columbus's four voyages connected two human worlds that had been separate for over ten millennia.
Why it matters
The Columbian exchange moved crops, animals, people and diseases in both directions, remaking diets and demography worldwide. It opened history's largest transfer of wealth — and began the catastrophes that fell on Indigenous peoples.
People
Christopher Columbus
Related events
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica — Christopher Columbus