When we talk about the discovery of America, we often think of Christopher Columbus and his arrival in 1492. However, it has been proven that the first inhabitants of the Americas arrived about 30,000 years ago, crossing the Bering Strait. There are also indications of Viking settlements about 500 years before Columbus. But Columbus’ efforts were not limited to discovering new territory; it was a territorial and primarily religious expansion to find new trade routes to India.
Christopher Columbus’s expeditions
The vast political, economic, social, and cultural transformation brought about by the arrival of European explorers in the Americas has its roots in the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. Columbus’ first voyage began on May 22, 1492, at Palos de la Frontera, Huelva. With two caravels, the Pinta and Santa Maria, and the three-masted ship Nina with square sails, the City of the Indies, his goal was to find a new trade route in the Atlantic.
Expanding the view of Christopher Columbus’ explorations, the first signature on this horizon of immeasurable dimensions in the Americas was an odyssey that began on May 22, 1492, from Palos de la Frontera, Huelva. Far from the tumult of the sea raised by the two caravels “Pinta” and “Santa Maria,” not forgetting the three-masted ship, which, clad in square sails, seemed a traveling shadow of Columbus’ sailing ship. Challenging the vast and mysterious Atlantic Ocean, the goal of this expedition was to open a new trade route, thus becoming the engine for a list of watershed voyages in history.
The impact of the scientific renaissance
Columbus’ voyage, which irreversibly changed the course of history, ended on October 12 of that year with the first landing on the island of Guanahani, which Columbus named San Salvador. This feat was made possible by the sphericity of the Earth and advances in navigation, factors that determined the route and distance to be traveled.
The greatness of the feat that Christopher Columbus accomplished marked the beginning of an irreversible change in human history. It ended with the first landing on the island he named San Salvador on October 12, 1492. A small but great detail of this odyssey was the correct understanding of the world as a sphere and the significant progress in navigational techniques of the time. All this made it possible to continue the route and accurately calculate the necessary distance for the expedition. One little-known but no less important fact was the scale the expedition made in the Canary Islands before setting out to press on into the vast ocean. In the end, these technological and scientific advances, as well as Columbus’ courage and the support of the Catholic Monarchs, played a fundamental role in the success of the voyage. Had it not been for the coincidence of these factors, the course of history could have been very different.
Consequences of the discovery of America
The arrival of Europeans in the Americas had a number of consequences in the social, economic, and cultural structure of the native inhabitants of the American lands. There were new sea routes, new sources of wealth and products. sources of wealth and products unknown to Europeans. But it also led to the enslavement of indigenous peoples, the spread of disease and the introduction of new customs and languages.
Certainly, the discovery of the Americas is an unprecedented event in world history that caused a clear division between the old and new worlds. This episode, although usually attributed to Christopher Columbus and his arrival in 1492, is in fact a complex network of facts, encounters and fusions that have shaped the modern configuration of the planet.
Columbus’ expedition, aboard the ships Santa Maria, La Pinta and La Niña, sought not only to explore new trade routes, but also led to a series of far-reaching consequences. From the subjugation and enslavement of indigenous peoples, to the introduction of new customs and languages, to the territorial, economic, social and cultural expansion of the old world into the new.
However, this discovery was also the door to new horizons, the complete mapping of the globe and the intense interaction between all continents that continues to this day. The celebration of this event therefore goes beyond the glorification of a single figure and involves the recognition of a decisive episode in the shaping of the world as we know it.
