North America 1492: Arrival of Columbus
12 October 1492
12 Oct 1492
Arrival of Columbus
12 Oct 1492 Arrival of Columbus
26 Dec 1492 First contacts
6 Jan 1494 Columbus’ second voyage
4 Aug 1496 Colony of Santo Domingo
24 Jun 1497 John Cabot’s expeditions
23 Aug 1500 Fall of Columbus
7 Jan 1503 First Spanish attempts on the Mainland
8 Aug 1508 Colonization of Puerto Rico
15 Aug 1511 Spanish expansion in the Caribbean
In 1492 the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, succumbing to Europe’s growing thirst for exploration, agreed to support the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus in his bid to reach Asia by sailing westwards across the Atlantic. Columbus’ calculations proved to be wrong and in October he unexpectedly arrived in the Americas—continents almost wholly unknown to Europe at the time. Although his discovery was far from the first, Columbus’ voyage would ultimately transform the world by opening up the Americas for conquest and exploitation.
