“Columbus’s voyage is now viewed in the light of the devastating effect of colonialism”

When Columbus sailed westward from Spain to search for a sea route to Asia, and instead found himself in the Caribbean, he initiated the European discovery of the Americas. Convinced that he had managed to find an easy route to Asia, Columbus returned to Spain, leaving a small number of colonists in Hispaniola to claim the region for Spain.

It has become the most famous voyage in the history of exploration. Although Vikings had already reached the Americas, information on their voyages had been largely lost. Columbus’s letter about the voyage, in contrast, was published in five countries. He was a brilliant propagandist who convinced settlers of the attractions of the lands and he ignored the fact that they were home to an indigenous population.

Attitudes to the voyage have changed. The voyage was once perceived as the start of a new era in which a superior European culture could civilise the savage peoples and terrains of the New World. The voyage is now often viewed in the light of the devastating impact of colonialism, and from the indigenous rather than the settlers’ perspective. What is undeniable was the voyage’s significance. It set in train a process of conquest and colonisation, of expansion, and exchange and of disease and destruction. We cannot imagine our world without a Europeanised Americas or the cultural and economic fault lines that Columbus’s voyage laid acoss the globe.

Margaret Small is lecturer in early modern history at the University of Birmingham, with a focus on European exploration and colonisation in the 16th century