Christopher Columbus began his first voyage to the Americas in 1492, departing from Palos de la Frontera in southern Spain on 3 August.
The expedition was organized under the authority of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Columbus hoped to reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic, but the expedition instead reached islands in the Caribbean. After stopping in the Canary Islands to take on provisions and make repairs, the fleet sailed west from La Gomera on 6 September.
Land was sighted in the early hours of 12 October 1492. Columbus reached an island in the present-day Bahamas, which he called San Salvador, though its exact modern identification remains debated. He then explored parts of Cuba and Hispaniola before returning to Spain in 1493.
The year 1492 is often remembered as the “discovery of America,” but that wording overlooks the Indigenous peoples who had lived across the Americas for thousands of years. Columbus’s voyage marked the beginning of sustained contact between Europe and the Americas, followed by conquest, colonization, disease, and major global exchanges.