ABSTRACT

Christopher Columbus first crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. When he died in 1506, four transatlantic voyages later, he still had not realized that his mission had failed. Columbus had sailed westward from Spain, hoping to find a faster route to southern and eastern Asia. Despite his steadfast belief to the contrary, he never approached those destinations. Instead, Columbus and his crew happened upon a vast land mass which we now call the Americas. Although a great sailor, when in the Americas Cristobal Colon never knew exactly where he was; he could never have fathomed the historical significance of his “discovery.”1 Columbus’ voyages profoundly affected both the region’s populations and its physical environments for centuries to come; they ended a prolonged period of geographic isolation.