Trade was established between Europe and the Americas but the most brutal and enduring trade was Slave Trade. The discovery of Americas by Columbus opened the way for European countries to colonize and exploit those lands and their peoples. He believed that one could get to India by sailing westwards but for long, nobody believed him until the Castilian monarchs Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II agreed to sponsor his travel westwards.Ĭolumbus set off from Palos de la Frontera, Spain in August 1492 with three ships the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria along with a crew of 90 men and he arrived in the Americas on October 12, having spent three months in the Atlantic Ocean and he made landfall in what is today’s Bahamas in 61 days.īelieving that he had actually arrived in India, he called inhabitants “Indians,” which was of course wrong but somehow the name stuck till this day. These men’s legacies, positive or negative are firmly stamped on humanity, putting them among the most recognisable humans that ever lived and for Africa, their legacies will live for eternity.Ĭhristopher Columbus, though Italian, his exploration voyages to Americas were sponsored by Catholic monarchs of Spain.
