Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) changed the way Europeans viewed the world. Before his voyage of 1492, many Europeans suspected that there was something out there beyond the "Pillars of Hercules." Strange woods and plants and animals had been washing up on the shores of the Canary Islands for centuries. Many Portuguese and Spanish seamen were sure there was land out there. But Columbus proved it and the world, both the European world and the New World of the Americas, was never the same again.
