Christopher Columbus Italian: Cristoforo Colombo;ac. 1451 – 20 May 1506was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and citizen of the Republic of Genoa.3]Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World.
Western imperialism and economic competition were emerging among European kingdoms through the establishment of trade routes and colonies. Columbus proposed to reach the East Indies by sailing westward, and this eventually received the support of the Spanish Crown, which saw a chance to enter the spice trade with Asia through a new westward route. During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World instead of arriving at Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he named "San Salvador". Over the course of three more voyages, he visited the Greater and Lesser Antilles, as well as the Caribbean coast of Venezuela and Central America, claiming all of it for the Crown of Castile.
The spice trade refers to the trade between historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric were known and used in antiquity for commerce in the Eastern World.These spices found their way into the Middle East before the beginning of the Christian era, where the true sources of these spices were withheld by the traders and associated with fantastic tales.Early writings and stone age carvings of neolithic age obtained indicates that India's southwest coastal port Muziris, in Kerala, had established itself as a major spice trade centre from as early as 3000 BC, which marked the beginning of the spice trade. Kerala, referred to as the land of spices or as the "Spice Garden of India", was the place traders and explorers wanted to reach, including Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and others.