1492: Christopher Columbus, sailing for the Spanish crown, weighs anchor for the New World.

From his flagship Santa Maria, Columbus commanded a squadron that included the caravels Niña and Pinta. The original purpose of the voyage was not to discover new lands but to open up a trade route to the "Indies" or Asia, that would allow Spanish merchantmen to bypass the hostile Muslim fleets sailing out of the Middle East.

Columbus tried to interest the Portuguese in his scheme, but they took a pass. He would have been spurned by Spain, too, had that nation’s centuries-long war with the Moors been going badly. Fortunately for Columbus, the Spaniards were winning handily, and victory was in sight.

When the last Moorish stronghold fell at Granada, Spain was feeling expansive. And Columbus, the sailor from Genoa, was ready and waiting.

He never did find that alternate route around the Muslims, but on Oct. 12, 1492 Columbus made landfall in what is today the Bahamas, and the course of history was changed forever.

Although it’s long been known that other outsiders reached North America well before Columbus, his landfall remains the most significant, for good and ill. It opened up the sea lanes to the first permanent back-and-forth traffic of Europeans, their armies, their priests and their commerce.

Source: Columbusnavigation.com

Image: Chromolithograph depicts Columbus claiming possession of the New World. (Prang Education, 1893)

This article first appeared on Wired.com Aug. 3, 2007.