This Day in History:, Columbus Reaches <br />the New World.<br />October 12, 1492.<br />After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, <br />the Italian explorer saw a Bahamian island, <br />believing he had reached East Asia.<br />His expedition went ashore the same day — on what <br />was probably Watling Island in the Bahamas — and <br />claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain.<br />Columbus had set sail from Palos, Spain, <br />with three small ships, the Santa Maria, <br />the Pinta and the Nina, on August 3.<br />He was attempting to find a western ocean route to China, <br />India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.<br />Instead, Columbus became the first European <br />to explore the Americas since the Vikings set <br />up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland.<br />Over the next century, the riches <br />of the New World would help <br />make Spain the wealthiest and <br />most powerful nation on Earth
