Who discovered America?
The first people to reach the Americas arrived from Asia more than 15,000 years ago. Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached North America around 1000, and Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.
The ancestors of Indigenous Americans likely crossed from Siberia into Alaska during the last Ice Age, when lower sea levels exposed a land bridge called Beringia, and some may have traveled along the coast by boat. Over thousands of years, their descendants spread across both continents and built civilizations such as the Maya, Aztec and Inca.
Around the year 1000, Norse sailors led by Leif Erikson reached a land they called Vinland. Archaeologists confirmed a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, in the 1960s.
Columbus and his impact
Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, landed in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, believing he had reached Asia. His voyages began lasting contact between Europe and the Americas, which brought colonization and diseases that devastated Indigenous populations.
Did You Know?
The Americas are named after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator who argued that the lands Columbus reached were a new continent, not Asia.