Hoping to find a westward route to India, Christopher Columbus on this day in 1492 set sail on his first transatlantic voyage, departing from Palos, Spain, with three small ships—the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. Although he was an accomplished navigator, Columbus misjudged the Earth’s size and never reached Asia. Instead, he reached the Caribbean, unknowingly opening sustained contact between Europe and the Americas. His voyage launched an era of European exploration, colonization, and exploitation that profoundly reshaped—and often devastated—the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.