Christopher Columbus reached the Americas.
Christopher Columbus . 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 . Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas , having been preceded by the Viking expedition led by Leif Erikson in the 11th century , but his voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas , inaugurating a period of exploration , conquest , and colonization that lasted several centuries .