The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1504 brought together people like Estevan and de Vaca from three previously unconnected continents. Together, they made a new world, their lives intersecting, their cultural attributes interacting. In this chapter, we follow the epoch-making voyages of Columbus, the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, their remarkable conquest of vast territories in Mesoamerica and the southern regions of North America, and the momentous effect of plants, animals, and germs as they traveled westward and eastward across the Atlantic. We will also see how the phenomenal exploits of Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, and the discovery of immense quantities of silver, attracted the attention of other Europeans, first the French, then the Dutch and English. Latecomers in the race to exploit the treasures of the Americas while providing a place for the downtrodden and opportunity-blocked settlers of Europe, the English, as we will see, finally appeared on the scene in the Americas a century after the Columbian voyages.

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