originally they was looking for faster trade routs t India but all of Europe flocked the Americas in search of gold as well as a chance to claim land for their countries.
the impact was that many different countries was able to colonize new land and many major European powers had new places to grow crops and get resources.
The native americans is one of the main reasons why the uropeans survuved here during the winter, they tought them how to effectivly farm in the new terrain , but theeurpeans brought many deadly deseases that the natives couldnt fight off, and the europeans greed made them have a few conflicts with the natives but in the end it was a fenocide for most of the natives.