Final answer:
Christopher Columbus did not actually discover America but was the first European to embark on voyages that led to the sustained contact between Europe and the American continents. Nordic explorers such as Leif Erikson had reached the continent centuries before. Columbus's exploration opened the way for further European expeditions and had profound impacts on the history of the Western Hemisphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
Christopher Columbus did not discover America in the sense of being the first European to reach the American continents. The Norse, led by Leif Erikson, had established a presence in Greenland and a colony called Vinland in what is now Newfoundland about five hundred years before Columbus. Columbus, however, undertook his voyage with a significant underestimation of the Earth's size, intending to find a new trade route to Asia.
On October 12, 1492, Columbus made landfall on an island in the Bahamas and continued to explore parts of the Caribbean, including present-day Cuba and Hispaniola. Columbus called the native people he encountered "Indios" due to his belief that he had landed in the East Indies. Columbus's voyages opened the door for further European exploration and exploitation of the New World, although he himself died believing he had reached Asia.
In the years following, other explorers like Amerigo Vespucci would come to understand that the lands Columbus had encountered were not Asia, but an entirely new continent, which ultimately would be named America. Columbus's voyages therefore represent a critical and transformative moment in world history, leading to the Age of Exploration and the eventual European colonization of the Americas.