On August 3, 1492, a small flotilla, consisting of two caravels and one four-masted ship, left the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera. The flotilla was led by the Genoese Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). The purpose of the expedition was to find a western route to India. The sailors never found the western route, but they discovered America. Columbus made four voyages to the New World and died in the belief that the land he discovered was Asia. Only subsequent expeditions of Portuguese and Spanish sailors made it possible to conclude that Columbus discovered a completely new continent, separated from Asia by a huge ocean. Thus, there is a paradox: in the scale of his own destiny, Columbus failed, his calculations were not confirmed, the theory he believed turned out to be false; but on the other hand - due to the will of circumstances - the navigator made a greatest geographical discovery that changed people's understanding of the world around them. Columbus's discovery of America marked the beginning of the colonial era. Almost simultaneously, the Portuguese began colonizing Africa. The Spaniards, Portuguese, and then the British, French and Dutch rushed to new lands. The world has become different. From the era of the Middle Ages, humanity entered the New Age.