Famous Italian explorer whose voyage to America in 1492, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish monarchy, is often regarded as the beginning of the Age of Exploration: a time in which the European nation-states became enormously wealthy and powerful as a result of their imperial landholdings. Though Columbus can be celebrated as a heroic pioneer and explorer, his brutal, militaristic actions in the New World toward the people he encountered there also paved the way for centuries of Native American genocide and betrayal.