NEW WORLD HISTORY

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Columbus is credited with the/his discovery of the New World even though he may not of been the first European to arrive there, he was however the first to document it. Because he mistakenly thought he had landed on one of the fabled Spice Islands, the piquant fruit which he encountered there (now Hispaniola) he figured was most likely a new type of pepper; similar but stronger in flavor than that of the pepper of the East (black pepper, peppercorns). Here Columbus erred for he had neither discovered a new species of pepper nor landed on the Spice Islands but had discovered America and the chile, which originated in South America and shares with beans, corn and squash the distinction of being the first plants cultivated in the New World.