Europe become the dominant civilization on Earth by 1800. The reasons that Europeans conquered the world (except Asia) was to spread the gospel and to get rich and powerful through their colonies.

Explorers from Spain and Portugal made their first voyage to unknown water, driven by curiosity and by religious and economic aims. Explorers left Europe in the late 1400´s, exploring throughout Africa and the Americas. Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, thought that the world was much smaller that it actually is, and believed that he could get to India faster by traveling west. In 1492 Columbus made his first trip. He left with three ships across the Atlantic to reach "India". He landed in the Bahamas of the Caribbean and and he thought he had reached India. Queen Isabella and her husband had sponsored three more voyages of Columbus to South America, but he still thought that it was India.

Portugal and Spain took lead in exploration. Portugal was the first European nation to establish an overseas empire. South America was conquered by Spain and Portugal. The Portuguese conquered Brazil and Africa and a little part of Asia. And Spain went conquered the remainder of South Americas. North America was later Colonized by England and France. European domination was seen by Europeans to be an act of God. Although disease wiped out the majority of the native peoples, those remaining eventually adopted Catholicism in South America and Protestant Christianity in North America.

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Europeans trips of Exploration Graph Christopher Columbus with Isabella I	Letter to Isabella I from Columbus Focus on Facts Biography of Isabella I
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