Half a millennium ago, a longboat crunched onto the sand of a small island in the Bahamas. No one realized that first step ashore was, in one historian's words, "the most important event in human history since the end of the Ice Age." Two worlds had met—and could no longer stay separate.

With Columbus's voyages, people, animals, plants, diseases, and religious ideas passed between the continents. For example, Europe brought the horse to the Americas; the Americas gave the potato to Europe, a simple vegetable that later saved whole regions from starvation.

The history-shattering event has received a glut of media coverage—my bookshelf and file drawer are groaning under the added weight. But much of it has been simply ideological mudslinging.

Meanwhile, few have answered questions we at Christian History wondered about. Maybe you've asked them as well:

What were Columbus's religious motivations?

What kind of religious legacy did he and his followers leave?

How have those historical events affected ...

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