Columbus's arrival in the Europeans' "New World" has been viewed from a variety of perspectives by those who write history books.
From the Native viewpoint, Columbus started an invasion of North and South America. In this view, the first Europeans are seen as despoilers of a natural environment in which people, animals, and plants lived in something of a balance or symbiosis, if not always in real or perfect harmony.
From the viewpoint of the "conquerors," that is, the Spanish and French explorers, their chroniclers, and the many American historians who have since then studied their adventures, the Columbian discovery of the New World began an era of unprecedented economic opportunity for European kings and queens. They used the wealth of a new-found continent to finance their ambitions for political and economic control, building empires in Europe and elsewhere while spreading "civilization" to those who purportedly did not have it.