Christopher Columbus (between August 25 and October 31, 1451 - May 20, 1506) was a Genoese navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean-funded by Queen Isabella of Spain-led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Although not the first to reach the Americas from Europe-he was preceded by the Norse, led by Leif Ericsson, who built a temporary settlement 500 years earlier at L'Anse aux Meadows- Columbus initiated widespread contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans.