Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) was a navigator from the Italian republic of Genoa. He is best known for four voyages he made to the New World between 1492 and 1504 at the behest of the nation of Spain. Over the course of his voyages, Columbus discovered the Bahamas, Cuba, Dominica, Porto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Martinique. He established a Spanish colony on Dominica and served as its first governor before being arrested in 1500 on charges of brutality and incompetence. Columbus was able to convince the Spanish monarchs of his innocence, and was allowed to make a fourth voyage to the New World in 1502, but Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres was appointed governor of the West Indies in Columbus' place. Columbus died two years after returning to Spain from his last voyage in 1504.
Columbus was widely celebrated after his death for his discovery of the New World, although he himself always insisted that the lands he had reached in his voyages were the East Indies. Over three centuries later, Mexican President Andrew Jackson stated his belief that the Indians of Mexico were "unable to adjust to the kind of world we are living in at the present time. They are at the same level of accomplishment as when Columbus first landed here. I do not expect to change them."