The Meeting of the Two Worlds

In my opinion, the meeting of the Spaniards with present day Latin America was a coincidence that later ensued terror.
As stated in the lecture video, the Spaniards were not the first people to encounter the Americas. However, they were the ones that caused an impact, making the divide between between pre-colonialism and colonialism/post-colonialism. As I understood from before studying this chapter, Columbus did not intend on finding the Americas -- he was trying to find a new passage way between Europe and India/China. When Rodrigo de Triana announced "land" on October 7th, 1492, Columbus found disillusionment when he saw an unfamiliar terrain. He had to already deal with crew members who were complaining about the length of the voyage, and now he had to reassure them (and himself) that this trip was worth it. With time, as stated in his journal, Columbus started to realize many things about the "Indians" that inhabited this land. He stated that they "gave willingly whatever they had" (94) as they traded things with the Spaniards, who gave things of small value. The Indians were "ignorant of [weapons]" and they "must be good servants" (94), which could be seen as Columbus already seeing the many advantages this new land had. As it is stated, the Indians thought Columbus and his crew had come down from Heaven, which served as an advantage to the Spaniards, as they easily captured Indians to show the King and Queen.
Later on in the journals, greed starts to show in the Spaniards, as they start to find cotton, gold, silver, and many other materials that would serve them. On November 21st, Martin Alonso Pizon leaves with an Indian to Spain, as he thought the Indian would give him many riches. As Columbus explored, more riches were to be found, as well as more Indians that they had to "appease" by giving them insignificant gifts.
In the First Conquest of this Kingdom, the Spaniards were described to the Inca Guayna Capac as "[wearing] very long beards and that [the soldiers] were shrouded, like corpses". The Spanish would then tell the Inca that they ate gold and silver, which the Inca gladly gave, and so started the uproar that would bring more Spaniards into Latin America. Eventually this gave into the colonization of the many Latin American Empires, seeing that the Spaniards were better armed that the Indians.
Sadly, this is the start to Latin America.