Columbus did not name the native people of America Indians. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer, is responsible for naming them so when it was realised America was not part of Asia, but a separate landmass. Columbus called the natives indios meaning "Indian" (in Spanish) because he mistakenly believed he had reached the East Indies (Asia) when he arrived in the Caribbean in 1492. The term "Indian" was later adopted by other European explorers and settlers, and it became the common name for the indigenous people of the Americas.