Yeah, the beginning pretty much set everything in motion hard to miss.

Yeah, it’s clear right from the start nothing more to it.

Yeah, that opening really didn’t win any popularity contests maybe should’ve skipped it.

Yeah, deleting the beginning seems like the safest move it should clear things up

Interesting point! So basically, if Columbus hadn’t returned successfully, Spain’s push into the New World might’ve slowed down, giving the indigenous peoples more time to get used to European contact and maybe even build some resistance to diseases before major conflicts happened.