Many americans believe that their country was discovered in 1492 by a man from italy known as christopher columbus. this is true in a way, but columbus never actually saw what is called the united states of america today. the first piece of land that he saw was an istand known as hispaniola, which is found hundreds of kilometres to the south-east of miami. he made four trips from spain to this island and other islands neardy, in central america and south america but he never reached north america.