October 11th, 1492. A foul storm descends over the horizon as winds batter the sails of the Santa Maria. Christopher Columbus and his crew of pioneering explorers are tossed around the wooden vessel like characters inside a snow globe. Despite the crews brave attempts to stabilize the ship and stick out the violent weather the boat is battered by gargantuan wave after wave after wave, until, lying on her side, a final watery blow blasts the hull apart and the stricken vessel is capsized, sinking deep into the icy black waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Back in Spain word reaches of the lost voyagers. The financing of the trip has crippled it's spanish investors, and any idea of further attempts to explore and succeed where Columbus failed are dismissed and eventually completely forgotten.
300 years later and new developments in Travel, Literature and Technology spark a renewed vigor in the idea of possibly exploring the edges of world. In 1792, 300 years to the day of that fatal storm, a new expedition arrives on the shores of these uncharted lands. And so begins America; we stand at year zero.
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