Jealous of their Muslim adversaries, the Iberian Europeans decided to sail across the Atlantic after they experimented in islands off the coast of Africa, in order to gain the same wealth and trade routes that the Muslims had in Africa and Asia. The successful colonization of islands in the Atlantic led the Europeans to make larger expeditions further across the Atlantic. When the Europeans launched expeditions they would inadvertently bring diseases from the Old World, which devastated native populations. The import of plants and livestock ravaged the environment of North America.
