Spanish efforts to discover new trade routes to Asia initiated a wave of colonization of the Western Hemisphere and permanently changed the environment, demographics, and culture of the Americas. The first interactions between the Spanish and indigenous peoples were characterized by miscommunications and misunderstandings. Future contact would be dominated by Spanish attempts to exploit the native population and extract resources from the environment. The Spanish began to conquer large areas of the Americas. They would eventually establish a large empire that stretched from North America through the Caribbean and Central America to the bottom tip of South America.