<P> Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies . In 1492 , Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands , where he is believed by historians to have first stepped foot in the Bahamas . After the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas , Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia . </P>
how did the west indies get its name
Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies