The so-called New World was a repository of medieval hopes and aspirations. Native American civilizations, however, were not simply waiting to be discovered. The peoples of the Americas, and those of Africa who were brought to the Americas, were critical to European exploration and colonization. Each had their own historical trajectories, but all adapted to, and were transformed by, the Old World in the New. The Old World, in its turn, was impacted no less profoundly by the Americas. Western thought, economy, and art continue to be transformed due to their interaction with the indigenous and transplanted African cultures of what became known as the Spanish and Portuguese Americas.