[pumpkinhead]

"Interesting tidbit, the mongol empire had a significant but indirect part in the "discovery" of the americas by columbus."

So did the Ottomans. Their monopoly of the eastern routes caused the Western kingdoms to go the other direction.

[Keysh]

The Ottomans did not get a monopoly on eastern routes until they conquered Mameluke Egypt in the early 1500s. Western European (particularly Portuguese) attempts to go "the other direction" started in the 1400s.