What is the difference between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish?

The language we call Spanish is also known as “Castilian” and is the most spoken language on the Iberian peninsula, followed by Portuguese and then Catalan. Castilian is primarily derived, like the other Romance languages of the region, from the Vulgar Latin spoken by Roman settlers, which by the Middle Ages has given rise to a series of local languages (today’s Leonese, Asturian, Catalan, Portuguese and so on). The language spoken in the city of Toledo in the 13th century provided the basis for a written standard which then spread southwards during the process of the Reconquista. In 1469 the King of Aragón married the Queen of Castile, thus creating the precursor to a unified Spain. By 1492, when Columbus landed in the Caribbean, Castilian was well on its way to being “Spanish”.