Did Christopher Columbus discovered America?

[Anonymous]

[TalkWithoutSpeaking]

For Europeans? Yes. People think he discovered America for "everyone" because they have an incorrect understanding of the word "discover"

[Anonymous]

Columbus i think already knew the earth was round and that there was land to the west before he sailed, only he mistakenly thought it was Asia. The last ship returned from Greenland to Norway in 1408 so Europeans were in America as recent as 84 years before columbus sailed and he would have been aware of this due to the Scandinavian trade routes which linked Greenland to Scandinavia, then to Iceland, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, then to constantinople which had fallen 40 years b4 columbus's voyage with most of its knowledge traveling to the Italian city states such as Genoa which columbus came from and mercenaries Genoa defended constantinople.
The Portuguese knew what columbus knew too. At the same time they were trying to go around the horn of Africa and were planning a voyage. The Portuguese king suggested to columbus thst there was a vast continent further south West of the islands columbus discovered because of Portuguese contact in their colonies in africa because Africans had been there too.
It's also worth noting that the vikings traveled to mainland America multiple times for 400 years, they failed to settle due to the small numbers but America is mentioned in records in Genoa in the mid 1300s. The Pope in 1410 remarked about the disappearance of the norse colony in Greenland

[purplepoppy]

Pretty much every European country has claimed they found it first. We do know the Vikings got there earlier but were unable to establish, probably because of distance.
At the time of Columbus there were already stories circulating about land to the west. It's possible he only got the credit because of his social status.]

[genericname85]

considering he thought he was in fucking india, we shouldn't take any individuals claim to have "discovered" anything back then very seriously.

[Iron_Man]

Yes, enjoy it Monday

[jahaims]

Not even close lol

[Esam39]

Nope

[Anonymous]

Nope.