Did Colombus discover America in 1492?

[Anonymous]

Vikings discovered America in 1000. Common knowledge. But obviously a group of pirates like the vikings couldn't deal with the natives. So I would give the credit to Colombus. He was a political genius that not only found America, probably independently, but also successfully dealt with the natives.

Yes

No

[NamerOfStars]

In the same sense that you or I could "discover" some old Spanish painter we'd never heard of before. Yes, Europe (or at least Spain) was unaware of another continent far too the west. But Norsemen had beaten him there by half a millennium, and Irishmen beaten them by about the same amount of time. And there may be more links in that chain we simply haven't discovered yet. Well, I suppose that there certainly ARE, given then even when Brendan arrived, there had been people living there for thousands of years.

Discovery isn't purely in the abstract, you know; it's no less of a discovery just because someone else already knew about it.

[Jackblue]

Yes, I think that it was fair to say so in that he established continuous two way contact between the continents. The vikings were arguably more than just pirates however, their settlement in Newfondland wasn't discovered until 1960, until then their presence here was mere speculation. My parents said that in their textbooks at school no mention was made of the Vikings since it was a recent discovery at that time and didn't seem to have much long term effect. There is some suspicion though that Columbus may have previously been inspired to take his voyage from what he heard on a previous voyage in northern Europe. Interestingly a lot of Columbus' early life is debated. Anyone who wants to ramble on about Columbus' behavior towards the natives should grapple with two things 1. That is irrelevant to the question at hand. 2. People praise Genghis Khan, or Abraham Lincoln, or Montezuma even though they killed a lot of people why shouldn't we praise Columbus.

[purplepoppy]

Just about every country with a boat claims they discovered America. Although the Vikings did indeed reach it they failed to establish a link between the two worlds.

We also know that at the time of Columbus there were already sailors tales of land to the west circulating so it's plausible he was expecting to find it. Experienced sailors would have picked up on distant cloud patterns, wave patterns, sea colour changes, even wildlife to know there was land in that direction

[Asker]

Aristotle, nicknamed "the philosopher" also said the world must have been a sphere due to hoe eclipses work. And colombus was well read on eclipses. Yet people still claim he was unsure if he would fall off the edge of earth. 😭

[Asker]

And yeah i'm sure the English claimed to discover America too😭. What haven't the English done

[purplepoppy]

The Columbus flat earth myth comes from a Victorian comedy.
Of course the welsh discovered it in 1170 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc

[DaisyM23]

technically he discovered america as people know it now but i have no doubt that other travellers also managed to arrive in the americas - at the same time, he only really 'discovered' america for the west, that land was always there with its own people - but he wasn't really a genius, he was looking for india lol, and he definitely didn't deal with the natives 'successfully', settlers killed and oppressed natives and took their land but sure call it a success for the settlers

[wolfcat87]

It seems obvious that the natives from Asia discovered the Americas... They were here first. No one else can claim that.

There's tons of evidence that other Asians, Africans, and Europeans also made it here and back with no problems. A Chinese emperor had maps of the Americas. He just didn't use them. They also built a wall in California. The Vikings dominated the luxury fur trade in Europe by keeping their sources and layover stations in the Americas a secret. The list goes on and on. Everyone else managed to make money by trading without committing mass atrocities.

The only difference is that southern and western Europeans decided to STEAL, ENSLAVE, and MASS MURDER the citizens of the lands when they finally found them after everyone else. They had no morals compared to everyone who found these areas before them and were very much late to the party. That's like saying the Romans discovered Germany or the Ottomans discovered southern Europe just because they went in that direction and started killing people and taking over. They didn't discover anything new...

[jshm2]

Nope. He discovered the Caribbean at best.

There is a lot of murky history from that era. Mainly as Columbus and his crew killed, tortured and raped a lot of natives according to some accounts.

[Asker]

You're too pussy to even get on a cruise ship

[Asker]

Don't go around talking about what he did he had balls

[RedInnocent68]

‘Discover’ is an overstatement. He discovered for himself, I suppose. Vikings had come to North America from Europe around 500 years before. And there were native people for millennia before that.

[wolfcat87]

Right?

[Astarlessnightsky]

"Dealt with the natives" is a really fucked up description for multiple genocides

[andreasderjuengere]

When Columbus arrived - some other people were already there.

The same can be said about Vespucci.

[Asker]

And? They weren't people, they were inhabitants

[andreasderjuengere]

... who had 'discovered' the place earlier.

[Asker]

They wandered into it. There was no conscious reason for what they did. They were animals

[andreasderjuengere]

So you mean that planning to find a route to India, and then ending up in the Caribbean is a smart and conscious action :)
Numerous 'discoveries' had been accidental.
And when we look at what the Spanish and Portuguese did on arrival, I wonder WHO were the animals.

[Asker]

That's how he sold the voyage to the queen of Spain. It would've made Spain rich as hell. Unfortunately Spain did get rich but they got rich off gold, which was quickly spent. England tried to get rich off gold too, bit there wasn't gold. They got something far more valuable... a colony.

[exitseven]

Yes,
In fourteen hundred and forty two.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

[Anonymous]

Technically no but the eastern hemisphere didn't know that a western hemisphere existed until then.