The Discovery of America

So i'm writing a paper on the origin of the word America. That part is easy, but i'm having a hard time understanding why so many sites and books credit Christopher Columbus as the discoverer of north america. When looking at all his voyages mapped out, it appears that he only went to south america. This I understand. And so I wanted to assumed that John Cabot discovered North America in 1497. But various sources still say Columbus found it and Cabot was second. Why is this? Where exactly did he land in North America?

I also understand that it is commonly known that Leif Erikkson actually found north america several hundred years earlier. But since my paper is not on the discovery and only on the name, i'm just doing this for personal interest.

It's really a matter of semantics. Earlier explorers may have been here before Columbus, but they never took a record of their discovery back to the old world - and if they did, it was kept secret. Norwegians and Vikings have been at least as far Greenland and Newfoundland, some records from those voyages may have come into Columbus' hands, certainly that's a popular theory with the Templar followers.

Probably the best reason to continue giving credit to Columbus for America's "discovery" is that he set out with a purpose to uncover what lay in this direction (passage to India, or ?), and returned to Europe with this knowledge where it was built upon by further exploration. So from their point of view Columbus discovered America.

The Norse might have a different point of view on this topic, but they never capitalized on whatever discoveries their explorers made.

Some achelogists (spell checker not working) are saying the 'clovis' people settled in 'America' 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, when the last ice age was drawing to a close. As for the name 'America' there is a theory some guy called Americ drew the 'first' map, and penned his name to it.Have you googled?

Blackmarketeer has it exactly right. People get so upset whan Columbus is given "credit." Even when I was in grade school in the fifties we were taught that the Vikings had probably beaten Columbus to the continent. There just wasn't that much information back then, half a century ago. Nowadays there are many, many accounts and theories, some even with artifacts, that suggest Chinese, Japanese, even middle eastern or Romans, all "discovered" America, but it just didn't take in terms of their respective cultures taking on this knowledge and acting upon it. And of course Native Americans aren't really native to America either. Maybe you could weave all this into your paper.

honestly america is "heaven" or the land you reach when you send a person off to sea who is dead. it was known about for thousand of years according to egyptologist, and kemetically it means "oh blessed spirit".

The discovery of America was a very sad day for the American Indians, no matter who got there first.

I knew the many answers I was going to get were "Vikings did it first." And I don't dispute that. I just want to know why Columbus is giving credit for discovering NORTH america, when all his routes only lead to SOUTH america.

Originally posted by Ausar
honestly america is "heaven" or the land you reach when you send a person off to sea who is dead. it was known about for thousand of years according to egyptologist, and kemetically it means "oh blessed spirit".

Regardless of what it means, I know that it was named after Amerigo Vespuccci. He called himself by his Latin name, Americus. Writers who credit him for the idea that america was a new land and not asia called the new land by the feminine version of Americus, which is America.

Originally posted by Lisakitty
The discovery of America was a very sad day for the American Indians, no matter who got there first.

edit on 4-11-2010 by Lisakitty because: (no reason given)

Any day in history can be seen as a bad day. I do not feel bad that the white men slay the native americans. Millions of other people have been slain for various reasons. There is no reason to sympathize for them if there is no sympathy for everyone else who has been slain in history.

How do you discover a place that is already populated? I can imagine people on the beach watching the boats come in saying "Look! Boats!" I'm just saying.

Originally posted by Skid Mark
How do you discover a place that is already populated? I can imagine people on the beach watching the boats come in saying "Look! Boats!" I'm just saying.

Yeah, ask a Native American who discovered America...hint, the word native should be a good clue. I would say they might have found it first. Some think the Polynesians visited South America and California, The Vikings are said to have made it all the way to Minnesota. (I remembered when I heard that being all exited and telling my brother, he looked at me and said, "no duh, why do you think that football team is called the Minnesota Vikings" /facepalm) People think the knights Templar were in New England. But Columbus discovered America?

reply to post by Schmidt1989


Out of interest what are you saying the origin of the word America is?
There is a little bit of discussion about that and some credit it to a Welsh Man called Richard Amerik, sighting the fact that countries were never named after peoples first names i.e. Amerigo Vespucci unless they were royal .

Richard Amerik

Just a titbit of info thats probably of no use

Columbus arrived in the Caribean (I believe it was Saite-Lucie, but it could've been Cuba, I forget), which is North America, depending on who you ask. I was taught in school and college that North and South America are the same continent while other places teach that they are two. As for who followed, Cabot is claimed by the English while the French claim Jacques Cartier. English Canada claim Cabot as the discoverer, while French Canada claims it was Cartier; either way, both were French (but Cabot worked for the Brits).

Amerigo Vespucci

www.elizabethan-era.org.uk...

On 12 October 1492 Christopher Columbus was the first to reach land to the west of America in the Bahamas. Christopher Columbus was followed by Vespucci and many other explorers who were all searching for a passage to the Indies. In 1507 the German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller, printed the first map that used the name 'America' for the New World clearly named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Don't make the assumption that they knew what they had discovered, they had no idea the land mass they had landed on was a whole new continent (to them at least).

BTW don't they teach this stuff in school anymore? All conspiracy theories aside, who they named America for was like 4th grade history...

What don't people understand about the word "discovered"? No one is claiming that there were not people here well before Columbus. We've already shown that there may have been dozens of groups from outside both American continents who "discovered" them prior to Columbus and some who even populated both continents over 10,000 years ago. In fact, if you want to see what contemporary science thinks happened try this: The Journey of Mankind. So no, Columbus wasn't the FIRST to discover America, but he still DID discover America.

Why? Because Western Civilization, by and large, did not know it was there. Columbus "discovered" America and thereafter western Civilization KNEW America was there, AND they acted accordingly. They sent a lot more people over there. You can bemoan that all you want. The "Native" Americans like to claim they were "first," but they don't really want you to look into the fact they only got to America about 10,000 years before Columbus. That might harm their "special" status and that's why, incidentally, they don't want anything to do with DNA studies that prove we all have a common origin. Being "Indigenous" is too valuable a trait to easily give up.

So, to say "Columbus discovered America" is technically and linguistically correct. If you ever hear, "Columbus was THE FIRST TO discover America," that is technically and linguistically incorrect.