Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Who discovered America?
In 1492 Christopher Columbus left Spain with three ships to find an alternative route to
the Far East –which provided Europeans with valuable goods such as: Spices, silk and…
*** (which was used for medical purposes) .
But Columbus' original plan to sail west; cross the ocean; and reach Japan from the
east was based on a miscalculation of the size of the planet
–which was in reality MUCH larger than he thought.
Luckily for him, he ran into America, which was a far better alternative than dying of
starvation in the middle of the ocean.
Convinced that he has indeed reached the Far East -which Europeans at the time called India
–he named the natives: Indians
But was Columbus the first to discover America?
The ancestors of the natives whom Columbus encountered were the first inhabitants of
the continent. They crossed the Bering Strait on foot during the last ice age, about 14,000
years ago.
In fact, Columbus wasn't even the first European to reach America.
About 500 years earlier, Vikings from Scandinavia had built settlements in Newfoundland, which
they inhabited for a short period of time.
But the question of discovery would probably not trouble Columbus himself who until his
last day, never claimed that he discovered a new world.
It was Amerigo Vespucci, who proved that America is not Asia's eastern outskirts, hence the
name…
Still, it was Columbus' courageous journey which had the most profound and lasting impact
on the world and which inspired Europeans to believe there were many more worlds out
there for them to discover