Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America? Options

[panaginip13]

Okay, so I searched for a topic on this, and couldn't find one so I decided to make one. If there is a topic on this, feel free to close this and smack me upside the head for my inability to find things.

Columbus is often known as the discoverer of America. He came across America during his exploration and shared his discovery with Europe. This caused more Europeans to explore and settle in America, helping make America what it is today. However, some do not think that Columbus discovered America because of the Vikings and Native Americans that were there before him and for many other reasons.

Should Columbus be the one credited for discovering America? If not, who should be?

[sadolakced acid]

hmm...

but you see, i do discredit all the other fools who didn't fill those qualities.

i can't think of many who really don't fill one of those requirements.

[Spirited Away]

i can't think of many who really don't fill one of those requirements.

The "knowing it's something else" is a knowledge bestowed bytime. You disagree with me on a most important point, and that is, you seem believe that everyone in Columbus' time would already know the New World for what it is... However, there was no known record of the New World before his journey. Even the King, and mostly likely the King's scholars, thought the journey impossible because India would be too far off. How was anyone to know that a great mass of land stands between CC and India?

I'm definitely not saying that he discovered the mass of land. As you, others, and myself have pointed out before, Columbus was certainly not the first to reach the land by sea. I AM saying that he was the first to bring its existence into a new light with the Old World. That is his importance. That is where credit must go. If he does not deserve credit for finding the New World for the Old, then no one can have credit for discovering America. Meaning, had Columbus not reached the Americas, there wouldn't have been a Ponce de Leon searching for "The Fountain of Youth", or the journey of the Mayflower. Timelines don't make sense without Columbus discovering the New World for the cilvilized one in 1942.

Had he sailed to the Americas, came back to Spain admitting that he failed to reach India and then someone else sailed and claim that it's a new land for all the world... then yes I would say Columbus wasn't the discoverer.

Though Columbus claimed he reached India until death, and though the intelligent world may have known that it wasn't India he reached, it still cannot hinder the fact that Columbus was the one who brought that knowledge to them, making him the discoverer of that knowledge.

The real definition for the word discovery is rather broad, by the way.

[rOckThISshYt]

The "knowing it's something else" is a knowledge bestowed bytime. You disagree with me on a most important point, and that is, you seem believe that everyone in Columbus' time would already know the New World for what it is... However, there was no known record of the New World before his journey. Even the King, and mostly likely the King's scholars, thought the journey impossible because India would be too far off. How was anyone to know that a great mass of land stands between CC and India?

I'm definitely not saying that he discovered the mass of land. As you, others, and myself have pointed out before, Columbus was certainly not the first to reach the land by sea. I AM saying that he was the first to bring its existence into a new light with the Old World. That is his importance. That is where credit must go. If he does not deserve credit for finding the New World for the Old, then no one can have credit for discovering America. Meaning, had Columbus not reached the Americas, there wouldn't have been a Ponce de Leon searching for "The Fountain of Youth", or the journey of the Mayflower. Timelines don't make sense without Columbus discovering the New World for the cilvilized one in 1942.

Had he sailed to the Americas, came back to Spain admitting that he failed to reach India and then someone else sailed and claim that it's a new land for all the world... then yes I would say Columbus wasn't the discoverer.

Though Columbus claimed he reached India until death, and though the intelligent world may have known that it wasn't India he reached, it still cannot hinder the fact that Columbus was the one who brought that knowledge to them, making him the discoverer of that knowledge.

The real definition for the word discovery is rather broad, by the way.

Okay. How about we do this...


First to live on land: Native Americans/Indians
First to "discover" land: Vikings
First to bring light of the land: Christopher Columbus and his crew membors.


Correct me if I'm wrong or if you have anything to add.