«- Okay, take care of him! There are many memories associated with this suitcase.
- What memories? Not a single trip...
- About all the trips we never went on…»
Jack and Jill: Love on Suitcases

Nowadays, everyone knows that the discovery of America belongs to a gentleman named Christopher Columbus. This is where the school program to cover such a grandiose event usually ends, and those interested have to independently search for the necessary information in the library and the Internet. At this moment the most interesting thing comes: a person learns that with Columbus’s visit to America, not everything is so simple. There is evidence that he was not the first there, that many years before his first steps along the shores of the New World, Scandinavian Vikings, Biscay fishermen and other travelers were already frolicking there.

Today we will try to go through all the stages of the discovery of America, which are known to us from reliable sources, and establish who was the first to officially set foot on the shores of the new continent and declare it the New World.

Columbus Expedition, 1492

The end of the 15th century, there are still many unexplored places on Earth where no human has ever set foot. Obsessed with great plans to conquer everything, the Spaniards decided to create the Great Expedition to the Canary Islands, consisting of three high-speed caravels, one of which was the Santa Maria, a ship whose admiral was Christopher Columbus. Ahead of him lay months of travel and one of the main achievements in the history of mankind. On August 3, 1492, the ship weighed anchor and set off.

Admiral of all seas and oceans

In the spring of 1492, a few months before the expedition, Christopher Columbus, or, as the Spaniards called him, Don Cristoval Colon, was in audience with the royal couple who ruled Spain. Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon suggested that the researcher conclude an agreement according to which Christopher Columbus is recognized as the admiral of all seas and oceans, as well as a high-ranking governor of all lands and islands that he can discover during his journey. It would be unforgivable to refuse such an offer.

An additional incentive in the kings' proposal was the fact that one tenth of all the wealth, treasures and goods that Columbus would be able to exchange or find on new lands, the traveler could take for himself, while the remaining nine-tenths would go to the disposal of the royal treasury. This was a truly generous offer that could make Columbus one of the richest men in Europe.

Along with the title and wealth, Don Cristoval Colon was offered guarantees that his title would be inherited forever. He will also be able to retain his privileges for life in the previously unexplored lands of India. All participants in the journey were convinced that, setting sail to the West, Columbus would reach the eastern shores of India, but a surprise awaited them.

« The admiral decided to count fractions of the journey less than they actually took, in the event that the voyage turned out to be long, so that people would not be overcome by fear and confusion»

The True Aims of Christopher Columbus

Despite all the royal promises, Columbus's true motives and ideas about the Earth at that time remain the subject of debate to this day. Historians recognize the significant contribution of the great traveler to the history of mankind and his influence on the era of the Great geographical discoveries. However, this does not negate the fact that Columbus was driven more by mercantile interests than by the spirit of exploration.

A generous offer from the royal couple, as well as the opportunity to discover new trade routes and the untold riches of the East, were of much greater interest than perishing in the middle of a storm or dying from an unknown disease on unfamiliar shores. It was the thirst for money that became the main incentive for travelers of those times to make the most striking geographical discoveries.

However, if Columbus was calculating, he was also smart. Many modern historians suggest that the discoverer knew in advance where he would sail. That there is no India beyond the Atlantic Ocean, there is a New Land, endless and uninhabited. There were even rumors that Columbus had a certain map on which researchers marked not only the already discovered islands in the Atlantic Ocean, but also the eastern coast of the continent, which would later be called South America.

IN In 1474, the Florentine scientist Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who devoted his life to astronomy, geography and mathematics, sent a letter to the Portuguese king in which he drew conclusions about the geography of our planet, given that it is a sphere. Toscanelli argued that in this way India could be reached much faster by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. There is evidence that Columbus somehow obtained this letter, or a copy of it, with an attached map on which new lands were marked. However, no one has been able to prove this.

Conspiracy theories surrounding the discovery of America

Like any other high-profile scientific discovery, Columbus's voyage quickly acquired its own conspiracy theories from ill-wishers and simply due to a lack of information. We have no way to verify the events that took place in the 15th century, so speculation and theories will continue to exist. These include the rumors that Columbus himself was looking for an opportunity to go on a trip to the West, because he knew that there was a New Land there, so he tried to persuade the kings to equip an expedition for him.

According to some theories, Columbus simply followed the “beaten path” from other navigators who discovered this route long before him. Indeed, to make such a desperate journey across the unfriendly Atlantic Ocean for ships of those times seemed, if possible, then deadly dangerous.

Despite the fact that the majority of historians are of the opinion that it was Columbus who discovered America, there are many people, including respected ones in the scientific community, who suggest that the continent was discovered long before Columbus’s historical voyage in 1492. One of the main proponents of this theory was an Englishman named Gavin Menzies, who once wrote a book called “1421, or the year China discovered the world.”

The public loves conspiracy theories, so Menzies' book caused concern among the masses. At the same time, the scientific community is in no hurry to take seriously everything said in this book.

« Thursday, October 11. We sailed west-southwest. During the entire voyage there had never been such rough seas. We saw “pardelas” and green reeds near the ship. People from the Pinta caravel noticed a reed and a branch and caught a stick hewn, possibly with iron, and a fragment of a reed, and other herbs that were born on the ground, and one plank. People on the Niña caravel saw other signs of the earth and a twig strewn with rose hips. Everyone was inspired and happy when they saw these signs.»

Diary of the First Voyage, Christopher Columbus

The Great Journey of the Chinese

Despite the fact that the names of almost all great travelers are of European origin, the desire to explore the world was inherent in everyone on Earth.

In the spring of 1421, when the famous Christopher Columbus had not even been born, in one of the Chinese cities called Tangu, the ships of the Great Emperor's fleet were preparing to sail. The commander of the flotilla was the venerable Zheng He. More than a hundred huge unique ships were sent to the open sea. No other power in the world had similar ships: these were real autonomous floating giants that could calmly survive any storms on the high seas.

At that time, the great festival of the Forbidden City was held in China, after which the emperor instructed his admiral Zheng He to act as a kind of taxi driver and take high-ranking guests to their homes, who had arrived from all over the world. When the admiral completed the task, the emperor ordered him not to rush back home, but instead to look “to the ends of the earth” and collect tribute from all the barbarians that he met along the way, and also wrap them in Confucianism in order to make civilized people out of them.

This voyage of the Golden Fleet was the largest ever undertaken by China. For three years, sailors explored our planet, and in his book, Gavin Menzies suggested that it was the Chinese travelers who were able to draw up an approximate map of the globe, putting all six continents on it, and also walked around all the oceans.

Obsessed with his idea of ​​​​dispelling the influence of Columbus, Menzies spent many years collecting the facts of the Great Chinese Voyage, bit by bit, that were left to us from those times. His task was complicated by the fact that all of Zheng He's diaries and ship's logs were destroyed or lost.

Some of Menzies' efforts were successful. For example, he established the fact that the wreckage of giant Chinese ships, the so-called “junks,” were found off the coast of almost all continents. Despite the fact that historians prefer to believe that junk wrecks could have been carried to Australia and America by currents, the research of Gavin Menzies cannot be ignored within the framework of modern history. Archaeologists also found Chinese maps on which all the continents were depicted, including America. Menzies is confident that these maps are much older than Columbus himself.

Amerigo Vespucci and the famous confusion

At school we were often told that although Christopher Columbus discovered America, it got its name in honor of another explorer. The fact is that Columbus never realized where he had sailed. Until recently, the researcher was sure that these were the eastern shores of India and the Eurasian continent.

The traveler's research was inspired by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who a few years later shared his thoughts about the discovery of Columbus with his mentor Francesco del Medici. In them, he suggested that the new lands that Columbus spoke about in Spain are not the eastern part of India, and this is a completely new continent. These letters, as well as Vespucci's thoughts on other travels, were published in a large collection in 1507, which for some reason was called " New World and new countries discovered by Amerigo Vespucci from Florence.”

The significance of Columbus's discovery of America was lost in writing, and in the same year, the German cartographer Waldseemüller, based on Vespucci's letters, proposed calling the new part of the world America in honor of the name Amerigo. He reflected all this in his book “Introduction to Cosmography”. It is noteworthy that although Vespucci wrote about Columbus, Waldseemüller did not attach any importance to this.

The style of the young German scientist was liked by the public, and a few years later, in 1520, during a scientific meeting of the greatest minds of those times, the name America was applied to the general geographical map of the planet.

Since then, the controversy has not subsided. If Columbus did not understand that he had discovered the New World, and Vespucci did it for him, then can the latter be credited with the discovery of the continent?
However, there is evidence that people conventionally discovered new continents long before the voyages of the Chinese, Columbus and Vespucci’s assumptions.

Ambitious Vikings

At the end of the 10th century, when Europe had not yet thought about domination over the whole world, a large boat with Nords on board set sail from the shores of Iceland. They were commanded by Björni Hjorlfson, a rugged Norwegian Viking who was motivated by a thirst for adventure and profit.

Björni Hjorlfson set out to sea to reach Greenland, where a colony of Vikings had already settled and traded with Scandinavia. But Hjorlfson lost his way due to a storm, and a few days later he arrived at the shores of an unknown land, which were dotted with dense impenetrable forests. Björni decided not to take risks and not to land on an unfamiliar shore, but simply swam along it, simultaneously remembering everything he saw. A few days later, the Viking managed to swim to Greenland, where he told about what he had seen.

Hjorlfson's stories inspired another settler of Greenland, Leif Erikson, the son of the same Erik the Red, who was famous among the Viking peoples for his heroic character. The spirit of adventure led Leif and his comrades along the route told by Björni. First, their boat sailed to the rocky shore, which is now called Baffin Island. The area here seemed lifeless, everything around was covered with glaciers. Deciding that there was no life and nothing good on this land, the Vikings moved on, simultaneously giving the stone land a name - Helluland, the Land of Boulders.

Then the travelers reached the Canadian shores, covered with vegetation and forests. The Vikings also gave this land a name - Markland, Forest Land. The young and profit-hungry people did not stop there, so they went further south. A few days later they dropped anchor in one of the coastal bays. Coming ashore, the friends found real wild grapes among other vegetation, so they named this area Vinland. Modern historians have found that this bay is now located in Massachusetts.

Returning after a long journey along unfamiliar lands, the Nords did not want to miss the opportunity to populate them, so two years later they equipped new expedition. Leif's brother, the famous Thorvald, went to the shores of America and dropped anchor at the place of his brother's last stop - in Vinland. Here they unexpectedly met local residents- Indians who appeared in the bay on their pirogues. Everyone knows that the Vikings were not timid and were not averse to fighting, so the Norwegians simply killed several Indians and captured the rest. That same night, the Indians came to avenge their slain brethren and rained down arrows on the Viking camp. One of them hit Torvald, and he died a few days later.

In 1003, the Vikings again came to the shores of America, now with serious intentions of settling in uninhabited lands. Almost two hundred people sailed here on three boats, established relationships with the local population and even built a village here. However, the Indians soon sharply changed their attitude towards uninvited guests, and flatly refused to share their lands with them. A bloody war broke out between people again, and traces of the Scandinavians soon completely disappeared from the shores of America.

The discovery of America by Europe, carried out by Christopher Columbus in 1492, is the most important milestone in human history. The appearance of a new continent on the geographical map changed people’s understanding of planet Earth, forced them to comprehend its enormity, the countless possibilities of understanding the world and themselves in it. , the brightest page of which is the discovery of America, gave a powerful impetus to the development of European science, art, culture, the creation of new productive forces, the establishment of new production relations, which ultimately accelerated the replacement of feudalism with a new, more progressive socio-economic system - capitalism

Year of discovery of America - 1492

First discovery of America by the Normans

The sailing of the Normans to the shores of North America was unthinkable without their settlement in Iceland. But the first Europeans to visit Iceland were Irish monks. Their acquaintance with the island occurred approximately in the second half of the 8th century.

“30 years ago (that is, no later than 795), several clerics who were on this island from February 1 to August 1 informed me that there, not only during the summer solstice, but also on the previous and subsequent days, the setting sun seemed to only hides behind a small hill, so that it is not dark there even for the shortest time... and you can do any kind of work... If the clerics lived on the high mountains of this island, then the sun might not be hidden from them at all... While they are there lived, days always gave way to nights, except during the summer solstice; however, at a distance of one day's journey further north, they discovered a frozen sea" (Dicuil - Irish medieval monk and geographer who lived in the second half of the 8th century AD)

About 100 years later, a Viking ship accidentally washed up on the shores of Iceland in a storm.

“They say that people from Norway were going to sail to the Faroe Islands... However, they were carried west, into the sea, and there they found a large land. Entering the eastern fjords, they climbed high mountain and looked around to see if they could see smoke somewhere or any other signs that this land was inhabited, but they didn’t notice anything. In the fall they returned to the Faroe Islands. When they went out to sea, there was already a lot of snow on the mountains. That's why they called this country Snow Land."

Over time, a large number of Norwegian residents moved to Iceland. By 930 there were about 25 thousand people on the island. Iceland became the starting point for further travels of the Normans to the West. In 982-983, Eirik Turvaldson, who became Eric the Red in the Russian tradition, discovered Greenland. In the summer of 986, Bjarni Herulfson, sailing from Iceland to the Greenland Viking village, lost his way and discovered land to the south. In the spring of 1004, Erik the Red's son Leif the Happy followed in his footsteps, discovering the Cumberland Peninsula (south of Baffin Island), the eastern coast of the Labrador Peninsula and the northern coast of Newfoundland Island. The northeastern shores of North America were then visited more than once by Viking expeditions, but in Norway and Denmark they were not considered important, since their natural conditions were unattractive

Prerequisites for the discovery of America by Columbus

- the fall of Byzantium under the blows of the Ottoman Turks, the birth of the Ottoman Empire in the east of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor led to the cessation of overland trade relations along the Great Silk Road with the countries of the East
- Europe's critical need for spices from India and Indochina, which were used not so much in cooking, but as a hygiene item, for making incense. After all, Europeans washed their faces in the Middle Ages rarely and reluctantly, and a quintal (measure of weight, 100 pounds) of pepper in Calicut or Hormuz cost ten times less than in Alexandria.
- misconception of medieval geographers about the size of the earth. It was believed that the Earth evenly consists of land - the giant continent of Eurasia with an appendage of Africa - and ocean; that is, the sea distance between the extreme western point of Europe and the extreme eastern point of Asia did not exceed several thousand kilometers

Brief biography of Christopher Columbus

There is little information about the childhood, youth, and early life of Christopher Columbus. Where he studied, what kind of education he received, what exactly he did in the first third of his life, where and how he mastered the art of navigation, history tells very sparingly.
Born in Genoa in 1451. He was the first-born in a large weaver's family. He participated in his father's manufacturing and trading enterprises. In 1476, by chance, he settled in Portugal. He married Felipe Moniz Perestrello, whose father and grandfather were actively involved in the activities of Henry the Navigator. Settled on the island of Porto Santo in the Madeira archipelago. Was allowed access to family archives, reports on sea voyages, geographical maps and driving directions. Frequently visited the harbor of the island of Porto Santo

“in which nimble fishing boats scurried and anchored ships sailing from Lisbon to Madeira and from Madeira to Lisbon. The helmsmen and sailors of these ships whiled away the long hours of stay in the port tavern, and Columbus had long and useful conversations with them... (He learned from) experienced people about their voyages in the Sea-Ocean. A certain Martin Vicente told Columbus that 450 leagues (2,700 kilometers) west of Cape San Vicente, he picked up a piece of wood in the sea, processed, and very skillfully, with some kind of tool, clearly not iron. Other sailors met boats with huts beyond the Azores Islands, and these boats did not capsize even on a large wave. We saw huge pine trees off the Azores coast; these dead trees were carried by the sea at a time when strong westerly winds blew. Sailors came across corpses of broad-faced people of “non-Christian” appearance on the shores of the Azores island of Faial. A certain Antonio Leme, “married to a resident of Madeira,” told Columbus that, having walked a hundred leagues to the west, he came across three unknown islands in the sea” (Ya. Svet “Columbus”)

He studied and analyzed contemporary works on geography, navigation, travel notes of travelers, treatises by Arab scientists and ancient authors, and gradually drew up a plan to reach the rich countries of the East by the Western sea route.
The main sources of knowledge on the issue of interest for Columbus were five books

• "Historia Rerum Gestarum" by Aeneas Silvia Piccolomini
• "Imago Mundi" by Pierre d'Ailly
• "Natural History" by Pliny the Elder
• "The Book" of Marco Polo
• Parallel Lives of Plutarch

1484 - Columbus presented a plan to reach the Indies by a western route to King John II of Portugal. Plan rejected

1485 - Columbus's wife died, he decided to move to Spain

1486, January 20 - the first unsuccessful meeting of Columbus with the Spanish kings Isabella and Ferdinand

1486, February 24 - the monk Marchena, favorable to Columbus, convinced the royal couple to transfer Columbus's project to the scientific commission

1487, winter-summer - consideration of the Columbus project by a commission of astronomers and mathematicians. The answer is negative

1487, August - second, again unsuccessful, meeting of Columbus and the kings of Spain

1488, March 20 - Portuguese King João II invited Columbus

1488, February - King Henry the Seventh of England rejected Columbus's project, which was proposed to him by Columbus's brother Bartolome

1488, December - Columbus in Portugal. But his project was again rejected because Dias opened the route to India around Africa

1489, March-April - negotiations between Columbus and the Duke of Medosidonia on the implementation of his project

1489, May 12 - Isabella invited Columbus, but the meeting did not take place

1490 - Bartholomew Columbus proposed to implement the plan of his brother, the king of France, Louis XI. Unsuccessful

1491, autumn - Columbus settled in the Rabida monastery, from whose abbot Juan Perez he found support for his plans

1491, October - Juan Perez, being at the same time the queen's confessor, asked her in writing for an audience with Columbus

1491, November - Columbus arrived to the queen in a military camp near Granada

1492, January - Isabella and Ferdinad approved Columbus's project

1492, April 17 - Isabella, Ferdinad and Columbus entered into an agreement, “in which the goals of Columbus’s expedition were very vaguely indicated and the titles, rights and privileges of the future discoverer of unknown lands were very clearly specified”

1492, April 30 - the royal couple approved a certificate granting Columbus the titles of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean and Viceroy of all lands that would be discovered by him during his voyage along the said Sea-Ocean. Titles were complained forever “from heir to heir,” at the same time Columbus was elevated to the rank of nobility and could “name and title himself Don Christopher Columbus,” was supposed to receive a tenth and an eighth share of the profits from trade with these lands, and had the right to litigate all litigation. The city of Palos was approved as the expedition's preparation center.

1492, May 23 - Columbus arrived in Palos. In the city church of St. George, a decree of the kings was read out calling on the city residents to assist Columbus. However, the townspeople greeted Columbus coldly and did not want to serve him1492

1492, June 15-18 - Columbus met with the rich and influential Palos merchant Martin Alonso Pinzon, who became his like-minded person

1492, June 23 - Pinson began recruiting sailors

“He had heart-to-heart conversations with the Palos residents and said everywhere that the expedition needed brave and experienced sailors and that great benefits would accrue to its participants. “Friends, go there, and we will go on this hike all together; you will leave poor, but if, with God’s help, you manage to open up the land for us, then, having found it, we will return with gold bars, and we will all get rich, and we will receive a big profit.” Soon volunteers flocked to Palos harbor, wanting to take part in the voyage to the shores of an unknown land.”

1492, early July - an envoy from the kings arrived in Palos, promising all participants in the voyage various benefits and rewards

1492, end of July - preparations for the voyage were completed

1492, August 3 - at 8 o'clock in the morning, Columbus's flotilla raised sails

Columbus's ships

The flotilla consisted of three ships "Nina", "Pinta" and "Santa Maria". The first two belonged to the brothers Martin and Vicente Pinson, who led them. The Santa Maria was the property of shipowner Juan de la Cosa. "Santa Maria" was formerly called "Maria Galanta". She, like “Ninya” (“Girl”) and “Pinta” (“Speck”), was named after the Palos girls of easy virtue. For the sake of respectability, Columbus asked to rename “Maria Galanta” to “Santa Maria”. The Santa Maria's carrying capacity was a little more than one hundred tons, and its length was about thirty-five meters. The length of the “Pinta” and “Nina” could be from twenty to twenty-five meters. The crews consisted of thirty people, and there were fifty people on board the Santa Maria. The "Santa Maria" and "Pinta" had straight sails when leaving Palos, the "Nina" had slanting sails, but in the Canary Islands Columbus and Martin Pinson replaced the slanting sails with straight ones. Neither drawings nor more or less accurate sketches of the ships of Columbus's first expedition have reached us, so it is even impossible to judge their classes. They are believed to have been caravels, although caravels had slanting sails, and Columbus wrote in his diary on October 24, 1492, “I set all the sails of the ship - the mainsail with two foils, the foresail, the blind and the mizzen.” The mainsail, the foresail... are straight sails.

Discovery of America. Briefly

• 1492, September 16 - Diary of Columbus: “They began to notice many tufts of green grass, and, as could be judged by its appearance, this grass had only recently been torn from the ground.”
• 1492, September 17 - Diary of Columbus: “I discovered that since sailing from Canary Islands there was never so little salt water in the sea.”
• 1492, September 19 - Diary of Columbus: “At 10 o’clock a dove flew onto the ship. We saw another one in the evening.”
• 1492, September 21 - Diary of Columbus: “We saw a whale. A sign of land, because whales swim close to the shore.”
• 1492, September 23 - Diary of Columbus: “Since the sea was calm and warm, people began to grumble, saying that the sea here was strange, and the winds would never blow to help them return to Spain.”
• 1492, September 25 - Diary of Columbus: “The earth appeared. He ordered us to go in that direction.”
• 1492, September 26 - Diary of Columbus: “What we took for earth turned out to be heaven.”
• 1492, September 29 - Diary of Columbus: “We sailed our way to the West.”
• 1492, September 13 - Columbus noticed that the compass needle did not point to the North Star, but 5-6 degrees to the northwest.
• 1492, October 11 - Diary of Columbus: “We sailed west-southwest. During the entire voyage there had never been such rough seas. We saw “pardelas” and green reeds near the ship. People from the Pinta caravel noticed a reed and a branch and caught a stick hewn, possibly with iron, and a fragment of a reed and other herbs that were born on the ground, and one tablet

1492, October 12 - America is discovered. It was 2 o’clock in the morning when a cry of “Earth, earth!!!” was heard on board the faster “Pinta”, which was walking slightly ahead. and a bombard shot. The outline of the shore appeared in the moonlight. In the morning the boats were lowered from the ships. Columbus with both Pinsons, a notary, a translator, and a royal controller landed on shore. “The island is very large and very flat and there are a lot of green trees and water, and in the middle there is a large lake. There are no mountains,” wrote Columbus. The Indians called the island Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador, now Watling Island, part of the Bahamas archipelago

• 1492, October 28 - Columbus discovered the island of Cuba
• 1492, December 6 - Columbus approached big island, called Borgio by the Indians. Along its shore “beautiful valleys stretch, very similar to the lands of Castile,” the admiral wrote in his diary. Apparently that’s why he named the island Hispaniola, now Haiti
• 1492, December 25 - "Santa Maria" struck reefs off the coast of Haiti. The Indians helped remove valuable cargo, guns and supplies from the ship, but the ship could not be saved.
• 1493, January 4 - Columbus set off on his return journey. He actually had to swim back small ship expedition "Ninier", leaving part of the crew on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti), since even earlier the third ship "Pinta" separated from the expedition, and the "Santa Maria" ran aground. Two days later, both surviving ships met, but on February 14, 1493 they were separated in a storm
• 1493, March 15 - Columbus returned to Palos on the Niña, and the Pinta entered Palos harbor with the same tide.

Columbus made three more voyages to the shores of the New World, discovered islands and archipelagos, bays, bays and straits, founded forts and cities, but he never learned that he had found a way not to India, but to a world completely unknown to Europe

America is a part of the world whose official discovery is attributed to Columbus, but its history is full of dark spots.

The modern United States plays a key role in political strife and has a serious influence on other countries and the world economy. But the path to such a high level was long and thorny. It all started with the discovery of America.

Christopher Columbus was a Spanish navigator who discovered two new continents for Europeans. He made 4 expeditions, each sent by kings, hoping to find a short trade route with India.

The first expedition consisted of three ships with a total complement of 91 people. She ended up on the island of San Salvador on October 12, 1492.

The second expedition, consisting of 17 ships and 1,500 people, lasted from 1493 to 1496. During this time, Columbus discovered Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and about 20 more Lesser Antilles. In June, he already reported to the government about his amazing findings.

The third expedition, which included 6 ships, set off in 1498, and two years later returned to their native shores. Several more lands were discovered, including Trinidad, Margarita, the Araya and Paria peninsulas.

The last expedition, sailing in 1502, included 4 ships. Within two years, the islands of Martinique, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica were discovered. Columbus was shipwrecked near Jamaica, and help arrived only a year later. The travelers arrived in their native Castile in November 1504.

Date when America was discovered - Vikings in 1000

Erik the Red was known as a great Viking. His son, Leif Erikson, was the first to set foot on American soil. After spending the winter in its vastness, Erickson and his expedition returned to Greenland. This happened around the year 1000.

Two years later, brother Torvald Erikson, the second son of Erik the Red, founded his settlement on the territory discovered by his brother. Less than a month later, his men were attacked by local Indians, killing Thorvald and forcing the others to return home.

Subsequently, Eric the Red's daughter Freydis and his daughter-in-law Gudrid also tried to conquer new spaces. The latter even managed to trade with the Indians, offering various goods. But the Viking settlement was never able to survive in America for more than 10 years, despite constant attempts.

When did Amerigo Vespucci discover America?

Amerigo Vespucci, after whom, according to some historians, the continents are named, first visited the New World as a navigator. The route of Alonso de Ojeda's expedition was chosen using a map created by Christopher Columbus. Along with him, Amerigo Vespucci took about a hundred slaves who were indigenous to America.

Vespucci visited the new territory twice more - in 1501-1502 and from 1503 to 1504. If the Spaniard Christopher wanted to stock up on gold, then the Florentine Amerigo wanted to discover as many new lands as possible in order to gain fame and preserve his name in history.

What does Wikipedia say about the dates of the discovery of America?

The famous Wikipedia talks about the discovery of the American continents in unprecedented detail. In the vastness of the world encyclopedia you can find information about all the expeditions to the New World, about each of the possible discoverers, and the further history of the Indians.

Wikipedia names the date of the discovery of America as October 12, 1492, speaking about Christopher Columbus.

It was he who managed not only to discover new territories, but to capture them on his map. Amerigo Vespucci was able to provide Europeans with a more complete picture of what the continents look like. Although his “complete” map was significantly different from the modern one.

In what year after the discovery did the settlement of America begin?

The settlement of American soil began many thousands of years before its official discovery. It is believed that the ancestors of the Indians were the Eskimos, Inuits, and Aleuts. The Vikings, as you know, also tried to take over the territories of the New World. But they failed - the indigenous people protected it too zealously.

After the discoveries of Columbus and Vespucci, almost 50 years passed before the first European settlements appeared.

In the American city of St. Augustine, the first small settlement of Spaniards was organized in 1565.

In 1585, the first British colony of Roanoke was created, which was destroyed by the Indians. The next attempt by the British was a colony in Virginia, which appeared in 1607.

And finally, the first colony in New England was the settlement located in Plymouth in 1620. This year is recognized as the official date of colonization of the New World.

Possible discoverers before Christopher Columbus

There are many people on the list of possible discoverers. Historians cannot find reliable facts about this, but there are sources indicating that the information is still correct.

Among the hypothetical discoverers it is worth highlighting:

• Phoenicians - 370 BC;
• ancient Egyptians;
• Hui Shen, who was a Buddhist monk who made what turned out to be the first trip around the world - 5th century;
• Irish monk Brendan, who followed in the footsteps of Shen - 6th century;
• Malay Sultan Abubakar II - 1330;
• Chinese explorer Zheng He - 1420;
• Portuguese Joao Corterial - 1471.

These people had pure intentions, did not seek fame and gold, and therefore did not tell the general public about their discovery. They were not trying to bring evidence or enslave Native Americans.

Perhaps that is why their names are not familiar to most contemporaries, and the more cruel and greedy Christopher Columbus is indicated as the discoverer of the new land.

The fate of the Native Americans

The story of the discovery of America is presented in modern history as a joyful event that laid the foundation for a new nation of “emigrants.” But it also became a nightmare for many Indians, who had to endure unspeakable horrors created by the conquerors.

The Spaniards killed several thousand native Americans and took several hundred into slavery. They made fun of the Indians and killed them with extreme cruelty, not even sparing babies. The “Whites” who arrived on the new lands sprinkled them with blood, reducing the joyful discovery to a bloody massacre.

One of those who observed the fate of the Indians, the priest Bartolome de Las Casas, who arrived with Columbus, tried to protect the Indians, even went to the Spanish court in the hope of their pardon. As a result, the court decided whether it was worth calling the Indians people at all, whether they had a soul.

The negative attitude is explained by the fact that Columbus left his crew to look after the New World and went home. When he returned, he saw all his people dead. As it turned out, the Spaniards became impudent, beating the men and raping the women of the tribe, as well as killing the rebellious. The Indians, who initially considered the “whites” to be gods, quickly realized how things were and began to defend themselves. This is what led to further tragic incidents.

In any case, the discovery of America- an important event, which today is considered one of the loudest in the history of civilization.

The discovery of America is one of the greatest events in human history. The history of the discovery of a huge continent is fraught with many interesting and surprising facts. To this day, there is debate about who really discovered America. Everyone knows that the name of the discoverer is Christopher Columbus, why the land was named after Amerigo Vespucci, and who else visited the continent before Columbus... More on this and much more in the article.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus and his expedition reached the shores of North America, mistakenly believing that he had arrived in India. It was from this moment that the era of the discovery of America began and its exploration and exploration began. However, there are researchers who consider this date inaccurate, insisting that new continent was opened much earlier.

The first information about the existence of a new continent, later called America, appeared in the prehistoric period. These events happened by chance. The motives for discoveries were, as a rule, the search for habitable lands (the desire for survival), the search for gold and large trading cities.

The Paleo-Indians were the first

The first to settle in America about 15 thousand years ago were people from Asia. During the Pleistocene era, as a result of the melting of the ice sheets (Laurentine and Cordilleran), a narrow corridor formed between Russia and Alaska. The so-called land bridge between the western coast of Alaska and Siberia, or the Bering Isthmus, connected the continents of Asia and North America as a result of falling ocean levels.

The Paleo-Indians, the ancient settlers of the Americas, arrived from Asia to America via the Bering Isthmus following the movement of large animal prey. Migrations occurred before the closure of the corridor, that is, the closure of the Laurentian and Cordilleran glaciers. Subsequently, the settlement of America took place by sea or by ice. When the Ice Age ended and the ice plates melted, the settlers who arrived in America found themselves isolated from other continents.

It turns out that the American continents were first discovered by nomadic Asian tribes, who initially settled North America, then occupied Central and South America. They later became the indigenous American peoples.

The Legend of the Irish Monks

As popular Irish legend has it, in the 6th century, a group of Irish monks, led by Saint Brendan, set sail west by boat in search of new lands. Seven years later, the monks returned home and reported that they had discovered a land covered with lush vegetation that was present-day Newfoundland.

However, there is no exact evidence confirming the fact that the Irish monks not only saw, but also visited the coast of North America. In 1976, British traveler Tim Severin decided to prove that such a journey was possible. He made an exact copy of the monastic ship and set off from Ireland to North America, following the route that traveling monks had once described. As a result, the researcher reached Canada.

Vikings and Vinland

In 984, as a result of researching ancient sea routes, the Scandinavian navigator Eric Krasus discovered Greenland. In 999, his son, Leif Eriksson, gathered a crew of 35 people and set off on one ship from Greenland to Norway. Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson reached North America on a journey across the Atlantic Ocean. There, on the territory of the modern Canadian island of Newfoundland, he founded a Norwegian settlement.

Due to the abundance of vineyards on this land, the Vikings named the settlement “Vinland”, which means “Grape Land” in English. But Erickson and his team did not stay there for long. Due to hostile relations with the native North Americans, they stayed only a few years before returning to Greenland.

In the sagas, the Vikings who settled in America are referred to as the Native Americans - “Skrelings”. Most of the sagas come from Scandinavian folklore, but in 1960 Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian archaeologist, found the first European Viking settlement in the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada, from the late 11th century, which is identical to those in the Scandinavian countries. This historical and archaeological site, called "L'Anse aux Meadows", is recognized by scientists as evidence of transoceanic contacts that took place before the discovery made by Columbus.

Sailors from China

In the debate “who discovered America,” even facts about the Chinese visiting America come up. Gavin Menzies, a British naval officer, put forward a theory about the colonization of South America by the Chinese. According to him, a Chinese explorer named Zheng He, who commanded an armada of wooden sailing ships, discovered the continent in 1421. According to the officer, Zheng He used advanced navigation techniques to explore areas such as Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa.

In his book 1421 - The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies wrote that Zheng He headed to the east coast of the United States and supposedly established settlements in South America. Menzies' theory is based on evidence from ancient shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps, and reports compiled by navigators of the time. However, the theory has been questioned.

Accidental discovery of Columbus

1942 is considered the year of the discovery of America, although some historians consider these data to be rather approximate. Columbus discovered America by accident. Discovering new lands and islands over the course of four expeditions, Columbus did not even imagine that this was a completely different continent, which would later be called the “New World”. Each time, arriving at new and new lands, the traveler believed that these were the lands of “Western India”.

All of Europe thought so for quite a long time, until another navigator Vasco da Gama declared Columbus a deceiver, since it was Gamma who found a direct route to India, visited there and brought local gifts and spices. There are suggestions that Columbus died convinced that he had discovered a new route to India, and not a new, hitherto unknown side of the world.

The mysterious name of the continent

Why was the new continent named not in honor of Columbus, who discovered it, but in honor of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci? The visit of this part of the “New World” by the traveler Vespucci is the first widely known and recorded fact. In 1503, he sent a letter to his friend the Medici with the following text: “These countries should be called the New World... Most ancient authors say that there is no continent south of the equator, but only a sea, and if some of them recognized the existence of a continent there, then they did not consider it inhabited. But my last journey proved that this opinion of theirs is erroneous and completely contrary to the facts, since in southern regions I found a continent more densely populated by people and animals than our Europe, Asia or Africa, and, moreover, a climate more temperate and pleasant than in any of the countries known to us ... "

It was he who first suggested that the discovered lands were not India or China, but a new unknown continent. And a quote from his letter, which spread around the world, became a good reason for the decision to name the new continent in honor of an unknown trade representative at that time, and not in honor of the famous discoverer. The name America first appeared in 1507 in Martin Waldseemüller's Introduction to Cosmography. The new continent is also represented under the same name on the first globe of Johann Schöner (1511).

An interesting fact is that not a single mention has been found of Vespucci’s initiative to assign his name to open overseas lands.

For the curious

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the continent was named after the English philanthropist from Bristol - Richard America, who financed John Cabot's second transatlantic expedition in 1497. Vespucci took his nickname in honor of the already named continent. Cabot became the first recorded European to set foot on the North American continent, reaching the shores of Labrador in May 1497. It was he who compiled the map of the coast of North America - from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. Bristol made the following entries in its calendar that year: “...on St. John the Baptist, the land of America was found by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name "Matthew".

The lands were the most common: the founding of cities, the discovery of deposits of gold and wealth. In the 15th century, navigation was actively developing, and expeditions were set up in search of the unexplored continent. What was on the continent before the arrival of Europeans, when Columbus discovered America, and under what circumstances did this happen?

The story of the great discovery

By the 15th century European states had a high level of development. Each country tried to expand its sphere of influence, searching for additional sources of profit to replenish the treasury. New colonies were formed.

Before the discovery, tribes lived on the continent. The natives were distinguished by their friendly character, which was favorable for the rapid development of the territory.

Christopher Columbus, while still a teenager, discovered the hobby of cartography. Spanish navigator I once learned from the astronomer and geographer Toscanelli that if you sail in a western direction, you can reach India much faster. It was 1470. And the idea came just in time, since Columbus was looking for another route that would allow him to reach India in a short time. He assumed that it was necessary to build a route through the Canary Islands.

In 1475, the Spaniard organized an expedition, the purpose of which was to find a quick route by sea to India across the Atlantic Ocean. He reported this to the government with a request to support his idea, but received no help. The second time Columbus wrote to King João II of Portugal, however, he was also rejected. He then turned again to the Spanish government. Several commission meetings were held on this issue, which lasted for years. The final positive decision on financing was made after the victory of Spanish troops in the city of Granada, liberated from Arab occupation.

If a new route to India was discovered, Columbus was promised not only wealth, but also a noble title: Admiral of the Sea-Ocean and Viceroy of the lands he would discover. Since Spanish ships were prohibited from entering the waters for west coast Africa, then such a step was beneficial for the government in order to conclude a direct trade agreement with India.

In what year did Columbus discover America?

Officially, the year of the discovery of America in history is recognized as 1942. Having discovered undeveloped lands, Columbus did not imagine that he had discovered a continent that would be called the “New World”. In what year the Spaniards discovered America can be said tentatively, since a total of four campaigns were undertaken. Each time the navigator found new lands, believing that this was the territory of Western India.

Columbus began to think that he was following the wrong route after Vasco de Gama's expedition. The traveler arrived in India and returned in a short time with rich goods, accusing Christopher of deception.

It later turned out that Columbus discovered the islands and continental parts of North and South America.

Which traveler discovered America earlier?

It is not entirely true to say that Columbus became the discoverer of America. Before this, Scandinavians landed on the lands: in 1000 - Leif Eriksson and in 1008 - Thorfinn Karlsefni. This is evidenced by the historical records “The Saga of the Greenlanders” and “The Saga of Eric the Red”. There is other information about travel to the “New World”. Traveler Abu Bakr II, a resident of the Celestial Empire Zheng He and a nobleman from Scotland Henry Sinclair arrived from Mali to America.

There is historical evidence indicating that in the 10th century the New World was visited by the Normans after the discovery of Greenland. However, they were unable to develop the territories due to heavy weather conditions, unsuitable for agriculture. In addition, the journey from Europe was very long.

Visits to the mainland by the navigator Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the continent was named.