Before the 16th century, when regions of the world were still unknown to each other and there was no world map to find out where each country and region was, the most curious would head out to the ocean to try to do new discoveries.
Thus, in this medium of discoveries, America was found, a discovery that is popularly attributed to Christopher Columbus.
Index
- How Columbus Discovered America
- Who was Christopher Columbus
- The arrival of the Vikings in America in the 10th century
How Columbus Discovered America
With the maritime expansion, it was of great European interest to discover new places to colonize and extract natural resources, with the importance of trade.
In addition, the new trade routes to india, famous at that time for its spices and trading point, were of major interest at the time.
History reports that it was in this search that the discovery of the americas, more specifically in October 12, 1492. It happened when Christopher Columbus' armada landed on an island called Ilha de Guanahani by the Indians, thinking it had landed in the Indies.
Columbus named this island San Salvador (Bahamas).
Who was Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was a navigator and explorer born in Genoa, Italian province, in the year 1451. He belonged to a wealthy family of artisans.
Since he was 10 years old, Columbus was interested in navigation, at which time he had his first experience at sea.
In the year 1476, when he was 25 years old, Columbus was shipwrecked in the region south of Portugal, when I was inside a commercial caravel. However, this accident was not enough to get you out of the seas.
So, he went in search of support, however, the Portuguese and Spanish crowns denied him support to venture into the seas.
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In 1942, Columbus won support from the Catholic kings of Aragon and Castile. With this, you can navigate and explore unknown regions and as a result can “discover” America.
However, even after disembarking in America and getting to know the region, Columbus did not realize that the land he had landed was a new continent.
Was Americo Vespucci, who made trips at the same time to this “New World”, who discovered that it was a different continent there, after traveling along the coast.
After Brazil was “discovered” in 1500, Américo made several trips to these lands and, along with other navigators, explored the Antilles and the Atlantic coast to the south, in search of new lands.
In 1508, they discover the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and in 1512, they land in Florida and the Mississippi Delta, in the U.S.
With all the discoveries, the navigators conclude that it was definitely a new continent.
Thus, cartographers trying to assemble a map for the new continent, named it America, in honor of Americo Vespucci.
The so-called "discovery" does not represent the emergence of a "new world", as there were already peoples living in the place, the so-called amerindian peoples, but this term is the most used.
The arrival of the Vikings in America in the 10th century
There are disputes that it was the vikings who discovered America and, from the 19th century onwards, scholars began to claim that the Vikings arrived in the Americas even before Christopher Columbus.
These statements are based on the existence of an archaeological site, with traces of a Viking presence in L’Anse aux Meadowa, on the island of Newfoundland. These traces date back to around the 10th century, long before the arrival of Columbus.
Furthermore, in 2010, European scientists found a gene typical of North American ships in the DNA of descendants of a single woman, representing a total of 350 Icelanders.
Thus, evidence proves that the Vikings were the first foreigners to set foot on land in the Americas.
See also:
- Discovery of Brazil (April 22) – Summary, history and images
- Colonialism - What it is, Factors, Origin and Types
- Latin America
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