Who really discovered America? (Spoiler alert:
it’s not Columbus)
If not Columbus, then who?
There are several
theories as to who discovered America, some more documented than others. We
know for sure that Vikings were there centuries before Columbus. There is some
(disputed) evidence that Polynesian explorers also visited the continent before
the Spaniard, and technically, Nomadic Asian tribes first discovered America over
15,000 years ago.
But let’s take it
step by step.
The Columbus Expedition
Christoper Columbus arrives in America, by L. Prang & Co., Boston.
In 1492, Columbus
departed from the Spanish city of Palos de la Frontera with three ships.
Ironically, the citizens were forced to contribute to the expedition, against
their will. Fast forward a few weeks, and a lookout on one of the ships saw
land. The captain of that ship (not Columbus) confirmed the sighting and
alerted Columbus. Columbus later maintained that he himself had already seen a
light hours before that, because the first man to see land would earn a
lifetime pension from the Spanish crown. Already, you’re probably starting to
see that Columbus wasn’t really the nicest of people.
What island they
found will remain a question for the ages. They called it San Salvador; the
natives called it Guanahani. It was an island in the Bahamas, though we don’t
really know which. They encountered peaceful natives, who welcomed them.
Columbus noticed the natives were wearing golden bracelets and necklaces, so he
took six of them as slaves. He wrote in his diary:
“They ought to make
good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to
them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no
religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses
when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.”
Columbus also noted
that they didn’t seem to have any weapons or army.
“I could conquer the
whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”
What happened later
is well-known history. For the locals, it was genocide. For the Europeans, it
was a quick way to get incredibly rich, and they seized it quickly. Columbus
paved the way for all of this… is this really the person we want to celebrate
for discovering America?
American Vikings
Viking ships found America one thousand years ago. Image credits: Carolin W.
… especially as it’s
not true. Sure, Columbus made America known to the Europeans who ultimately
conquered it, but he didn’t discover it by any means.
Leif Erikson, the son
of Erik the Red, was a Norse explorer from Iceland. Erik the Red founded the
first Norse settlement in Greenland. Discovery and expansion ran through their
blood, as Leif went on go much farther: to America.
Leif and his crew
traveled from Greenland to Norway in 999 AD, where he converted to
Christianity. Not long after that, he sailed the Atlantic. According to the
Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is
(debatably) in Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. For many years, this was
thought to be only a mythological story, a myth more than history — but
archaeological evidence has shown, beyond a doubt, that Vikings reached Canada.
The first Viking
archaeological site in the New World is L’Anse aux Meadows, a thousand-year-old
way station discovered in 1960 on the northern tip of Newfoundland. The feature
was a clear indication that Vikings had visited North America centuries before
Columbus — at least partially, the myth was proven to be true. Archaeologists
actually used clues from the sagas to guide their research.
Leif Erikson plaque in Cambridge, MA. The Vikings called America Vineland because it was rich in grapes which made delicious wine.
When archaeologists
discovered another site, things became much clearer. It appears that not only
have Vikings visited the American continent, but they actually attempted to
colonize parts of it.
“The sagas suggest a
short period of activity and a very brief and failed colonization attempt,”
says Douglas Bolender, an archaeologist specializing in Norse settlements.
“L’Anse aux Meadows fits well with that story but is only one site. Point Rosee
could reinforce that story or completely change it if the dating is different
from L’Anse aux Meadows. We could end up with a much longer period of Norse
activity in the New World.”
So, we have solid
evidence that Vikings — Leif and his extended family — visited America and
remained then for at least 10 years. There is some evidence that they tried to
establish an outpost, but the natives didn’t seem to appreciate their presence.
Feeling threatened and outnumbered, the Vikings left, and then probably only
returned for trade.
Polynesian yams and shakier claims
Another population
who probably visited America way before Columbus are the Polynesians. The main
clue for this behavior is the inconspicuous sweet potato (yam).
Image credits: 5aday.gov
The oldest carbonized
sweet potato evidence in the Pacific hails back to about 1,000 A.D.—500 years
before Columbus sailed to the Americas. But it wasn’t a convincing enough
proof, so it remained as a hunch more than anything else.
However, French
scientists found better samples from a herbarium collected by early European
explorers. Through genetic analysis, they were able to show that Polynesians
took the sweet potatoes from America and spread them across Southeast Asia and
the Pacific, where they are now ubiquitous. There are also studies which link
Brazilian DNA to that of Polynesians, though another recent study put the
findings under question. It seems very likely that Polynesians did reach
America and established some kind of trade route. If this happened, it was
before Columbus’ time, but it’s not clear if it was before the Vikings.
There is also a “China first” theory, but that’s highly
speculative. While a massive Chinese fleet explored Africa, reaching
present-day Kenya, there’s no real evidence to support that idea. Several
explorers also claimed to have discovered the continent a few years before
Columbus, but there’s almost no way to prove such claims.
The first explorers of America might have come from this area.
The first true Americans
So, we’ve established
that while Columbus made America known to Europe’s colonial powers, he
definitely wasn’t the first one. Polynesian sailors probably also visited South
America. But if we really want to get true here, every time these explorers
reached the continent, natives were already there. Because America was first
discovered by humans over 15,000 years ago.
The first explorers came from the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Image via Prezi.
Exactly when this
happened is also a heated debate, but recent studies place the earliest
migration rate between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago. Technically, you could say
they were the first ones to discover America.
No comments:
Post a Comment