what was america called before it was discovered?

Question

the indian lived here for many years before columbus discovered it..what did the indian call it before it was called america?

Answer 1

America comprises two continents that were once separated from one complete land mass known as Pangea (Pan-JEE-a). (The Biblical PELEG). I guess it could then be called West Pangea before America, while the European to China land mass could be called East Pangea. Now then, recorded history relates that the first Europeans to visit were the Vikings who named it Vinland or wineland.
The North American Indian, for the most part considered the land as belonging to all or everyone as was rain, sunshine, wind etc etc. It was the Northern Europeans that named it America and parceled the land as was customary in Europe. (The Age of Discovery and Exploration). The Native American never had a concept of a continent land mass except those living at the water's edge and only limited to the concept of coast.
Although the Phoenicians traveled far and wide, and there is evidence of their touching the Americas, they left no written record except PERHAPS the legendary ATLANTIS, and I repeat perhaps and legendary.
The only MAJOR city or cultural center and perhaps a STATE I can think of WITHIN the AMERICAS with a name was Tenochtitlan, the home of the Mexicas pronounced Meh-shee-kas known as the Aztecs. Perhaps Cuzco also, in Peru.

Answer 2

The north american indians had no idea they were on a continent, and hence no word for it, they were also a very fractured people, and spoke many languages so each had there own word for the earth and their land. The word canada is translated - village, and was a miscommunication for when asked what was the land called, they believed they were being asked what the word for village was. America was named after Amerigo Vespucci a navigator who claimed to have discovered it.

Answer 3

'america' derives from an Italian cartographer and merchant called Americo Vespucci. this is unusual in that a country was named off the for-name and not off a surname [as it was thought that only royalty did this].

I'm not sure to what it was called before Vespucci came.

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It was the publication and widespread circulation of his letters that led Martin Waldemar to name the new continent America on his world map of 1507.

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The earliest known use of the name America is from 1507, when a globe and a large map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldemar in Saint-Die-Des-Visages described the combined continents of North and South America. Although the origin of the name is uncertain[2], the most widely held belief is that expressed in an accompanying book, Seismographer Introduction, which explains it as a feminized version of the Latin name of Italian explorer Americo Vespucci (Americus Vespucius); in Latin, the other continents' names were all feminine.

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go to:

http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html

Answer 4

Well, depends on who you talk to. The Norse who set up a small colony in Newfoundland refered to it as Vinland. The Chinesee who mapped most of North America most likely called it something else.

As for the Natives, very few would know. With their cultures eradicated or assimilated, stores of knowledge were lost.

Answer 5

What the heck they're not Indians they're Native Americans. And they weren't one tribe either. So, for instance, the Aztecs called it their Aztec Empire (except in their language), the Incas called it their Incan Empire (in their language of course), and others called it their own area in their own language. They each didn't occupy the whole area of what you Westerners call America, though. Indeed, I think your question is flawed, because it seems the Native Americans discovered America before Columbus.

Note: Of course, it wasn't called "America" before Europeans saw it because it was named after the geographer Amerigo Vespucci, who I think is from Italy.

Answer 6

home,, oklahoma was my forefather's name for our home. Kullahoma was the name given by the tribe across the creek from us. There were many of us living in peace with the bear, the beaver, the eagle,, the Son, and the moon.. We were conservationists who knew actually how to conserve, we took what we needed to live in comfort, we refused to work ourselves to death for trinketts that took away from our symbiotic relationship with oklahoma. we loved the bear for his strength and abundance of meat and fur. we loved the beaver for his ability to build lakes with many fish and that attracted many animals and for his waterproof fur and good meat. A great warior could steal an eagles feather and have eagle eggs for breakfast. Human beings honored each other and thier rules..and peace dominated the land of oklahoma.

Answer 7

Fartknockistan

Answer 8

Well, it was The Continental States of America, before it was USA. Might ask the Indinas and Chinese what it was beofre that.

Answer 9

the vikings called Vinland. as for the indians, i'm sure it was called something different by every tribe

Answer 10

it was called North America.