Who discovered the American continent ?

Answer 1

Christopher Columbus
though the name America comes from the name of the italian explorer Amerigo Vaspucci

Answer 2

Everyone recognizes that many people were in America long before Columbus. The Asiatic peoples who became Native Americans were certainly the first, tens of thousands of years ago. Also Norse expeditions to North America, starting with Bjarni Herjolfsson in 986, are well established historically. Many other pre-Columbian discoveries are not well established. Claims have been made for St. Brendan, Basque fishermen, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, and even Carthaginians. Some of these claims may be true; most are probably not.

In spite of this, Columbus's discovery (or re-discovery, if you prefer) is rightly regarded as the most historically important, and will continue to be -- even if other earlier claims are eventually proven true. That is because, unlike the others, Columbus inaugurated permanent large scale two-way commerce between the Old World and the New. Previous discoveries were so obscure that almost no one in either hemisphere was aware of the other hemisphere's existence prior to Columbus. But after Columbus, everyone knew.

Answer 3

Columbus did not discover America and that a Norwegian Viking by the name of Leif Erickson did and did so in the late tenth century.

Columbus might have been puzzled, but he was sure as hell not dissuaded. He was in China and he went back to Spain and so advised the few who had paid any attention to his claims and to his voyage. Eventually, as we know, he was clapped in jail. We do not know why. Isabella was not pleased, apparently.

Now, let us go further back into the past towards the end of the Tenth Century. No one disputes that Norwegian Vikings were living on the west coast of Greenland then; that there were many settlements; that the land was ruled by a red-headed Viking gentleman who was named, appropriately, Eric the Red. Eric had a son; a rash, belligerent young fellow named Leif who did not get along with his dad and was sick and tired of the terrible climate in Greenland. Leif had a buddy named Lars Almvig. Lars was a great teller of tales. These were called ''sagas'' in the Norse tradition. Everyone recited sagas from memory because few could read and write. One tantalizing tale, cast in the form of a saga, spoke of a land far to the west that had been seen through a mist by a Viking band that had been badly blown off-course. Egged on by Lars Almvig and anxious to get out of the shadow of the old man, Leif organized a voyage, borrowed a ''Long Ship'' and headed west on a fine summer day in about 990 A.D. We know this because it is proclaimed in many of the Norse sagas of the time. These sagas survive. They have been compiled by a thoughtful anthropologist by the name of Snorri Sturleson in a book called ''Prose Edda.'' They are also found scattered throughout the literature of the Vikings.

http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/swearinger.htm

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During the three hundred years from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, the people of Scandinavia were much feared by the inhabitants of Europe. Called the Vikings, and inhabiting the areas now known as Denmark, Sweden and Norway, they were very successful at raiding, piracy and exploration. Known to be the settlers of Greenland and Iceland, it is now believed that the Vikings also discovered North America. There are two icelandic sagas, which both tell of the accidental discovery of an unknown land, and an archaeological site, all of which support the idea that Canada was discovered some time in the tenth century. However, a number of supposed Viking finds in North America appear to be frauds. Despite the evidence mentioned above, there are scholars who still believe that Columbus was the first to discover the American continent.

Many other such finds of "Viking" artefacts have been discredited as fakes. However, this has not occured with the ruins at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, which are generally accepted as genuine. This site, with the evidence of radiocarbon dating and the Norse nature of its artefacts, gives genuine credibility to the Graenlendinga and Eirik's Saga. The evidence strongly supports the belief that the Vikings did visit the coast of North America long before Columbus.

http://www.dicksonc.act.edu.au/Showcase/ClioContents/legends/vikings.html
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Answer 4

Historic evidence shows that the Vikings (namely, a sailor called Erik the Red) are the first Europeans to set foot on America. They also founded a colony there. However, they were not aware that they discovered a new continent. Their colonies were later destroyed by Native Americans.

Answer 5

A question that I have is why does Ontario have on its license plates, "Yours to Discover"? Didn't somebody already discover it? After all, there are a number of towns and villages there, including a really big one with a very tall structure of some kind.

To give a literal answer to your question, anyone who have been in, over, or offshore of the continent (actually two continents). In other words, anyone that has had a direct contact with them, such as seeing America by flying over it or standing on it. I discovered America when I began to have real cognitive thoughts sometime in my ancient youth.

As to who first discovered America, I would actually offer fauna that migrated there millions of years ago. We tend to discount non-human explorers due to our anthropocentric viewpoints.

Answer 6

To my records of History it is Captain Piri -A sea general in at the Ottoman Navy . He has a map showing the continenet and some writings about it at the museum of Topkapi .
Eric the Red was the second
Then comes Columbus
Vespuci only draw a dratf of the continent and gave his name to the continent. This is all I know about it .
Records never tell lies

Answer 7

Thousands of years before Erik the Red, Amerigo Vespucci, and Columbus, homo sapien sapien migrated to North America across the Bering Land Bridge (now submerged under water and called the Bering Strait).

Answer 8

Native Americans, who crossed the land bridge during the ice age. If you mean Europeans, the Vikings are the best bet--they have settlements along the eastern seaboard that are older than Columbus.

Answer 9

As in first Europeans? I think it's Vikings:

"986 AD (summer): Icelandic trader Bjarni Herjolfsson and his crew are driven off course by bad weather on their way from Iceland to meet Bjarni's father at the new Viking colony in Greenland. While they are lost off course, they sight Labrador (Markland, or Forestland, Woodland) south of the medieval treeline near present day Nain. They don't go ashore while they are lost."

"1001: Leif Eiriksson discovers and names Vinland (present day northern Newfoundland) and settles at Leifsbudir (Leif's Booth). The remains of that Viking settlement are preserved and protected today by the Federal Government of Canada at L'Anse aux Meadows. It remains the only authenticated Viking settlement in North America. "

Answer 10

Columbus discovered America.

Answer 11

The native americans.