Who was the 1st European to set foot on what is now the continental United States?
2007-02-21 07:49:40 · 5 answers · asked by Fred C. Dobbs 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
BTW - Columbus never set foot on the continental United States, or really came close.
2007-02-21 08:05:07 · update #1
Three waves of Native Americans came from asia via the Bering Strait Ice Bridge. A fourth ancestral group had DNA tracings back to the Solutreans of Europe, people who lived in Ice Age France and Spain. Their progeny are linked by DNA to the modern Ojibwe Indians. They were the first 'europeans'....true story.
2007-02-21 11:16:49 · answer #1 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no way to know for sure, but a Welshman named Madoc supposedly landed in the gulf coast around about 1170AD. That would pre-date Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Vikings (who landed in Canada). However there are certain things to indicate that others might have been here first in a more transient nature and some might have gotten blown off coast by trade winds and were forced ashore earlier than Madoc.
There are a group of people generally living on the west side of the Appalachians from south of Pittsburgh into N. Alabama called the Melungeons. Their origin is not specifically known, but it is assumed to be N. African. They are copper colored, they have beards, and DNA evidence does not related them to indians or blacks. When they arrived is up to speculation. If they are indeed North Africans, they may have sailed outside of Gibraltar, got blown south towards the Azores and then caught the same winds that Columbus later caught. Those winds could blow them across the Atlantic and up the N. American Coast to around N. Carolina and then, because the indians did not want them in good hunting grounds, they chased them on the other side of the appalachians.
2007-02-21 16:02:36 · answer #2 · answered by Polyhistor 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The first confirmed European landing in present-day United States territory was by Christopher Columbus, who visited Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493. Florida was home to the earliest European colonies on the mainland; they died out except for St. Augustine (by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565.
Not sure of any names, but it was a Spainard.
2007-02-21 16:03:34 · answer #3 · answered by Stephanie W 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
there is actually some speculation that stone age men may have sailed here. other than that the only archaeological evidence suggests is was someone in Lief Ericsson's party @ 1000 C.E. Although the archaeological site is on a Canadian island, some of the seeds and remnants of materials suggest that they explored the mainland coast and brought the materials back to Newfoundland as a central shipping point
2007-02-21 18:49:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the early celts?
2007-02-21 17:09:59 · answer #5 · answered by Roger W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋