Did anyone visited America even before Columbus himself ?

Answer 1

Well sure, if you count the NATIVE AMERICANS and the VIKINGS...
Columbus "discovered" a populated Continent, so next time you take a trip to London you can say "Hey everybody! I discovered the British isles!"

Answer 2

The stretch of land that is currently the United States of America was first seen and partially mapped by Amerigo Vespucci a few years after Columbus landed on some islands in the Americas. The North American continent was explored centuries earlier up in modern day Canada. People such as Leif Ericson in the 1100's. Not the late 1400's. Columbus never saw the coast of Virginia or North Carolina, etc.

Edit: This answer has been modified to correct spelling and grammatical errors that spell check would not pick up such as proper names and so on. Thank you. Also by the word visited I assumed you meant what westerner or European explorer was the first to lay eyes on the USA. If not, then the Native Americans would be the first peoples. I was also unsure if you meant the USA or the North American continent in general.

Answer 3

Hi Matt,
The Vikings visited America long before Columbus

Answer 4

There is proof positive in the way of graves and headstones that the Vikings landed in North America way before Christopher Columbus.

There is some evidence, a whaling station, that the Basque were crossing the Atlantic years before Columbus, and there has been some speculation that Columbus conferred with the Basque fisherman about existing routes across the Atlantic.

Answer 5

The best known group of folk to have arrived in north America before Columbus were the Vikings. They settled in Greenland and then in New Foundland [now Canada]. There are the remains of Viking buildings [villages] in New Foundland. The Vikings actually called the place "vine land" indicating that grapes grew there. Not today, unless globular warming speeds up a bit.

The other folk who made it to America before Columbus are the Celts of Ireland, Cornwall and Wales. There is no hard factual evidence to support this except certain Native American Tribes who have within their language[s] lots of Welsh words. These Welsh words were noted from the 16th and 17th century onwards by Irish, English and Welsh settlers of that period. In other words, these Welsh words must have arrived in antiquity, possibly as early the 6th century AD or soon thereafter.

The other most likely people to have arrived in America before Columbus were certain fisher folk from Portugal. This seems completely strange to us now, but drawings of Portuguese ships pre-dating the Columbus period have been found in caves in parts of South America - again this is not a positive proof but it points to something. Maybe, lets give it 60%.

Columbus is credited with the discovery of America in spite of the fact that he did not actually land on the mainland but on an island in the West Indies. Close, considering no charts.

During the period in Ireland and Britain best kinown as the age of the Celtic saints, it is very likely that some of these saints, especially St. Brendan, did indeed make it to the American shore.

Why did so many of these Celtic saints put to sea? Well, having read in the Bible of Jesus spending forty days and forty nights in the wildeness [desert], the Celtic Christian leaders [the Celtic saints] wanted very much to experience what it was like to be in the wilderness. Ireland and Britain are lush green lands and the only place like a wildeness is the open sea. Thus St Brenden and other Celtic saints put to sea in their leather boats and headed off out of the site of land to be alone, read the good book and try not to eat too much.

Reading that Jesus turned stones into bread must have been pretty exciting when you consider that he could have turned the stones into pretty much anything he fancied - a roast lamb for example.

Keep the faith.

Answer 6

Norse Men set up colonies in Newfoundland, Greenland and as far as the Northern Canadian Borders.
How do you think the People of America got there? There was the Bearing Strait Land bridge, which is still passable even now (a couple of explorers actually done it not long ago and entered Russia from Alaska bu foot and sledge).
There is also records from the 13th Century of West Country Fishermen visiting the land as the sea grounds around the Grand Banks off newfoundland is very rich in fish.

Answer 7

The Vikings and the Native Americans settled there, but no explorers prior of Columbus visited America.

Answer 8

Cheap pc points can always be obtained by bringing up Native Americans. Go to London? Well, if false analogies were horses, intellectual beggars would ride. What if you went to London and you were from another planet that earth people knew nothing about before?
The Vikings are the obvious one.
St Brendan? Maybe.
The Chinese? Getting very doubtful now.
There's also the case of a skeleton found in Canada, I think, that proved to be that of a Caucasian, dating (again, maybe) from pre-Columbian times. And once or twice people have had found Greek and Roman coins there - but can we trust the finders - or the depositors?

Answer 9

The reason Columbus is so famous is because he was the first to prove to the European monarchs that the world was indeed round. He didn't go on his journey for personal gain, he wanted to prove that popular belief was once again wrong. He really wasn't that popular at home before and after his journey, mostly since he went against the tide. Also, I'm not sure how you know so much about his personal motives, mainly because they were never written down by him and he's been dead for five hundred years. but hey, that's just me. why not let the guy have his day? is there a serious moral issue with its celebration?

Answer 10

The Vikings they found archaelogical evidence to back it up. Also St. Brendan wrote of his account, maybe a decade ago two guys from England re-created St. Brendan's voyage making the exact same boat, and set off from the same place to prove was it possible. They passed all the same things as St.Brendan, Ice Bergs, same type of Whales etc.

Near Canada they hit an Ice Berg which split the skin of their boat, it was made of leather and they were able to sew it back together, if it had been made of metal they would have sunk. They made it to North America and were personally convinced that St Brendan's account was factual (he just didn't call it America). It is a fantastic documentary and it convinced me.

I agree with MT K Columbus was lost and looking for directions, and is it possible to call it discover if others were living there already?

Answer 11

There is evidence that the Norse visited North America (east coast) at some point by evidence of anthopoligical evidence.
There is evidence that Asian groups also visited North America (west coast) at some point.
You also have to remember that what we now call Native Americans crossed the bering strait when it was a solid land mass. They supposedly followed the animals they hunt over the solid land mass, then populated both Northern and Southern America.