Who REALLY discover America?

Question

We know Cristopher Columbus, but now we hear about the Vikings (Vinland map and artefact findings) in 1000 something, the Chinese Admiral Zheng He with his treasure fleet (South America) 75 years before Columbus, and even some rumors about Solomon who would have sent an expedition to America 1000 years before Christ!! So I want to know, who REALLY found this place after the initial waves of immigrations from the Beiring straits (please dont tell me mongolia)?

Staisil, this was exactly the response I was not asking for... WE ALL know they were the original, but I was looking for the visitors....

Its a shame that Chinese Mandarins of the time did not keep its documents...
And still considering how little is our western understanding of Asia history, we may still have a lot to learn.

Please Cameleon, learn to READ
before answering! It will help!

Answer 1

Grog of the Cave Bear Clan was dubbed "first to REALLY discover America" by the elders of the tribe in the Year 35,563 BC, for his being the first to cross the Bering Stait Ice Bridge chasing after wholly mammoths.....true story.

Answer 2

There were a few Viking settlements in Greenland. But the vikings must have kept it a secret or simply did not have the ability to know or relay what they had discovered.

Columbus did and exploited his discovery.
Where is there a pre-Columbian globe or map of the world detailing the American continents?

The Great fleet of Admiral Zheng sailed the wrong direction to have discover south America. He made 4 voyages to the Indian Ocean, India, Ceylon, and Arabia, even Mecca. Emporer Ming ended this because maintaining the fleet was to expensive.

History may Credit Leif Erickson one day but as far as I know it stands upon Columbus. Despite all the critic Columbus made the first maps of the Americas.

Answer 3

The Vikings were the first to try and set up, but the indigenous tribes -the Vikings called them Skraelings- drove them off. However, there is some evidence that they dispersed in to the Inuit population. There are some Inuit with blond hair and/or blue eyes that look pretty Nordic.

We can't really know. I mean, it's possible some Australian Aboriginals floated on over here 2000 years ago.

What if someone was just exploring around, didn't realize they'd found a new continent, and just stopped to replenish their food and water? Does that count as discovery?

I doubt Solomon managed to get a fleet over to America. Considering the ships of the time, the vast distance, and the less than precise navigation of the time -though it was actually impressively good...- the odds of a ship surviving to make it there and back are exceedingly low.

Answer 4

Lots of people discovered America.
If you found something that you didn't know was there before, you discovered it.
Man Discovered fire. It really doesn't matter who individually discovered it, because chances are a lot of people discovered it on their own.
The only person on your list that may not have discovered it is Columbus, because he may have had maps from Zheng He's voyage showing hispaniola and puerto Rico.
There also may have been polynesian colonies in southern south america. Some stuff has been found that scientists think is older than would be possible if they crossed through the strait.

Answer 5

Evidence has been compiled suggesting that an exadition from Wales was lost in a storm and landed in what is today Nova Scotia. This is said to have happened roughly a century befor Leif Erikson landed in Labrador. However, the meso-american cultures, with their heiroglyphs and pyramids, suggests that perhaps Central America was setteled by Egyptians, who landed there in 2000 B.C.

Answer 6

The Vikings were probably the first Europeans to effectively establish settlements in the Americas. The question if whether they were the first Europeans to visit the Americas is a mystery. There is a good chance they were the first Europeans to visit the Americas, but its possible someone got blown off course and found the Americas a lot earlier.

Answer 7

It's said that Leaf Erickson (a viking) was the first one to actually come to America; however, you also have the indians in mexico coming up and yes even folks from china crossing what once was a land bridge from Asia to Alaska. Since none of these folks kept records (or at least ones that have been found) Columbus is the one awarded with "discovering" America.

Answer 8

The people that discovered the Americas all thought it was a part of Asia or Europe. No one knew America existed. Columbus thought he was in the West Indies. It was Amerigo Vespucci that hypothesized that the Americas were new continents, and it is he that the Americas are named for.

"On return to Lisbon, Vespucci wrote in a letter to de' Medici that the land masses they explored were much larger than anticipated and different from the Asia described by earlier Europeans and, therefore, must be a "New World," that is, a previously-unknown fourth continent, after Europe, Asia, and Africa."

So, in my mind, it was Vespucci.

Answer 9

Well, since you're not counting the ancestors of the Bering Strait people, It probably wasn't recorded, but I imagine some people from south of present day Texas wandered up thru the central states.

Answer 10

There were Viking suits of armor and artifacts found near Louisville, Kentucky. They date to the 1500s (maybe earlier). There is also a story of a bonde-haired, fair-skinned tribe of "natives" near what is today St. Louis. They were discovered in the 17th century, but could not speak to the Europeans that found them. They were apparently wiped out by disease (brought from Europe) and had disappeared by the 18th century.