Were the Americas "discovered" or were they conquered?

Question

Back then, when the new world was found.

Answer 1

~That all depends on who is writing the history. Common sense tells us that the Americas (or at least the West Indies) were discovered for the Europeans by Columbus in 1492. Prior to that, in spite of the Vikings and Asians and possibly the Irish and Polynesians who traveled to the Western Hemisphere, the Americas were unknown to the outside world. By the same token, the natives already there (since it is uncertain where the first landfall was, the identity of the exact group is likewise uncertain) can be said to have discovered the Europeans. Naturally the Natives did not discover a new continent. They only discovered a new race of man, new technology, a new culture and new diseases.

However, since the history of the western world (starting with Europe) pretty much dictates the course of mankind for the past millennium or two (at least in the west - the Asians were doing their own thing until the Europeans interceded there, too), it makes sense to say that the Americas were discovered. To deny the 'discovery' simply because someone was already there is ludicrous. After all, people were not floating off into space before Newton 'discovered' gravity. There is no difference. Columbus' voyages clearly resulted in each group becoming aware of the other and that awareness is a discovery by each group that there was much more of the world than previously believed and the new lands were exploited by the superior (calm down, I speak of numerical, technological and military superiority here) race. Newton's discovery of gravity did not create a new primal force of the universe. It just helped to explain a few things to some people and opened the doors to the world of physics, where we will continue to 'discover' forces of nature and explanations of them for centuries (more likely millennia, if mankind survives that long) to come. The elements of the periodic table were not created when they were discovered, we simply became aware of them. Man's heart pumped blood and the lungs absorbed oxygen long before their functions were discovered. The earth rotated on its axis and revolved around the sun long before man discovered those facts. Are you getting the idea? Does a falling tree make noise if no one hears it?

It is likewise unclear whether or not there were humans indigenous to the Western Hemisphere before the Asians 'discovered' and migrated to North America or the Polynesians 'discovered' South America. Again, until knowledge of the continents were known to the outside world, that fact that they existed and were inhabited were pretty much irrelevant to Europe. And, given the course of human history for the last couple of weeks, knowledge in and by Europe is the keystone to the development of the modern world (for good or bad - irrelevant concepts from a historical standpoint), If it makes you feel better (and is easier for you than to define 'discover'), simply say that Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere for the Europeans. Columbus made the Western Hemisphere relevant in the onward march of mankind.

After the European discovery, the Americas were conquered by them. Before being conquered universally by the Europeans, various Indian tribes conquered other tribes. The Aztec, after all, started out in British Columbia and were chased all the way to the Central Mexican Plateau before they came upon a chunk of land they could hold. The Tuscarora were booted out of North Carolina and joined the Iroquois Confederation in New York as a matter of tribal survival. The Kaw and Pawnee chased each other all over Kansas and Oklahoma for decades, if not centuries, and their land grabs caused the Gataka to move to Arizona and New Mexico. Many of the Souixan tribes were evicted from the Mississippi Basin by various other groups and they ended up on the Plains, displacing the tribes who were there before them. The Algonquin and Iroquois wars kept the Ottawa, Ojibwa, Erie and Miami on the move. The hundreds of Native tribes spent a good part of their time warring with and conquering and taking the lands of other tribes long before the arrival of the Europeans. Just ask a Hopi of 1700 what he thought of a Navajo.

Just as the Teutonic tribes conquered and built modern Europe, their descendants, notably the British, the Dutch, the French, the Italians and the Spanish continued the Teuton conquest, expansion and development in the "New World". The Mongols 'discovered' the Goths before forcing them westward. The Goths 'discovered' the Franks after the Franks pushed the Celts and Gauls to Britain. The first nomadic cavemen 'discovered' the first stationary ones when the former stumbled upon the latter. The folks on the move do the discovering, the folks and things happened upon are discovered. The 'discovery' is the dissemination of knowledge about something hitherto unknown. That is why the 'new' plants and 'new' tribes we learn of in the Amazon Rain Forest are 'discovered' when someone from the outside bumps into them and why Old Faithful was discovered even though it had been spewing like a Swiss watch eons before Man set foot in Wyoming. That is why you 'discover' someone beat you to the toilet when you open the stall door and hear a yell or a scream.

Since history is written for the victors by the victors and/or dictated by the consequences and results, Columbus clearly discovered America. And by that discovery, he caused the American Indians to discover Europe (and the rest of the world) and he caused the Asians to discover the Americas, and he caused the Africans to discover America. It was Columbus' discovery that brought to light to the rest of the world that there was a tiny patch of land that separated the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. One wonders: did the American Indians even know there were two oceans or did Columbus "discover" that for them?

Is it politically correct? Who cares. I'd rather use common sense and logic than worry about which terms are in vogue this week. Rather than to worry about the semantics, why not focus your interest on the history?

Answer 2

Since the Native Americans were already on the continents they were not discovered in the since that no human knew about them. The first Europeans to find the Americas were the Vikings, but they only settled in present day Canada for a short time. They ended up leaving for an unknown reason.
Several hundred years after the Vikings, Christopher Columbas went on a voyage to find a route to west India. Of course he ended up running into the Americas. After this there were many more voyages to the New World. The Spanish and Portuguese settled in South America. Eventually the Spanish Conquistadors conquered the major native empires like the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans. The major killer of the though, was disease. Small poxes decimated the groups of natives and made it easy for the settlers to destroy their great civilizations.
In North America the Indians were driven off there land by the English settlers. They were also decimated by disease.
There was also a lot more happenings between all this, but the short answer would be: The Americas were conquered.

Answer 3

To say America was discovered is like aliens arriving on Earth and saying "I've discovered you and I'm gonna take your land, force you to practice our religion, and put you all on the bits of land we don't want".

By definition you can't 'discover' something that somebody already knows about.

Conquered is now the generally accepted and more accurate term.

Answer 4

First it was discovered. Then eventually, when the natives began to resist colonial expansion, it was conquered.

Answer 5

Both discovered and conquered.

Answer 6

I believe that we conquered, we did not discover.

Answer 7

THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE "DISCOVERED" AMERICA. THERE WERE THE VIKINGS AS EARLY AS 1000 AND CHINESE OR MONGOLS AS EARLY AS 600 TO 800 AND THERE WERE OF COURSE THE PEOPLES WHO LIVED IN THE WESTERN HEMIS-SPHERE AS EARLY AS 10000 TO 12000 BC. TAKE YOUR PICK.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

the Europeans discovered something they wanted and took it

Answer 10

I eat hummus as a vegetable dip, and did long before Obama was president. It is delicious and very healthy.