major event in the history of the great geographical discoveries, and indeed in world history in general, there were discovery of America by Columbus- an event as a result of which the inhabitants of Europe discovered two continents, called the New World, or America.

The confusion began with the names of the continents. There is strong evidence for the version that the lands of the New World were named after the Italian patron Richard America from Bristol, who financed the transatlantic expedition of John Cabot in 1497. The Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci, who visited the New World only in 1500 and after whom America is believed to have been named, took his nickname in honor of the already named continent.

In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on American soil, two years ahead of Amerigo Vespucci. Cabot mapped the coast of North America from New England to Newfoundland. In the Bristol calendar for that year we read: “... on the day of St. John the Baptist found the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship with the name "Matthew".

Christopher Columbus - discovery of America

Christopher Columbus is considered the official discoverer of the continents of the New World. He was originally from Italy, arrived in Spain from Portugal. Having found a familiar monk in a monastery near the city of Palos, Columbus told him that he had decided to sail to Asia by a new sea route - across the Atlantic Ocean. He was admitted to an audience with Queen Isabella, who, after his report, appointed a scientific council to discuss the project. The members of the council were mostly clerics. Columbus passionately defended his project. He referred to the evidence of ancient scientists about the sphericity of the Earth, to a copy of the map of the famous Italian astronomer Toscanelli, which depicted many islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and behind them - the eastern shores of Asia. He convinced the learned monks that the legends spoke of a land beyond the ocean, from the shores of which sea ​​currents sometimes they bring tree trunks with traces of their processing by people. Columbus was an educated man: knew how to make maps, drive ships, knew four languages. He managed to convince the academic council of the validity of his expectations.

The rulers of Spain believed the traveler and decided to conclude an agreement with Columbus, according to which, if successful, he would receive the title of admiral and viceroy of the lands discovered by him, as well as a significant part of the profits from trade with countries where he would be able to visit. Thus began the era of geographical exploration and discovery, which began with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Discovery of America by Columbus: year 1492

On August 3, 1492, three ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina" with 90 participants set sail from the port of Paloe. The crews of the ships consisted mainly of convicted criminals. It has been 33 days since the expedition left the Canary Islands, and the land was still not visible. The team started murmuring. To calm her down, Columbus wrote down the distances traveled in the ship's log, deliberately underestimating them.

On October 12, 1492, sailors saw a dark strip of land on the horizon. It wasn't big Island with lush tropical vegetation. Tall people with dark skin lived here. The natives called their island Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador and declared it a possession of Spain. This name stuck to one of the Bahamas. Columbus was in full confidence that he had reached Asia. Having visited other islands, he everywhere asked the locals whether it was Asia. But I did not hear anything consonant with this word. Columbus left some people on the island of Hispaniola, and he went to Spain. As proof that he opened the way to Asia, Columbus took with him several Indians, feathers of unseen birds, some plants, among them maize, potatoes and tobacco. On March 15, 1493, he was greeted as a hero in Palos.

This is how the first visit by Europeans to the islands happened. Central America, as a result of which the foundation was laid for the further discovery of unknown lands, their conquest and colonization.

In the 20th century, scientists turned their attention to information suggesting that contacts between the Old World and the New took place long before the famous discovery of America by Columbus.

In addition to the hypotheses about the settlement of America by the “ten tribes of Israel”, as well as by the Atlanteans, there is a number of weighty scientific evidence that America was visited long before Columbus. Some researchers even argue that the culture of the Indians was brought from outside, from the Old World. In academic science, the theory that the civilizations of the Americas developed almost completely independently before 1492 has a larger number of supporters.

Hypotheses about visiting America by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and Celts remain unconfirmed, however, there is fairly reliable data on visiting America by Polynesians, preserved in their legends; in addition, it is known that the Chukchi established an exchange of fur and whalebone with the ancient population of the northwestern American coast, but it is impossible to establish the exact date of the beginning of these contacts. Europeans also visited the American continent during the Viking Age. Scandinavian contacts with the New World began around 1000 AD and continued until about the 14th century.

The name of the Scandinavian navigator and ruler of Greenland, Leif I Ericsson the Happy, is associated with the discovery of America. This European discovered North America five centuries before Columbus. His campaigns are known from the Icelandic sagas preserved in such manuscripts as the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. Their authenticity was confirmed by archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland in the family of Erik the Red, who was expelled from Norway along with his entire family. Eric's family in 982 was forced to leave Iceland, fearing blood feuds, and settle in new colonies in Greenland. Leif Eriksson had two brothers, Thorvald and Thorstein, and one sister, Freydis. Leif was married to a woman named Thorgunna. They had one son - Thorkell Leifsson.

Before his trip to America, Leif made a trading expedition to Norway. Here he was baptized by the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, an ally of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv. Leif brought a Christian bishop to Greenland and baptized its inhabitants. His mother and many Greenlanders converted to Christianity, but his father, Eric the Red, remained a pagan. On the way back, Leif rescued the wrecked Icelander Thorir, for which he received the nickname Leif the Lucky. On his return, he met a Norwegian named Bjarni Herjulfsson in Greenland, who said that he saw the outline of the earth in the west far out to sea. Leif became interested in this story and decided to explore new lands.

Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson sailed west with a crew of 35 on a ship bought from Bjarni. They discovered three regions of the American coast: Helluland (probably the Labrador Peninsula), Markland (possibly Baffin Island) and Vinland, which got its name from a large number of vines. Presumably it was the coast of Newfoundland. Several settlements were founded there, where the Vikings stayed for the winter.

Upon his return to Greenland, Leif gave the ship to his brother Thorvald, who instead went to explore Vinland further. Thorvald's expedition was unsuccessful: the Scandinavians collided with the Skralings - North American Indians, and in this clash Thorvald died. If you believe the Icelandic legends, according to which Erik and Leif made their campaigns not at random, but based on the stories of such eyewitnesses as Bjarni, who saw unknown lands on the horizon, then in a sense America was discovered even before the year 1000. However, it was Leif who first made a full-fledged expedition along the coast of Vinland, gave him a name, landed on the coast and even tried to colonize it. According to the stories of Leif and his people, which formed the basis of the Scandinavian "Saga of Eric the Red" and "The Saga of the Greenlanders", the first maps of Vinland were compiled.

This information, preserved by the Icelandic sagas, was confirmed in 1960, when archaeological confirmation of the early settlement of the Vikings was discovered in the town of L "ans-o-Meadows on the island of Newfoundland. The discovery of America by Columbus at that time was really a discovery, because they are nothing about the New World Columbus was not the discoverer in the full sense of the word. Nowadays, the exploration of the territory of North America by the Vikings long before the travels of Columbus is considered to be a definitively proven fact. Scholars have agreed that the Vikings among Europeans were indeed the first to discover North America, but the exact place of their settlement is still unknown. In the beginning, the Vikings made no distinction between their settlement in Greenland and Vinland, on the one hand, and Iceland, on the other. Feeling different worlds appeared to them only after meeting with local tribes, very different from the Irish monks in Iceland. The Saga of Eric the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders were written about 250 years after the colonization of Greenland and tell that there were several attempts to establish a settlement in Vinland, but none of them lasted more than two years. There are several possible reasons why the Vikings left the settlements, among which are disagreements among the male colonists regarding the few women who accompanied the journey, and armed skirmishes with local residents, which the Vikings called skraling. Both of these factors are indicated in written sources.

Until the 19th century, historians considered the idea of ​​Viking settlements in North America exclusively in the context of the national folklore of the Scandinavian peoples. The first scientific theory appeared in 1837 thanks to the Danish historian and antiquary Carl Christian Rafn. In his book American Antiquities, Rafn conducted a comprehensive examination of the sagas and examined possible locations sites on the American coast, as a result of which he concluded that the country of Vinland, discovered by the Vikings, really existed. History continues to lift the veil of its secrets. Scientists have yet to verify the likelihood and time of an even earlier discovery of America and contact with this continent by immigrants from the Old World.

The discovery of America is one of greatest events in the history of mankind. The history of the discovery of a huge continent is fraught with many interesting and amazing facts. To this day, there is debate about who really discovered America. Everyone knows that the name of the discoverer is Christopher Columbus, why the land is named after Amerigo Vespucci, and who else visited the continent before Columbus ... About this and much more - later in the article.

At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus reached the shores of North America with his expedition, mistakenly believing that he had arrived in India. It is from this moment that the era of the discovery of America begins and the beginning of its development and research. However, there are researchers who consider this date to be inaccurate, insisting that the new continent was discovered much earlier.

The first information about the existence of a new continent, later called America, appeared in the prehistoric period. These events happened by accident. The motives for discoveries were, as a rule, the search for habitable lands (the desire for survival), the search for gold and large trading cities.

The Paleo-Indians were the first

The first people who settled in America about 15 thousand years ago were people from Asia. In the Pleistocene era, as a result of the melting of the ice sheets (Laurentian and Cordillera), a narrow corridor formed between Russia and Alaska. The so-called land bridge between west coast Alaska and Siberia, or the Bering Isthmus, connected the continents of Asia and North America as a result of falling ocean levels.

The Paleo-Indians, the ancient settlers of America, arrived from Asia to America through the Bering Isthmus following the movement of prey - large animals. Migrations occurred before the closure of the corridor, that is, the closing of the Laurentian and Cordillera glaciers. In the future, the settlement of America already took place by sea or on ice. When the ice age ended and the ice plates melted, the settlers who arrived in America found themselves isolated from other continents.

It turns out that for the first time the American continents were discovered by nomadic Asian tribes, who initially settled in North America, then occupied Central and South America. They later became the native American peoples.

Legend of the Irish Monks

According to a popular Irish legend, in the 6th century, a group of Irish monks, led by Saint Brendan, went west by boat in search of new lands. Seven years later, the monks returned home and reported that they had found a land covered with lush vegetation, which was the current Newfoundland.

However, there is no exact evidence confirming the fact that the Irish monks not only saw, but also visited the coast of North America. In 1976, British traveler Tim Severin set out to prove that such a journey was possible. He made an exact replica of the monastic vessel and set out from Ireland to North America, following the route once described by traveling monks. As a result, the researcher reached Canada.

Vikings and Vinland

In 984, as a result of exploring ancient seafaring routes, the Scandinavian navigator Erik Kras discovered Greenland. In 999, his son, Leif Eriksson, having gathered a crew of 35 people, went on one ship from Greenland to Norway. Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson traveled through Atlantic Ocean reached North America. There, on the territory of the modern Canadian island of Newfoundland, he founded a Norwegian settlement.

Because of the abundance of vineyards on this land, the Vikings called the settlement "Vinland", which means "Grape Land" in English. But Erickson and his team did not stay there for long. Due to hostile relations with the native North Americans, they stayed only a few years before returning to Greenland.

In the sagas of the Vikings who settled in America, they are referred to as Native Americans - "Skrelings". The source of most of the sagas is Scandinavian folklore, but in 1960 Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian archaeologist, found in the northern tip of Newfoundland (Canada) the first European Viking settlement of the late 11th century, which is identical to the settlements in the Scandinavian countries. This historical and archaeological site, called "L" Anse-o-Meadows, is recognized by scientists as evidence of transoceanic contacts that took place before the discovery made by Columbus.

Sailors from China

In the debate “who discovered America”, even facts about the visit of the Chinese to America emerge. Gavin Menzies, a British naval officer, put forward the theory of the colonization of South America by the Chinese. According to him, a Chinese explorer named Zheng He, who commanded an armada of wooden sailing ships, discovered the continent in 1421. According to the officer, Zheng He explored areas such as Southeast Asia, India and the east coast of Africa.

In his book 1421 - The Year China Discovered the World, Gavin Menzies wrote that Zheng He was on his way to east coast United States and supposedly established settlements in South America. Menzies' theory is based on evidence from ancient shipwrecks, Chinese and European maps and reports compiled by navigators of those times. However, the theory is being questioned.

Accidental discovery of Columbus

1942 is considered the year of the discovery of America, although some historians consider this data to be rather approximate. Columbus discovered America by accident. Discovering new lands and islands over the course of four expeditions, Columbus did not even imagine that this was a completely different continent, which would later be called the "New World". Each time, arriving in new and new lands, the traveler believed that these were the lands of "Western India".

All of Europe thought so for quite a long time, until another navigator Vasco da Gama declared Columbus a deceiver, since it was Gamma who found a direct route to India, visited there and brought local gifts and spices. There are suggestions that Columbus died being convinced that he had discovered a new way to India, and not at all a new side of the world, unfamiliar until that time.

The mysterious name of the continent

Why was the new continent named not after Columbus, who discovered it, but after the navigator Amerigo Vespucci? The visit of this part of the "New World" by the traveler Vespucci is the first widely known and recorded fact. In 1503, he sent a letter to his friend the Medici with the following text: “These countries should be called the New World ... Most of the ancient authors say that south of the equator there is no mainland, but only the sea, and if some of them recognized the existence of the mainland there, then they did not consider it inhabited. But my last journey proved that this opinion of theirs is erroneous and completely contrary to the facts, since in the southern regions I found a continent more densely populated by people and animals than our Europe, Asia or Africa, and, in addition, the climate is more temperate and pleasant. than in any of the countries known to us ... "

It was he who first put forward the assumption that the discovered lands are not India or China, but a new unknown mainland. And a quote from his letter, which spread around the world, became a good reason for the decision to name the new continent in honor of an unknown trade representative at that time, and not in honor of the famous discoverer. The name America first appeared in 1507 in Martin Waldseemüller's Introduction to Cosmography. Under the same name, a new continent is also presented on the first globe of Johann Schoener (1511).

An interesting fact is that not a single mention was found of Vespucci's initiative to assign his name to open overseas lands.

For the curious

There is good reason to believe that the continent was named after an English patron from Bristol, Richard America, who financed John Cabot's second transatlantic expedition in 1497. Vespucci, on the other hand, took a nickname for himself in honor of the already named continent. Cabot became the first officially recorded European to set foot on the North American continent, reaching the shores of Labrador in May 1497. It was he who mapped the coast of North America - from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. That year, Bristol entered the following entries in its calendar: “... on St. John the Baptist was found in the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name "Matthew".

Columbus discovered America October 12, 1492

", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> So, October 12, 1492 the ships of the expedition approached the new land carefully so as not to run into the reefs. Dropped anchor. Prepared everything you need. And with God's help, October 13, 1492 and the leadership of the expedition represented by the Pinson brothers, Juana de la Cosa the notary Rodrigo de Escoveda, the plenipotentiary inspector of the crown, Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia (who were dragged with them across all the seas especially for such an occasion) and a group of comrades were the first to go ashore.

October 13, 1492 Columbus first set foot on the shore of the new land

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On behalf of and on behalf of the king and queen, Christopher Columbus took possession of the land he had discovered. About this, a notarial deed was drawn up on the spot with all the required formalities. Actually, it was at this moment that Columbus became the Viceroy, because he had his own territory! Having hoisted the Castilian banner on the shore, the delegation went to see the local sights. And after a short time, "guides" appeared - local residents.

Columbus named the first island he discovered "San Salvador"

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I wonder what's left detailed descriptions the exact landing site of Columbus, from which it would be possible to confidently say which of the Bahamas was the first to feel the pleasant weight of the Castilian shoes. Therefore, several pieces of land from the Bahama garland are fighting for the right to take the lead. For himself, the island of Columbus named San-Salvador (Salvation).

After spending a few days exploring the island and making contact with the locals Arawaks, as they called themselves, Columbus began to suspect that he had not found exactly what he was looking for. According to the level of development, the islanders were in the Stone Age - they did not know metals. Didn't know the wheels. Pack and riding animals were not used. Their language was not like any of the Oriental languages ​​in which the interpreter of the expedition tried to communicate with them. Luis de Torres. However, at first Columbus was not embarrassed. It could be assumed that his ships went to some remote from mainland island. More embarrassing was that no spices grew on the island. And most importantly, there was no gold.

However, according to sources, local residents had some pieces of gold, and Columbus began to ask where it came from and where, they say, they took it? What the savages pointed to in the direction of the southwest - there, they say, there big land, other people live there and here they have ... ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> All this nonsense, wandering from book to book, from site to site, with the addition of fictitious details, is not worth a penny eaten banana. If the natives San-Salvadora and there was gold, why would they need it? What is its value to them? Is it processed or in the form of nuggets? Columbus, of course, could show the natives their gold products. But what could the natives compare them to? Some questions...

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After looking for gold in the ground on the island and not finding it, the freight forwarders decided to continue looking - as lucky. Stumbling for two weeks among the Bahamas, the Admiral's expedition on October 28, 1492 landed on the northeast coast of Cuba. They equipped the troops, scoured the coast for a long time, sent reconnaissance deep into the territory. But even here it was not what he was looking for. No gold. No spices. No palaces. No Great Khan.

I think that the Admiral is not accidentally unlucky with all this. After all, he came to new land to pick up, take away, grab, and not in order to do something good on it. And the ending of his fate in this regard is quite natural. Columbus' team were the usual invaders, bandits, slave traders and assassins. And Christian morality did not condemn all this. However, there are other places on the Internet for philosophical reasoning, and we will return to our travelers.

", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> Believing that he is in the poorest part of China, Columbus decides to turn east, where, according to one version, the rich country of Sipangu / Japan / could be located, according to another (at the prompt of local residents) - it was to the east of Cuba that there was a large island there was a lot of gold. The ships went east along the northern coast of Cuba.

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It is impossible to say exactly how and when exactly the members of the expedition first tried tobacco, but the record of this historical event appears in Columbus' logbook on 15 November. There is a version that tobacco it was not the plant itself that was called, but the tube through which the Indians inhaled smoke. But it was it that became a household name for the potion itself.

Where did the Pint go?

On November 20, 1492, the Pint suddenly disappeared. She just disappeared from sight, apparently, left at night. The most current version is that its captain, Martin Alonso Pinzon, the second person on the expedition, who seems to have been burned by megalomania and greed, broke away from his comrades to be the first to find gold. Or other values. And be the first to rush back, because he also knew something about navigation. Most likely, it was so.

On December 6, 1492, Columbus discovered the island of Haiti - Hispaniola

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The remaining two ships continued their journey east and two weeks later, on December 6, 1492, travelers discovered the current island of Haiti, which Columbus called Hispaniola / little Spain /, although the island was three times larger than Sicily!

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Near the north coast of Hispaniola, Columbus discovered an island, which he named Tortuga/Turtle/. This island later became the most famous nest in the Caribbean, is repeatedly described in novels and has retained the name given by Columbus to this day.

For another two weeks, the Niña and the Santa Maria slowly moved along the winding coast of Haiti, all the while trying to establish contact with the local population for the presence of precious metals.", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">In one of the bays where the ships stopped, they managed to find out from the local population that further east is the territory of a powerful leader Guacanagari, and in the depths of the island lies a territory called Cibao, where there is a lot of this gold like shoe polish at the shoe polish factory. The admiral, of course, immediately thought that Cibao That's what it is Sipango, decided to reach the territory of the leader by sea and then penetrate deep into the country. But then the unexpected happened. On the night of December 25, 1492, the Santa Maria landed on the reefs.

The secret of death ""

The collapse of the Santa Maria still causes ambiguous assessment among Columbologists, because the circumstances of the disaster inspired and continue to inspire suspicion. Why did they walk along the coast at night, where there could always be pitfalls? Why was the cabin boy at the helm?Maybe it was beneficial for someone to run the flagship of the expedition aground? But to whom?

1. To the owner of the vessel Juan de la Cosa? Perhaps he expected to get insurance for him? So he really received later from the kings compensation for the lost property, which indirectly confirms this conjecture.

2. To the Admiral himself. It is possible that he did too. Let's try to reason. Realizing that he did not discover what he was looking for, Columbus felt the futility of further searches for Japan and China. If they were somewhere close, there would be indirect signs of their proximity - exchange goods from local tribes, possibly a wheel, metal products. But none of this happened. But Columbus has already become the Viceroy of all these lands. And the land turned out to be considerable! It was necessary to return here with exploration expeditions. Leaving some people here is an additional argument for equipping the next expedition. In addition, Columbus may well have suspected that Martin A. Pinzon on the Pint did not disappear by accident. He could rush back to be the first to report to the kings about the new lands and get all the preferences. "Santa Maria" in this race for Columbus would be a burden. And there was a reason for refusing to further search for Japan and the Great Khan - they say, with one ship where ... This, of course, is all speculation ...

The third and most likely version is that the team just got drunk on Christmas. Valiant Conquistadors began to fill the throats the night before and were simply unable to get behind the wheel to take the helm. Catholic Christmas is celebrated on the night of December 24-25. It gets dark early in the southern latitudes. And breaking the fast after fasting is allowed with the appearance of the first star in the sky. That's the whole truth about the crash of the Santa Maria.

Fort "Navidad" - pfirst Spanish settlement in the Americas

From the wreckage of the flagship, it was decided to build a fortified settlement on the shore and leave a significant part of the team in it - only 39 souls. This colonists willy-nilly The admiral promised to definitely return next year. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">
On the third day of Christmas, the travelers began to build a fortress. It was decided to name it " Navidad" (Navidad in Spanish - Christmas), and the remains of the "Santa Maria" were used to build this stronghold. The colonists were left with a significant supply of provisions, wine, firearms and a boat. The admiral touchingly said goodbye to those who remained to spend the winter on the new land, ordered them not to commemorate him dashingly live in harmony with each other and with their neighbors. Alas, he saw them alive for the last time. January 2, 1493 the last remaining caravel of the first expedition of Christopher Columbus "Nina" set off on the return journey.

The return of the prodigal Pint. Back in full swing!

On Sunday, January 6, 1493 year, from the main mast of the Nina, the Pinta was seen. A very strange accident… Soon the Admiral met with the captain of the missing caravel, M. A. Pinson, who declared that he had separated from the flotilla against his will (?!?). What really happened there, no one will be able to establish, but both commanders understood that in their position a bad peace is better than a good quarrel and did not begin to sort things out to the end. The ships "rummaged around" a little more in Haiti in last resort find something, replenish stocks andJanuary 16, 1493 in full sail, taking a steep north coursenor-nor-east(or in our opinion to the north-northeast). The return passage of Columbus to Castile began.

Travelers of the Age of the Greats Geographical Discoveries

Russian travelers and pioneers

The question of who discovered America is probably the most difficult in the sense that it is difficult to dot all i's. You say: “Christopher Columbus”, and you answer: “Then why is America not called Colombia?” And you instantly get lost. And don’t let such a question still come up on the exam - it’s a disaster in general! Let's analyze this question: who really was the first to discover this incredible continent?

All versions

When we talk about the discovery of North and South America, we must not forget for whom the arrival of European navigators on the continent was a discovery. This was a discovery for Europeans who had been swarming in their Europe for more than a thousand years: at first they had a Hellenic civilization there (Greece and), then the gloomy Middle Ages came. They were busy burning witches at the stake, and far from searching for new lands.

Indeed, long before the Europeans (and before Columbus), America (for themselves) was discovered:

• 15,000 (fifteen thousand) years ago, back in the ice age, enterprising guys from Asia were most likely looking for warm places. Along the glacier that now connects Eurasia and North America, the Bering Strait, they came to the continent. And they became a local, autochthonous population. And Columbus called the local natives Indians because he thought he had discovered India!
• In the VI century, the Irish sailed to North America, led by St. Brendan. Why would the Irish suddenly look for the New World is not clear, and there was no exact confirmation of this fact. Until in 1976, a desperate explorer Tim Siverin built an exact copy of the Irish boat and sailed here from Ireland on his own!
• In the 10th century, the Vikings sailed here, who were avid sailors and most likely were looking for prey. So the search for prey led far southwest of Greenland, and they ended up here. Perhaps the first Vikings founded the first settlements of Europeans here! So in 1960, archaeologist Helge Ingstad discovered traces of such a settlement in Canada!
• In the 15th century, the Chinese discovered South America before Columbus. So claimed British naval officer Gavin Menzies. The Chinese also looked for India to get rich and, according to the theory of the British, colonized South America.

I think now it has become clear to you for whom Columbus (if it was really him) discovered America - for Europeans.

Discovery of America

The reasons that pushed the Europeans to search for new lands were prosaic: the European market was overflowing with goods, colonies were needed to sell them. Europe was actively moving towards colonial capitalism. You can find other reasons in our article.

Spain is the strongest state of that Medieval Europe— was no exception. The crown actively sponsored all the expeditions of various swindlers who promised to open new lands for it. Since the name of the navigator who discovered America is Christopher Columbus, let's take a closer look at his personality.

Christopher Columbus, famous navigator (1451-1506)

Christopher was actually from Genoa. In his youth he studied at the University of Pavia. Around 1474, the famous geographer and astronomer Paolo Toscanelli fired a bullet at Columbus in a letter that the path to India was actually shorter than all sorts of court swindlers believe. Since that time, Christopher became interested in this event - to find a way to the legendary India. Further, Christopher traveled throughout Europe, collecting information about the location of this very India. As a result, in the mid-80s of the 15th century, he drew up his own project - the way to go there.

All discussions of this project came to nothing. Even a meeting with the king and queen yielded nothing. Columbus intends to move to France in the early 90s and try his luck there. But Queen Isabella nevertheless understood what Spain could lose. As a result, the expedition was nevertheless equipped.

America was discovered to Europeans during the first expedition of 1492-1493. She consisted of three ships: Santa Maria, Nina and Pinta. Just 1492 is considered the year of the discovery of America.

Amerigo Vespucci (1454 - 1512)

The remaining three expeditions were exploratory: Europeans explored new terrain. Columbus himself was sure until the end of his life that he had discovered India. So why New World became known as America? Who discovered it: Columbus or Vespucci?

The fact is that in 1499, the cheerful old man Amerigo Vespucci went on one of the expeditions to the New World. The old man went to assess the financial possibilities of the New World, made notes and, most importantly, made a serious map of the new continent.

So in 1507 the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller suggested naming the new continents after this jolly old man. That's why America is called that.

Sincerely, Andrey Puchkov

Christopher Columbus is the discoverer of South and Central America. Expeditions of Columbus.

Christopher Columbus biography

1 expedition. Discovery of America by Columbus in 1492

• The first expedition Christopher Columbus assembled from three ships - "Santa Maria" (three-masted flagship 25 m long, with a displacement of 120 tons, captain of the ship Columbus), caravels "Pinta" (captain - Martin Alonso Pinzon) and "Nina" (captain - Vicente Yagnez Pinson) with a displacement of 55 tons and 87 people of the expedition personnel.
  The flotilla left Palos on August 3, 1492, from canary islands turned west, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea and reached an island in the Bahamas October 12, 1492). Columbus landed on the shore, which the locals call Guanahani, hoisted a banner on it, announced open land property of the Spanish king and formally took possession of the island. The island was named San Salvador.
  For a long time (1940-1982) Watling Island was considered San Salvador. However, our contemporary American geographer George Judge in 1986 processed all the collected materials on a computer and came to the conclusion that the first American land seen by Columbus was Samana Island (120 km southeast of Watling).
  On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamas, and on October 28 - December 5 opened part of the northeast coast of Cuba. December 6 reached the island of Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on a reef, but the crew escaped. For the first time in the history of navigation, on the orders of Columbus, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor bunks.
  Columbus returned to Castile on the Nina on March 15, 1493. From America, Columbus brought seven captive American natives, who were called Indians in Europe, as well as some gold and plants and fruits hitherto unknown in the Old World, including an annual corn plant (in Haiti it is called maize), tomatoes, peppers, tobacco (“ dried leaves, which were especially prized by the locals"), pineapples, cocoa and potatoes (because of their beautiful pink and white flowers). The political resonance of Columbus's voyage was the "papal meridian": the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the discovery of new lands by competing Spain and Portugal.

  The first landing of Christopher Columbus on the shores of the New World: in San Salvador, Wisconsin, October 12, 1492.
  Author of the painting: Spanish artist Tolin Puebla, Theophilus Dioscor Dioscoro Teofilo Puebla Tolin (1831-1901)
  Publisher: American firm Currier and Ives (engravings, lithography, popular prints), publication 1892.

  
  

2 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1493 - 1496)

• The second expedition (1493-96), led by Admiral Columbus, in the position of Viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On November 3-15, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and about 20 Lesser Antilles, on November 19, the island of Puerto Rico. In March 1494, in search of gold, he made a military campaign deep into the island of Haiti, in the summer he discovered the southeastern and southern coasts of Cuba, the islands of Youth and Jamaica. For 40 days, Columbus examined South coast Haiti, whose conquest continued in 1495. But in the spring of 1496 he sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile. Columbus announced the discovery of a new route to Asia. The colonization of new lands by free settlers, which began soon, was very expensive for the Spanish crown, and Columbus proposed to populate the islands with criminals, halving their sentence. With fire and sword, plundering and destroying the country of ancient culture, Cortez's military detachments passed through the land of the Aztecs - Mexico, and Pizarro's detachments passed through the land of the Incas - Peru.

3 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1498 - 1499)

• The third expedition (1498-99) consisted of six ships, three of which Columbus himself led across the Atlantic. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria, discovered the mouth of the western arm of the Orinoco Delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Having entered the Caribbean Sea, he approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered the island of Margarita on August 15 and arrived in Haiti on August 31. In 1500, upon a denunciation, Christopher Columbus was arrested and, shackled (which he then kept for the rest of his life), was sent to Castile, where he was expected to be released.

4 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1502 - 1504)