Who Really Discovered America

History Paper

Who discovered America?

By: Deanne Mastrocola

Why is it that American culture today attributes its geographic discovery to a man named Christopher Columbus? Could it be that he was the first European to claim this land as part of an Imperialistic expansion or is it merely out of convenience for the history books? It is known that the American continent was populated by 1000 AD which is long before settlements by Viking fisherman and even longer before the arrival of Columbus. In spite of this fact every October, we as a culture celebrate a holiday in honor of the man who is believed to be "the discoverer" of America. Like so many other aspects of enculturation past down through American families, generation after generation, the discovery of this continent is a myth full of unrealistic half truths. Today Christopher Columbus is viewed as an explorer whom bravely faced the unknown to ultimately better the world. This is such a story similar to those told of our founding fathers and the cruelty of the British rule before the American Revolution. Yet a more goal analysis of these events, brings to light the truth that our one sided History books conveniently leave out. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, discovery is to obtain sight or knowledge of for the first time (Webster, 2006). Christopher Columbus did not discover America, Christopher Columbus did not even sail to the Americas; he sailed to the islands now known as the West Indies. To gain knowledge of or insight to something for the first time is based on the idea that what was being discovered had not been known before. A Viking of the name Leif Erickson was the leader of the voyage to the Americas around the year 1000 AD. He sailed to the Americas and obtained sight of the Americas long before Christopher Columbus. There is also historical evidence proving that Leif Erickson discovered America long before Columbus. Columbus is known in many people's eyes as a kind generous man when actually he was a brutal and horrific. Do we really want a cruel man to be known as the man who discovered America? And lastly Viking technology aloud them to sail across harsh seas and reach the Americas before Christopher Columbus.

Leif Erickson was the son of Eric the Red, Eric the Red was an explorer that became a leader of a colony in Greenland, the colony that Eric the Red owned was later handed over to his son Leif. Leif Erickson was born in Iceland in the year 980, after Leif was born he was moved to Greenland with his father Eric the Red and some of his brothers. Later in his life around 1000 A.D., about 500 years before Christopher's voyage, Leif set out to discover new lands. Trying to follow Bjarnes tracks Leif Erickson led his Vikings over the Atlantic Ocean to the new land. Leif Erickson had drifted by the wind way out of course and spotted a flat wooded coastline far westward, this was the new world. When Leif got to this new land he founded a place named Vinland, he called it that because of all the grape vines the Vikings found there. It was later named America, after an Italian named Amerigo Vespucci. After a few years the colony in Vinland was abandoned after hostile attack by the native people along with the fact that it got too cold. The settlers moved across the land until their population numbered 3,000. But in the 1400s the climate changed dramatically for the worse and the settlement had disappeared within a few decades. Leif Erickson had opened a new land rich with resources for the Vikings to explore, but for some reason, the Vikings only made a few voyages to the new world after Leif. This caused the discovery of the New World to become unknown to nearly all of Europe.

People can choose to not believe opinions of others and laid out facts but how can you ignore the actuality that there is historical evidence providing that Leif Erickson discovered America before Christopher Columbus. For an example, The Vikings once populated Present Day Newfoundland. It was there that the first Viking ruins in North America were excavated in the 1960's. In 1961 a couple found that L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland met the description of Vinland, and it wasn't

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