But he did: During four separate trips that started with the one in 1492, Columbus landed on various Caribbean islands that are now the Bahamas as well as the island later called Hispaniola. He also explored the Central and South American coasts.
Columbus‘ only real accomplishment was to be first to bring back goods from the lands he visited. There were others who landed on the continent before him.
St Brendan and Leif Erikson, for starters. Their colonies failed, the native Americans wiped them out. It was different for Columbus, he brought plague with him so the natives were too ill to do much about him.
Both did. Brendan must have done, or the Nauigatio could not have been written. However, neither's discoveries became known beyond the borders of their native lands, so became the stuff of folklore and legend. Columbus brought gold back with him - and that was all she wrote, it sparked a mad rush.
As with most things it comes down to who made the legal claim first "who filed the paperwork first". If someone invents something and they don't go any farther than that.....no one knows and some other person sees it or actually comes up with it on their own as well. The person who filed the paperwork first gets the credit. Just the way the world works.
Why is it something was considered undiscovered until a European lays eyes upon it? What an arrogant, intolerant culture.
If Columbus hadn’t sailed west and then returned, someone else would have. I doubt the end results would have been any different, —the inevitable genocide of the peoples who’d lived here for thousands of years. They discovered America.
This post was edited by Don Barzini at October 10, 2017 7:36 PM MDT
Columbus was the first to record his journeys and findings, and did some mapping. Cultures that discovered northern North America only left clues, artifacts and stories. As far as my life being different, who knows? There is always that pesky 'butterfly effect'.
This post was edited by Element 99 at October 10, 2017 7:56 PM MDT
ProblemCh1ld 