How Did Christopher Columbus's Views On Who Really Discovered America

My own thinking about Columbus was that he did not discover America but did eventually land on America. I also believed that Columbus tried to gain control of the Indians but he met some resistance.

Many people believe believed throughout history that the beginning of North America’s inhabitance was when Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the year 1492. They believed that he is the person who discovered America where in fact it was the Native Americans who made the initial discovery. Therefore, Columbus’s mission is considered more of a journey. One of the motivators behind the voyage was to move away from Britain and begin a new life in what was to them, land of potential opportunity.

Contrary to popular belief, Columbus did not discover America. He is praised for being one of the most famous explorers of all time but he did not discover America in the way that everyone thinks. Oother explorers had arrived on the American continent years prior to Columbus’ “discovery” and the Native Americans has been on the land for thousands of years. (Document 3)

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” One of the first things we learned in primary school was that Christopher Columbus discovered America, they also made us read Christopher 's Journals (1493) such as: “ They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks ' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Here he was describing what he encountered with the “Taino indigenous peoples of Hispaniola.” However, we as students never questioned how is it Columbus “discovered” America. In his journals (1493) he states that he encountered people that lived there before he arrived, even though it wasn 't really America. The word discover is defined as “ to obtain sight or knowledge of for the first time.” There is evidence that validate Columbus did not discover America. One evidence that validates Columbus did not discover America is the inaccuracy in his studies. Columbus and his cohorts believed and

The attention that columbus brought to america led to its discovery because once the land was found, people later named it america. Source one states, “columbus brought america to the attention of the civilized world…..the result, ultimately was the united states of

People tend to say that “Colombus discovered America in 1492” but , they never gave credit to the people that was there first. A lot of Native Americans was living on the land first. A lot of vikings visited the lands first. Christopher Colombus just came and took over everything. Christopher

Even though Columbus was not the first person to step foot in the America’s, he was the first person, from the Eastern Hemisphere, to discover it. For example, when we discover a new species on an island, we may not have known that it existed, but the other living creatures there knew that it did. While Rebecca Dobbs in Document B is right that the Americas were not empty by any stretch of imagination and people lived there and knew about this part of the world, others did not know about it. However, in a letter to Queen Isabelle, Columbus states that they have landed on an island and the people there

According to Loewen they got his name right, and not much else. Lies points out that there were many groups of explorers that had "discovered" America before Columbus. He probably used some of their information as a basis for his plans to sail west. A full eight pages are devoted to other possible explorers. These groups include ancient groups from Indonesia, Japan, China, and Phoenicia. More recent groups include the Vikings, British Islanders, West Africans, and Portuguese fishermen. There are varying levels of evidence connecting these groups to pre-Columbian America, but still enough to throw doubt into the mix. Columbus got the credit because of the way in which Europe responded to his "discovery."

Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in fourteen hundred ninety two. When we were kids, we were taught this little rhyme to remember that Christopher Columbus discovered America. And just like George Washington and the cherry tree story and Isaac Newton’s apple, this is a lie we learned in school. The cherry tree story is a myth, Newton took two years to figure out what gravity was and it was what not a “aha!” moment, but most importantly, Columbus did not discover America. In fact, North America was discovered 500 years before Columbus was even born. It was actually the Vikings that are the true founders of North America, more specifically Leif Erikson. The founder of North America was Leif Erikson because of the time period and

     In the essay written by Jeffrey Hart entitled, “Discovering Columbus”, he argues strongly that, in fact, Columbus did discover America. He starts off by describing Columbus as “a genuine titan, a hero of history and of the human spirit.” He goes on to say

Who discovered America? When most people think about this, the first thing that comes to mind is Christopher Columbus. When Columbus returned from the Antilles in 1493, he was not the first European to have stepped foot on the New World. What if I were to say that the Vikings were the ones who actually discovered America? However, they didn’t get credit for it because of the bad things that they have did.

After reports of Columbus’s discoveries had reached them, the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella enlisted papal support for their claims to the New World in order to inhibit the Portuguese and other possible rival claimants. The Spanish-born pope Alexander VI issued bulls setting up a line of demarcation from pole to pole 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain was given exclusive rights to all newly discovered and undiscovered lands in the region west of the line. Portuguese expeditions were to keep to the east of the line. Neither power was to occupy any territory already in the hands of a Christian ruler. No other European powers facing the Atlantic Ocean ever accepted this papal disposition or the subsequent agreement deriving

When Columbus sailed to prove that the world was round, according to the website Livescience.com, he was late by two-thousand years. Ancient Greek mathematicians already have already proved that the world was round and not flat. Also according to this website, Columbus’s education was self taught and he believed that Europe was wider, and that Japan was further away from China’s coast. These are the reasons that he was going to try and find shorter trade route to Asia. When a student hears Columbus’ name they may instantly think that he was the first person to discover America. Although there were millions of Native Americans who were living in the New World, Columbus is the man who is getting all of the credit for finding the New World. There were also other travelers who had discovered America before Christopher Columbus.

People argue that Christopher Columbus was the first to find America, but other people argue that the Native Americans were the first ones in America. In 1492 Christopher Columbus voyages from spain to the Americas not knowing what was there. So was Christopher Columbus the first one to find out about America? Would he be a hero or a villain for saying he did, or saying he did but actually didn’t and just wants to get the credit for it.

Columbus, the first Spanish explorer to reach America, initially thought that the he had landed in the East Indies, which had been his ultimate goal. “His sea wanderings would have been written off as an expensive failure, once it was realized that he had not found the illusive water route to India, had it not been for the discovery of gold on Hispaniola in 1493”(Nash, 18). Once it became known that there were gold and other precious metals on this continent, people from Spain began to journey to America in hopes of gaining immense wealth. The Spanish claimed Panama, Mexico, parts of South America, and southern areas of what is now North America and these expeditions were typically led by military figures. The Spanish viewed America as land to be conquered and they viewed Native Americans