I wasn’t referring to the Indians. Although it does appear they came from somewhere else. I was referring to Lief Ericson. Also there’s evidence in South America of African settlers before then. And of course there’s the fact that Columbus landed in the Bahamas. He quite simply did NOT discover America.
“I wasn’t referring to the Indians. Although it does appear they came from somewhere else. I was referring to Lief Ericson. Also there’s evidence in South America of African settlers before then. And of course there’s the fact that Columbus landed in the Bahamas. He quite simply did NOT discover America.”
There is more to discovery than just arriving first. The important part is communicating that discovery to the world. Who cares if Joe Blow walked around on Cape Cod in 1105 but NEVER TOLD ANYONE ABOUT IT.
The Bahamas are in North America, part of the American continents—which were then unknown in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and heck, Antarctica. The great Cristoforo didn't discover my hometown, either, but I give him credit getting in the ballpark. The many South American countries that celebrate Columbus Day would also disagree with your contention.
Leif Ericson no doubt did land here, and as I recall, some of the Viking artifacts found in Minnesota are credible. St. Brendan might have been here, and also the Phoenicians, who were amazing sailors. And why should we cheat the aboriginals who were here before the Indians' ancestors crossed the land bridge from Siberia and apparently exterminated them?
The point is that none of these other discoveries "took" for Western consciousness—which now rules the world, no apologies. Columbus made it count. The whole civilized world found out, and there were immediate, world-changing consequences—military, economic, spiritual, genetic . . . Just wow.
It seems to me that if we don't adopt that standard—which is certainly the one recognized since the 16th century—but instead we insist that "discovery" is just the act of getting here, we have to credit some migratory bird, or perhaps an adventurous squid.