I Thought This Was Common Knowledge.......

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Yeh, I am pretty sure that various other people's have arrived in this half of the world over the millennia. But, Columbus, for good or bad, is the one who documented it for Western Civilization.
I mean, sure Vikings... but, it's not like they were contributing to the betterment of social sciences. And, I am fairly sure that Asian visitors have come and gone by mistake or on purpose over the years as well.

It's like the first people to go to the North Pole.... phhhht, inuit, Nanets, and Samoyeds had been traipsing around up there long before.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
The Vikings were latecomers. Everyone is itching to be second. Probably there are early settlers and late comers among the Native Americans too. There were cities of tens of thousands, manifested by "Indian mounds," in the Midwest. Europeans just have a skewed concept of the history of the Americas. The Mayflower wasn't such a big deal. My admiration for the Vikings is for their Atlantic crossings in those boats, and how they had provisions and apparently caught fish along the way, and didn't drive each other nuts always being in sight of one another. I've crossed the Pacific on a small ship (not a boat), but at least I didn't have to look at everyone all the time, and I pulled the 12:00 to 08:00 radio watch which gave me eight hours alone. Ah.
 

lawdawg

Lifer
Aug 25, 2016
1,792
3,801
Yes, everyone knows that the Vikings had a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland that the Vikings might have called Vinland. There is also now an acknowledged possibility in some circles that the Chinese may have "discovered" the west coast of the U.S. before Europeans were even sailing on that scale.

The Columbus "theory" is based on the fact that after Columbus's "discovery" permanent settlement occurred, and the Old World widely gained knowledge of and communication with the New World.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,623
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
The Columbus "theory" is based on the fact that after Columbus's "discovery" permanent settlement occurred, and the Old World widely gained knowledge of and communication with the New World.
Which is why Columbus' statues are being removed. A lot of that communication was not nice.

The thing that none of these stories mentions is that everyone shopped at Plotnik's for supplies for the return journey. The Vikings had a line of credit there.
 

workman

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
2,793
4,219
The Faroe Islands

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,243
Alaska
I was also under the impression this was common knowledge. Less so, but still widely known, are the potential asian settlements that predate those.

And then of course, as everyone mentioned, the indigenous people who got here millenia earlier than either.

I mean really, who knows what all went down that long ago. Dug up relics are but a fairly insignificant glimpse of what was going on in that corner of time in the world. But they sure are cool.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,152
21,419
77
Olathe, Kansas
Fairly common knowledge I guess. Poor Columbus gets a pretty bad rap, I think. He is the one who "discovered" the America's. Doesn't mean he was the first one here; it simply means he was the person who popularized the idea of sailing west and ending up in the "East". His whole journey was predicated on the idea that the world was only 16,000 miles around. Hell, the Egyptians knew the world was 24,000 miles around. So, he wasn't the brightest bulb on the chandelier. And, yes, the natives got treated brutally, but it doesn't lessen his accomplishment one bit. They can "rewrite" the history books all they want but it isn't going to change what happened.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,397
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
....though I am aware some folk still cling to the Columbus theory :rolleyes:

Vikings settled in North America in 1021AD, study says - BBC News

Regards,

Jay.
Don't come to America you might go into shock. There are many people here who cling to historical inaccuracies to the point where even the threat of death and facts would sway them. If God revealed themselves and said "oh hey by the way you didn't learn everything correctly when you were in Elementary school", these individuals would still say but Ms. Jinkyrunk said blah blah when I was in 3rd grade.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,397
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Fun fact no one really cared about Columbus until pretty recently. And he got his day in the sun because someone was looking for a strong Italian connection to America so Americans would be nicer to their Italian country men. Before that he was a little side note like many other people only historians even know about.
Look it up if you don't believe me.
Fun stuff too with him is reading what his contemporaries thought of him. It falls really heavily into that category of the past clearly isn't as simple as we pictured it being or maybe more accurately as homogenized as our image of it.
 
I'm only absolutely sure that the world is at least 56 years old, and other than that, who gives a shit? Ammi rite?
And, I always loved Columbus, and his funny way of talking. I didn't realize that he discovered anything except who dunnit though.
Columbo GIFs | Tenor
 

alaskanpiper

Enabler in Chief
May 23, 2019
9,348
42,243
Alaska
I'm only absolutely sure that the world is at least 56 years old, and other than that, who gives a shit? Ammi rite?
And, I always loved Columbus, and his funny way of talking. I didn't realize that he discovered anything except who dunnit though.
Columbo GIFs | Tenor
I think Columbo was actually significantly less confused ?
 
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