Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

On this day in 1493 Chris and his crew returned to Spain after his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
He returned a further three times but never once came within sight of what later became America.
So why is he celebrated and revered as being the discoverer of America????

foodie65

Obama's fault??

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Because he discovered North America which included what
we now know as the USA.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Because he was first to reach the America's which include islands and continents north and south of his discovery. He thought he had reached India. The Viking Leif Erickson also landed, but was forced to leave because he refused to befriend the Native Indians. His stay was short and very uncomfortable.

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

But he didn't discover North America, he didn't even see it. The closest he got was Jamaica and Cuba.

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Those islands are part of the North American Continent.

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

The vikings had fully established farms and colonies in North America almost four hundred years before Columbus began his voyages.

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

In that case the Norse were clearly the first by a much larger margin, over 500 years before Columbus.

stonecherub Loc: Tucson, AZ

What Columbus discovered was an attractor. Something, theretofore unknown, was west of Spain within a few weeks voyage. Something that might be exploited for gold or slaves. And attract, it did!

Within 15 years Martin Waldseemuller was able to print a map of the world that included two continents in the west. He was very taken by the stories of a con man named Amerigo Vespucci, so much so that he labeled the southern one AMERICA. The important thing about his map (1507) that had a lot marked "Terra Incognita," was establishing the idea of continents surrounded by water.

Around 1540, two Spaniards independently sailed up the west coast of the new continent and into the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California). Four years later, Battista Agnese made a world map including their stories that looks very familiar to us. The track is Magellan and the red colored bay on the west coast of New Spain is the Gulf. The water was red from Colorado Plateau mud carried down the river. What we know as "The Red Sea" east of Africa is also colored red.

Waldseemuller's North America is not at all like Agnese's. The gulf and peninsula appeared on many subsequent maps, eventually acquiring the name "California." In 1620, California was depicted as an island and shown as such on many maps up into the 20th century. No anglo walked across the Southern Arizona-California desert until after 1700 by which time Fr Eusebio Francisco Kino, SJ, had dispelled the Island idea.

Who knew what in the first half of the second millennium when everything moved slower than 3 mph? The Norse settled Vinland but never saw the need to tell anybody. By 1500, ships were improving, men were exploring, and maps began to proliferate. Alarcon's and Ulloa's descriptions of the Gulf of California made it to Agnese in less than 4 years.

The magic, here, is that most of these rare old maps are available on the web.

Lower left section of Waldseemuller's map


Upper left showing what would become North America


1544 Batista Agnese map showing gulf and peninsula.

(Download)

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Leif Erickson was only on American soil for 3 years. Canada (Newfoundland). He set up one civilization there called Vinland. He returned to Greenland from there because things didn't work out so well for his people.

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

I was using the accepted area of North America which includes Greenland.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

I guess Bert Parks coulda sung, "there he goes, Missed America!!"

Keldon Loc: Yukon, B.C.

That was clever. Very good, Steve.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Greenland is not North America. Accepted or not.

foodie65

Greenland-North America??
Not when I was in school.