It is common to hear that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. Yet many history textbooks no longer describe Columbus's exploration in this way. Why do you think that is the case? What might be a better way to describe what occurred in 1492?

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anonymous · Answer

medal and a fan

anonymous · Answer

There's a growing body of speculative evidence that Columbus may not have been the first to find America ranging from a possible early encounter with Vikings to the Chinese. Also, America wasn't quite "discovered" -- there were already people there. To the Europeans, though, it seemed like a whole new world so from their perspective, it was "discovered".

A better way to think of it might be that Columbus opened the way for European exploration of the New World. After him, there was nothing to really keep the Old Country from sending ships there. He'd proven that there really was something over the horizon.