The year of the discovery of America can be considered a turning point in the life of Europe. Learning about the existence of a new continent, many began to go on sea expeditions in order to explore new territories and try to master them.
Columbus discovered America
The year when this Spanish navigator discovered a new land is recorded in history as the 1492th. And by the beginning of the eighteenth century, all other regions of North America, for example, Alaska and the Pacific coast regions, had already been discovered and explored. I must say that travelers from Russia also made an important contribution to the study of the mainland.
Mastering
The history of the discovery of North America is quite interesting: it can even be called random. At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus with his expedition reached the shores of North America. However, he mistakenly believed that he was in India. From this moment begins the countdown of the era when America was discovered and its development and exploration began. But some researchers consider this date inaccurate, claiming that the discovery of a new continent occurred much earlier.
What year was America discovered?
The year Columbus discovered America — the 1492th — is not an exact date. It turns out that the Spanish navigator had predecessors, and moreover, not one. In the middle of the tenth century, the Normans came here after they discovered Greenland. True, they failed to colonize these new lands, because they were repelled by the harsh weather conditions of the north of this continent. In addition, the Normans were also scared by the remoteness from Europe of the new mainland.
According to other sources, this continent was discovered by ancient sailors - Phoenicians. Some sources, meanwhile, when they discovered America, call the middle of the first millennium AD, and the Chinese pioneers. However, this version also does not have clear evidence.
The most reliable are the information about the time when the Vikings discovered America. At the end of the tenth century, the Normans Bjarni Heryulfson and Leif Ericsson found Helluland - "stone", Markland - "forest" and Vinland - "vineyards" of land that contemporaries identify with the Labrador Peninsula.
There is evidence that even before Columbus in the fifteenth century the northern continent reached Bristol and Biscay fishermen, who called it the island of Brazil. However, the time periods of these expeditions cannot be called the milestone in history when they truly discovered America, that is, they identified it as a new continent.
Columbus is a true discoverer
And yet, when answering the question in which year America was discovered, experts most often call the fifteenth century, or rather, its end. And the first to do this is Columbus. The time when America was discovered coincided in history with the period when Europeans began to spread ideas about the round shape of the Earth and about the possibility of reaching India or China along the western path, that is, through the Atlantic Ocean. It was believed that this path is much shorter than the east. Therefore, given the Portuguese monopoly on control over the South Atlantic obtained by the Alcazovas Agreement of 1479, Spain, always striving to obtain direct contacts with eastern countries, warmly supported the expedition of the Genoa navigator Columbus to the west.
Opening honor
Christopher Columbus from an early age was interested in geography, geometry and astronomy. From a young age, he participated in marine expeditions, visited almost all then known oceans. Columbus was married to the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from whom he got many geographical maps and notes from the time of Henry the Navigator. The future discoverer carefully studied them. His plans were to find a sea route to India, however, not bypassing Africa, but directly across the Atlantic. Like some scientists - his contemporaries, Columbus believed that, having gone west from Europe, it would be possible to reach the Asian eastern shores - those places where India and China are located. At the same time, he did not even suspect that he would meet a whole continent, until then unknown to Europeans. But it happened. And from that time the history of the discovery of America began.
First expedition
For the first time, the ships of Columbus sailed from Palos harbor on the third of August 1492. There were three of them. The expedition to the Canary Islands proceeded quite calmly: this section of the route was already known to sailors. But very soon they found themselves in a vast ocean. Gradually the sailors began to become discouraged and grumble. But Columbus managed to pacify the rebellious, supporting hope in them. Soon signs began to come across - precursors of the proximity of land: unknown birds flew in, the tree branches sailed up. Finally, after six weeks of sailing, lights showed at night, and when it dawned, a green picturesque island, covered with vegetation, opened before the sailors. Columbus, having landed, declared this land the possessions of the Spanish crown. The island was called San Salvador, that is, the Savior. It was one of the small pieces of land included in the Bahamian or Lukai archipelago.
Earth where there is gold
The natives are peaceful and good-natured savages. Noticing the greed that sailed up to the gold jewelry that hung from the natives in the nose and ears, the signs told that in the south there is land literally abundant in gold. And Columbus went on. In the same year he discovered Cuba, which, although he mistook for the mainland, more precisely, for the east coast of Asia, he also declared a Spanish colony. From here, the expedition, turning east, came to Haiti. At the same time, the Spaniards met savages all the way, who not only willingly changed their gold jewelry to simple glass beads and other trinkets, but also constantly pointed to the southern direction when they were asked about this precious metal. On the island of Haiti, which Columbus called Hispaniola, or Lesser Spain, he built a small fortress.
Return
When the ships docked in Palos harbor, all the inhabitants went ashore to meet them with honors. Very kindly received Columbus and Ferdinand with Isabella. The news of the opening of the New World spread very quickly, and those who wanted to go there along with the discoverer also gathered quickly. Then the Europeans did not even imagine what kind of America Christopher Columbus discovered.
Second journey
The history of the discovery of North America, which was launched in 1492, continued. From September 1493 to June 1496 the second expedition of the Genoese navigator took place. As a result, the Virgin and Windward Islands were discovered, including Antigua, Dominica, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Christopher, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Spaniards firmly established themselves in the lands of Haiti, making them their base and building the fortress of San Domingo in its southeastern part. In 1497, the British entered into rivalry with them, trying also to find the northwestern paths to Asia. For example, the Genoese Cabot, under the English flag, discovered the island of Newfoundland and, according to some reports, came very close to the North American coast: the Labrador Peninsula and Nova Scotia. So the British began to lay the foundation for their dominance in the North American region.
The third and fourth expeditions
It began in May 1498 and ended in November 1500. As a result, the island of Trinidad and the mouth of Orinoco were discovered. In August 1498, Columbus landed on the coast of South America on the Peninsula of Paria, and in 1499 the Spaniards reached the shores of Guiana and Venezuela, after which - Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon. And during the last - fourth - journey from May 1502 to November 1504, Central America was already discovered by Columbus. His ships passed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, reached from Costa Rica and Panama right up to the Gulf of Darien.
New mainland
In the same year, another navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, whose expeditions were flying the Portuguese flag, also explored the Brazilian coast. Having reached Cape Cananea, he hypothesized that the lands that Columbus discovered were not China, or even India, but a completely new continent. This idea was confirmed after the first round-the-world trip made by F. Magellan. However, contrary to logic, the name of America was assigned to the new mainland - on behalf of Vespucci.
True, there is some reason to believe that the new continent was named after the Bristol philanthropist Richard of America from England, who financed the second transatlantic journey of John Cabot in 1497, and after that Amerigo Vespucci took on himself the nickname in honor of the continent named so. In evidence of this theory, the researchers cite the facts that Cabot reached the shores of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to step on American soil.
In the mid-sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier, a French navigator, reached the shores of Canada, giving this territory its modern name.
Other applicants
The development of the continent of North America was continued by such sailors as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Baffin. It was thanks to their research that the continent was studied up to the Pacific coast.
However, history also knows many other names of sailors who moored on American soil even before Columbus. This is Hui Shen - a Thai monk who visited this region in the fifth century, Abubakar - the Sultan of Mali, who sailed to the American coast in the fourteenth century, Earl of Orkney de Saint-Clair, Chinese explorer Zhee He, Portuguese Juan Cortorial, etc.
But, in spite of everything, it is Christopher Columbus who is the man whose discoveries had an unconditional influence on the whole history of mankind.
Fifteen years after the time when the ships of this navigator discovered America, the very first geographical map of the mainland was compiled. Its author was Martin Waldzeemueller. Today, it is owned by the Library of Congress of the United States and is kept in Washington.