Why is the discovery of America important? Who discovered America? Expeditions of Christopher Columbus

23.03.2016

The name of the American continent is strongly associated with the name of Christopher Columbus, the famous discoverer of the New World. There is evidence that even before the 15th century, Europeans were able to reach the shores of America. These were the Vikings who sailed to the coast of the Labrador Peninsula in the 10th century. However, their travels were not of great practical importance for Europe, they were generally unknown to their contemporaries. Therefore, the honor of being the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach a new continent began to belong to Columbus. Although the question is still sometimes asked: "Who was the first to discover America - Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci?" So, first things first ...

In 1492, Christopher Columbus, trying to get to India by a short route from the eastern side, discovered the islands of Central America. The project of the expedition to the west of Columbus was hatched for ten years, and it took about eight more to find organizers and sponsors. He proposed the idea to Genoese merchants, Portuguese, French, English rulers, and, more than once, to the Spanish royal couple.

Ultimately, it was the Catholic monarchs - Isabella and Ferdinand, who agreed to patronize Columbus, gave him a title of nobility and promised a monopoly on income from the territories that he could find. On his first voyage in 1492-1494, this Spanish citizen (although he was an Italian by origin) discovered the islands: Haiti (Hispaniola), Cuba, San Salvador (one of Bahamas).

Columbus returned to his homeland in full confidence that he had achieved East Asia, mistaking Cuba for the peninsula of China. In the next sea voyage to the shores of the still unexplored islands, several thousand people went on 17 ships. In search of gold and other treasures, Europeans began to seize islands and subjugate the natives, who were called Indians.

Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Montserrat, Antigua, Puerto Rico and other names were marked on the maps. But mainland"India" has still not been discovered, nor has the gold promised to the king. Learning about the dissatisfaction of his patrons, Columbus was forced to return to Spain in order to somehow justify himself. He managed to regain the favor of the rulers and obtain the right to solely explore the lands of the West Indies.

The third expedition in 1498 turned out to be more modest, it was possible to raise funds to send only six ships. But it was this time that Columbus was able to explore about 300 km of the mainland of Central America. Once at the mouth of the Orinoco River, he realized that such large river should flow from a large land mass. But he could not continue the expedition due to illness.

In 1499, Vasco da Gama triumphantly returned to Portugal, opening the sea route to real India. Columbus, after such news, completely lost the confidence of the Spanish monarchs and was even imprisoned. He was soon released under the patronage of influential friends who financed the expedition. However, the monopoly on land development was taken away from Columbus. And the supply of settlers in the West Indies (as this region was still called) was entrusted to the new financial manager of the Florentine trading house - Amerigo Vespucci.

Vespucci was an employee of the merchant house who sponsored Columbus's second and third expeditions. The navigator's successes aroused curiosity in the Florentine, and when the opportunity arose, he set out on a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. In the voyage of 1499, he received the position of navigator on the ship of Admiral Alonso de Ojeda. Using maps compiled by Columbus, Ojeda easily led his crew to the coast of the mainland.

They went on land on the territory of modern Suriname. Moving along the coast, the travelers reached the Maracaibo Bay, where Vespucci saw houses on stilts in the water. He called this country "Little Venice" - Venezuela. In 1500, a map of the West Indies was published, which, among others, included all the names given to Amerigo Vespucci during the expedition of Alonso de Ojeda. The author of the map was the pilot Juan de la Cosa.

Vespucci, returning from his first trip, moved from Spanish Cadiz to Lisbon, from where, already under the auspices of the Portuguese king, twice visited the shores of the new continent. Information about Vespucci's travels was preserved in letters to his patron Lorenzo Medici and the Gonfalonier (guardian of justice) of the Florentine Republic and longtime friend Pietro Soderini. These texts aroused keen interest in Europe and were translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish (the originals were written in Latin).

The German cartographer and publisher Martin Waldseemüller published the book "Introduction to Cosmography", where he also published Vespucci's letters, in which he called the open lands the New World. The publisher himself was so delighted with the travels described that he suggested that the mainland be named after Amerigo. The public supported this idea. This is how America got its modern name.

Columbus's achievements quickly faded into the background among his contemporaries, because after him much larger discoveries began to occur in the continental regions of the New World. However, when looking at events more than five hundred years ago, the primacy of Christopher Columbus in the study of America is no longer in doubt.

Dioscoro Pueblo. "The landing of Columbus in America" ​​(painting in 1862)

Discovery of America- an event as a result of which a new part of the world became known to the inhabitants of the Old World - America, consisting of two continents.

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus

1st expedition

The first expedition of Christopher Columbus (1492-1493) of 91 people on the ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta", "Niña" left Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, turned from the Canary Islands to West (September 9), crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical belt and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, where Christopher Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 (the official date of the discovery of America). On October 14-24, Christopher Columbus visited a number of other Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5, he discovered and surveyed a section of the northeastern coast of Cuba. On December 6, Columbus reached Fr. Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on the reef, but people escaped. Columbus on the ship "Ninya" 4-16 January 1493 completed the survey of the northern coast of Haiti and 15 March returned to Castile.

2nd expedition

The 2nd expedition (1493-1496), which Christopher Columbus led already in the rank of admiral, and in the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of over 1.5 thousand people. On November 3, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, turning to the Northwest - about 20 more Lesser Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands, and on November 19 - the island of Puerto Rico and approached the northern coast of Haiti. On March 12-29, 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, made an aggressive campaign into Haiti, and he crossed the Cordillera Central ridge. On April 29-May 3, Columbus with 3 ships sailed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, turned from Cape Cruz to the South and on May 5 opened about. Jamaica. Returning on May 15 to Cape Cruz, Columbus walked along the southern coast of Cuba to 84 ° West longitude, discovered the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, the Zapata peninsula and the island of Pinos. On June 24, Christopher Columbus turned east and surveyed the entire southern coast of Haiti from August 19 to September 15. In 1495, Christopher Columbus continued the conquest of Haiti; On March 10, 1496 he left the island and on June 11 he returned to Castile.

3rd expedition

The 3rd expedition (1498-1500) consisted of 6 ships, 3 of which Christopher Columbus himself led across the Atlantic Ocean near 10 ° north latitude. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco delta and the Paria peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery South America... Having then left for the Caribbean Sea, Christopher Columbus approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered the island of Margarita on August 15 and arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti) on August 31. In 1500, Christopher Columbus was arrested on a denunciation and sent to Castile, where he was released.

4th expedition

4th expedition (1502-1504). Having obtained permission to continue searching for a western route to India, Columbus with 4 ships reached Martinique Island on June 15, 1502, on July 30, the Gulf of Honduras, and opened from August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503 the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to the Uraba Bay. Turning then to the North, June 25, 1503 crashed off the island of Jamaica; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Christopher Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504.

Pioneer Candidates

• The first people who settled in America are the indigenous Indians who crossed there about 30 thousand years ago from Asia along the Bering Isthmus.
• In the 10th century, around 1000, the Vikings, led by Leif Eriksson. L'Ans aux Meadows contains the remains of a Viking settlement on the continent. This historical and archaeological site (L'Ans aux Meadows) is recognized by scientists as evidence of transoceanic contacts that took place before the discovery made by Columbus.
• In 1492 - Christopher Columbus (Genoese in the service of Spain); Columbus himself believed that he opened the way to Asia (hence the name West Indies, Indians).
• In 1507 - the cartographer M. Waldseemüller proposed that the open lands be named America in honor of the explorer of the New World Amerigo Vespucci - this is considered the moment from which America was recognized as an independent continent.
• There is sufficient reason to believe that the continent was named after the English patron of the arts Richard America from Bristol, who financed the second transatlantic expedition of John Cabot in 1497, and Vespucci took the nickname in honor of the already named continent [ ]. In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on the North American continent. Cabot mapped the coast of North America from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. In the calendar of Bristol for that year we read: “... on the day of St. John the Baptist found the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name "Matthew" ("Metic") ".

Hypothetical

In addition, hypotheses were put forward about the visit to America and contact with its civilization by seafarers before Columbus, representing various civilizations of the Old World (for more details, see Contacts with America before Columbus). Here are just a few of these hypothetical contacts:

• in 371 BC. e. - Phoenicians
• in the 5th century - Hui Shen (a Taiwanese Buddhist monk who traveled to the country in the 5th century

Christopher Columbus is the discoverer of South and Central America. Columbus expeditions.

Christopher Columbus biography

1 expedition. Discovery of America by Columbus in 1492

• The first expedition Christopher Columbus assembled from three ships - "Santa Maria" (a three-masted flagship 25 m long, with a displacement of 120 tons, the captain of the Columbus ship), the "Pinta" caravel (captain - Martin Alonso Pinson) and "Niña" (captain - Vicente Janes Pinson) with a displacement of 55 tons and 87 people of the expedition.
  The flotilla left Palos on August 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea and reached an island in the Bahamas archipelago (the sailor of the "Pinta" Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see American land October 12, 1492). Columbus landed on the shore, which the locals call Guanahani, hoisted a banner on it, announced open land property of the Spanish king and formally took possession of the island. The island was named after him San Salvador.
  For a long time (1940 -1982), Watling Island was considered San Salvador. However, our contemporary American geographer George Judge processed all the collected materials on a computer in 1986 and came to the conclusion: the first American land seen by Columbus was the island of Samana (120 km southeast of Watling).
  On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamas, and on October 28 - December 5, he opened part of the northeastern coast of Cuba. December 6 reached the island of Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on the reef, but the crew escaped. For the first time in the history of navigation, by order of Columbus, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor bunks.
  Columbus on "Niña" on March 15, 1493 returned to Castile. From America, Columbus brought seven captive American natives, who were called Indians in Europe, as well as a little gold and plants and fruits unseen in the Old World, including an annual plant corn (in Haiti it is called maize), tomatoes, peppers, tobacco (“ dry leaves, which were especially prized local residents"), Pineapples, cocoa and potatoes (because of its beautiful pink and white flowers). The political resonance of Columbus's voyage was the "papal meridian": the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the rivals of Spain and Portugal for discovering new lands.

  The first landing of Christopher Columbus on the shores of the New World: in San Salvador, Wisconsin, October 12, 1492.
  The author of the painting: Spanish artist Tolin Puebla, Theophilus Dioscoro Dioscoro Teofilo Puebla Tolin (1831-1901)
  Publisher: American firm Currier and Ives (prints, lithographs, popular prints), published 1892.

  
  

2 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1493 - 1496)

• The second expedition (1493-96), led by Admiral Columbus, in the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On November 3-15, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and about 20 Lesser Antilles, on November 19, the island of Puerto Rico. In March 1494, in search of gold, he made a military campaign deep into the island of Haiti, in the summer he opened the southeastern and south coast Cuba, Juventud Islands and Jamaica. For 40 days, Columbus explored the southern coast of Haiti, the conquest of which he continued in 1495. But in the spring of 1496 he sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile. Columbus announced the opening of a new route to Asia. The colonization of new lands by free settlers, which began soon, cost the Spanish crown very dearly, and Columbus proposed that the islands be populated by criminals, halving their sentence. With fire and sword, plundering and destroying the country of ancient culture, military detachments of Cortes marched through the land of the Aztecs - Mexico, the troops of Pizarro - across the land of the Incas - Peru.

3 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1498 - 1499)

• The third expedition (1498-99) consisted of six ships, three of which Columbus himself led across the Atlantic. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco Delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Out into the Caribbean, he approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered Margarita Island on August 15, and arrived in Haiti on August 31. In 1500, on a denunciation, Christopher Columbus was arrested and, shackled (which he then kept all his life), was sent to Castile, where he was awaited by his release.

4 expedition of Christopher Columbus (1502 - 1504)

Columbus discovered America

The year this Spanish navigator discovered new land, in history it is indicated as 1492nd. 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. It must be said that travelers from Russia also made an important contribution to the study of the continent.

Mastering

The history of the discovery of North America is quite interesting: it can even be called accidental. At the end of the fifteenth century, a Spanish navigator with his expedition reached the shores of North America. However, he mistakenly believed that he was in India. From this moment, the countdown of the era begins when America was discovered and its development and exploration began. But some researchers consider this date inaccurate, claiming that the discovery of the new continent happened much earlier.

The year Columbus discovered America - 1492 - is not an exact date. It turns out that the Spanish navigator had predecessors, and more than one. In the middle of the tenth century, the Normans got here after they discovered Greenland. True, they failed to colonize these new lands, since they were repelled by tough weather north of this continent. In addition, the Normans were also intimidated by the remoteness of the new mainland from Europe.

According to other sources, this continent was discovered by ancient seafarers - the Phoenicians. Some sources, however, call the middle of the first millennium AD the time when America was discovered, and the Chinese are the pioneers. However, this version also lacks clear evidence.

The most reliable information is considered to be about the time when the Vikings discovered America. At the end of the tenth century, the Normans Bjarni Herjulfson and Leif Eriksson found Helluland - "stone", Markland - "forest" and Vinland - "vineyards" of land, which contemporaries identify with the Labrador Peninsula.

There is evidence that even before Columbus in the fifteenth century, the Bristol and Biscay fishermen reached the northern continent, who called it the island of Brazil. However, the time periods of these expeditions cannot be called that milestone in history when America was truly discovered, that is, they identified it as a new continent.

Columbus is a real discoverer

And yet, when answering the question of what year America was discovered, experts most often name the fifteenth century, or rather its end. And the first to do this is believed to be 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 route, that is, across the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, it was believed that this path is much shorter than the eastern one. Therefore, given the Portuguese monopoly on control of the South Atlantic, obtained by the Alcazovas Agreement of 1479, Spain, always seeking to obtain direct contacts with Eastern countries, warmly supported the expedition of the Genoese navigator Columbus in a westerly direction.

The honor of discovery

Christopher Columbus was interested in geography, geometry and astronomy from an early age. From a young age, he took part in sea expeditions, visited almost all the oceans known then. Columbus was married to the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from whom he inherited many maps and notes from the time of Henry the Navigator. The future discoverer studied them carefully. His plans were to find a sea route to India, but not bypassing Africa, but directly across the Atlantic. Like some scholars - his contemporaries, Columbus believed that, having gone west from Europe, it would be possible to reach the Asian eastern shores - the places where India and China are located. At the same time, he did not even suspect that on the way he would meet a whole continent, hitherto unknown to Europeans. But it happened. And from that time the history of the discovery of America began.

First expedition

For the first time, Columbus' ships sailed from Palos harbor on the third of August 1492. There were three of them. Until the Canary Islands, the expedition proceeded quite calmly: this segment of the route was already known to the sailors. But very soon they found themselves in the endless ocean. Gradually the sailors began to become discouraged and murmured. But Columbus managed to pacify the disobedient, maintaining hope in them. Soon, signs began to come across - the harbingers of the proximity of land: unknown birds flew in, tree branches sailed. Finally, after six weeks of sailing, lights appeared at night, and when dawn broke, a green picturesque island, all covered with vegetation, opened up in front of the sailors. Columbus, having landed on the coast, declared this land the possession of the Spanish crown. The island was named San Salvador, that is, the Savior. It was one of the smaller pieces of land found in the Bahamas or Lucayan archipelago.

The land where there is gold

The natives are peaceful and good-natured savages. Noticing the greed of those who sailed to the gold jewelry that hung in the nose and ears of the natives, they told by signs that there is a land in the south that is literally teeming with gold. And Columbus went on. In the same year, he discovered Cuba, which, although he took it for the mainland, more precisely, for the eastern coast of Asia, he also declared it a Spanish colony. From here the expedition, turning east, landed in Haiti. At the same time, all the way the Spaniards met savages who not only willingly changed their gold jewelry for simple glass beads and other trinkets, but also constantly pointed to south direction when asked about this precious metal. On which Columbus called Hispaniola, or Little Spain, he built a small fortress.

Return

When the ships docked in Palos harbor, all the inhabitants went ashore to greet them. Columbus and Ferdinand and Isabella were very kindly received. The news of the discovery of the New World spread very quickly, just as quickly those wishing to go there together with the discoverer gathered. Then the Europeans had no idea what 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 settled in the lands of Haiti, making them their base and building the fortress of San Domingo in the southeastern part of it. In 1497, the British entered into a rivalry with them, who were also trying to find the northwestern routes to Asia. For example, the Genoese Cabot discovered the island of Newfoundland under the English flag and, according to some reports, came very close to the North American coast: to the Labrador and Nova Scotia peninsulas. So the British began to lay the foundation for their dominance in the North American region.

Third and fourth expeditions

It began in May 1498 and ended in November 1500. As a result, the mouth of the Orinoco was also discovered. In August 1498, Columbus landed on the coast already on the Paria Peninsula, 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 - the fourth - travel from May 1502 to November 1504, Columbus discovered Central America. His ships sailed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, reached from Costa Rica and Panama up to the Darien Bay.

New mainland

In the same year, another navigator - whose expeditions were under the Portuguese flag, also explored the Brazilian coast. When he reached Cape Cananea, he hypothesized that the lands discovered by Columbus were not China, or even India, but a completely new continent. This idea was confirmed after the first travel around the world by F. Magellan. However, contrary to logic, the name 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 voyage in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took the nickname in honor of the continent named so. In support of this theory, the researchers cite the facts that Cabot reached the coast of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to set foot on American soil.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier, a French navigator, reached the shores of Canada, giving this territory its present name.

Other applicants

The exploration of the continent of North America was continued by such navigators as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Buffin. It was thanks to their research that the continent was studied up to the Pacific coast.

However, history knows many other names of seafarers who moored on American soil even before Columbus. These are 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, Count of Orkney de Saint-Clair, Chinese explorer Zhee He, Portuguese Juan Corterial, etc.

But, in spite of everything, it is Christopher Columbus who is the person whose discoveries had an unconditional impact on the entire history of mankind.

Fifteen years after the time when the ships of this navigator discovered America, the very first geographic map mainland. Its author was Martin Waldseemüller. Today, it is the property of the United States and is kept in Washington, DC.

The most important event in the history of the great geographical discoveries, and world history in general, was Columbus's discovery of America- an event as a result of which the inhabitants of Europe discovered two continents called the New World, or America.

The confusion began with the names of the continents. There is strong evidence for the version that the lands of the New World were named after the Italian philanthropist Richard America from Bristol, who financed the transatlantic expedition of John Cabot in 1497. The Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci, who visited the New World only in 1500 and after whom America is believed to be named, took the nickname in honor of the already named continent.

In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on American soil, two years before Amerigo Vespucci. Cabot mapped the coast of North America from New England to Newfoundland. In the calendar of Bristol for that year we read: “... on the day of St. John the Baptist found the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship called "Matthew".

Christopher Columbus - Discovery of America

Christopher Columbus is considered the official discoverer of the continents of the New World. He was originally from Italy, came to Spain from Portugal. Finding a familiar monk in a monastery near the city of Palos, Columbus told him that he had decided to sail to Asia by a new sea route - across the Atlantic Ocean. He was admitted to an audience with Queen Isabella, who, after his report, appointed an academic council to discuss the project. The members of the council were mainly clergy. Columbus vigorously defended his project. He referred to the evidence of ancient scientists about the sphericity of the Earth, to a copy of the map of the famous Italian astronomer Toscanelli, which depicted many islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and beyond them - the eastern shores of Asia. He convinced the learned monks that the legends spoke of the land beyond the ocean, from the shores of which sea currents sometimes bring tree trunks with traces of their processing by people. Columbus was an educated man: knew how to draw maps, drive ships, knew four languages. He managed to convince the Academic Council of the validity of their expectations.

The rulers of Spain believed the traveler and decided to conclude a treaty with Columbus, according to which, if successful, he received the title of admiral and viceroy of the lands open to him, as well as a significant part of the profit from trade with the countries where he would be able to visit. Thus began the era of geographical exploration and discovery, which was initiated by Christopher Columbus with the discovery of America.

Discovery of America by Columbus: year 1492

On August 3, 1492, three ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Niña" with 90 participants set sail from the port of Paloje. The crews of the ships consisted mainly of convicted criminals. It's been 33 days since the expedition left Canary Islands, but the land was still not visible. The team began to grumble. To calm her down, Columbus wrote down the distances traveled in the logbook, deliberately minimizing them.

On October 12, 1492, sailors saw a dark strip of land on the horizon. It was a small island with lush tropical vegetation. Tall people with dark skin lived here. The natives called their island Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador and declared it a possession of Spain. This name was stuck with one of the Bahamas. Columbus was fully confident that he had reached Asia. Having visited other islands, he asked the locals everywhere if it was Asia. But I did not hear anything consonant with this word. Columbus left some of the people on the island of Hispaniola, and he went to Spain. To prove that he opened the way to Asia, Columbus took with him several Indians, feathers of unseen birds, some plants, among them maize, potatoes and tobacco. On March 15, 1493, he was greeted in Palos as a hero.

This was the first visit of the Europeans to the islands of Central America, as a result of which the foundation was laid for the further discovery of unknown lands, their conquest and colonization.

In the 20th century, scientists drew attention to information that suggested that contacts between the Old World and the New took place long before the famous discovery of America by Columbus.

In addition to hypotheses about the settlement of America by the "ten tribes of Israel", as well as the Atlanteans, there is a number of strong scientific evidence that America was visited long before Columbus. Some researchers even argue that the culture of the Indians was brought in from the outside, from the Old World. In academic science, a larger number of supporters have the theory that American civilizations developed almost completely independently until 1492.

The hypotheses about Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and Celts still remain unconfirmed, but there is quite reliable data on the Polynesian visit to America preserved in their legends; in addition, it is known that the Chukchi established an exchange of fur and whalebone with the ancient population of the northwestern American coast, but it is impossible to establish the exact date of the beginning of these contacts. Europeans also visited the American continent during the Viking Age. Contacts of the Scandinavians with the New World began around 1000 AD and continued approximately until the XIV century.

The name of the Scandinavian navigator and ruler of Greenland Leif I Ericsson the Blessed is associated with the discovery of America. This European made the discovery of North America five centuries before Columbus. His campaigns are known from Icelandic sagas preserved in such manuscripts as The Saga of Eric the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders. Their reliability has been confirmed by archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland to Erik the Red, exiled from Norway along with his entire family. Eric's family in 982 was forced to leave Iceland, fearing blood feud, and settled in new colonies in Greenland. Leif Eriksson had two brothers, Thorvald and Thorstein, and one sister, Freydis. Leif was married to a woman named Thorgunna. They had one son, Torkell Leifsson.

Before his trip to America, Leif made a trade expedition to Norway. Here he was baptized by King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, an ally of the Kiev prince Vladimir. Leif brought a Christian bishop to Greenland and baptized its inhabitants. His mother and many Greenlanders converted to Christianity, but his father, Eric the Red, remained a pagan. On the way back, Leif saved the wrecked Icelander Thorir, for which he received the nickname Leif the Happy. On his return, he met a Norwegian named Bjarni Herjulfsson in Greenland, who said that he saw the outlines of land in the west, far out to sea. Leif became interested in this story and decided to explore new lands.

Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson sailed west with a crew of 35 on a ship he had bought from Bjarni. They discovered three regions of the American coast: Helluland (probably the Labrador Peninsula), Markland (possibly Baffin's Land) and Vinland, which got its name from the large number of vines. Presumably this was the coast of Newfoundland. Several settlements were founded there, where the Vikings stayed for the winter.

Upon his return to Greenland, Leif gave the ship to his brother Thorvald, who instead went to explore Vinland further. Thorvald's expedition was unsuccessful: the Scandinavians encountered the Scralling - North American Indians, and in this clash Thorvald died. If you believe the Icelandic legends, according to which Eric and Leif made their campaigns not at random, but based on the stories of such eyewitnesses as Bjarni, who saw unknown lands on the horizon, then in a sense America was discovered even earlier than 1000. However, it was Leif who first made a full-fledged expedition along the coast of Vinland, gave him a name, landed and even tried to colonize it. Based on the stories of Leif and his people, which formed the basis of the Scandinavian "Saga of Eric the Red" and "Saga of the Greenlanders", the first maps of Vinland were compiled.

This information, preserved by the Icelandic sagas, was confirmed in 1960, when archaeological evidence of an early Viking settlement was discovered in L'anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland. Columbus' discovery of America at that time was indeed a discovery, because they were nothing about the New World did not know. But Columbus was not the discoverer in the full sense of the word. Currently, the exploration of the territory of North America by the Vikings long before Columbus's travels is considered a definitively proven fact. Scientists have reached an agreement that the Vikings among Europeans were indeed the first to discover North America, but the exact place their settlement is still unknown.In the beginning, the Vikings did not distinguish between their settlement in Greenland and Vinland on the one hand, and Iceland on the other. different worlds appeared to them only after meeting with local tribes, very different from the Irish monks in Iceland. The Saga of Eric the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders were written about 250 years after the colonization of Greenland, and they report that there were several attempts to establish a settlement in Vinland, but none of them lasted more than two years. There are several possible reasons why the Vikings abandoned the settlements, among which were disagreements among the male colonists regarding the few women who accompanied the journey, and armed clashes with local residents, whom the Vikings called Scrallings. Both of these factors are indicated in written sources.

Until the 19th century, historians considered the idea of ​​Viking settlements in North America exclusively in the context of the national folklore of the Scandinavian peoples. The first scientific theory appeared in 1837 thanks to the Danish historian and antiquarian Karl Christian Rafn. In his book American Antiquities, Rafn conducted a comprehensive examination of the sagas and investigated possible sites on the American coast, with the result that he concluded that the country of Vinland, discovered by the Vikings, did exist. History continues to lift the veil of its secrets. Scientists have yet to verify the likelihood and timing of an even earlier discovery of America and contact with this continent by immigrants from the Old World.