The discovery of America is credited by most literatures to Columbus, the great adventurer whose roots is associated with Genoa, having sailed out from Spain on the consent of the King Ferdinand who was persuaded by his Queen Isabella to support the adventure, after releasing a great chunk of her treasure for the discovery to be made. However, latest revelations in the last decades give the credit to Icelandic Norsemen1 who is believed to have discovered America in 1000 AD.
The Norsemen of Iceland has not been regarded as the first discoverers of the New World, as America is fondly called, for so long a time in history because of the lack of documentary evidence of their adventure as opposed to what is available from Columbus’. The ‘Antiquities’ of a great Icelandic professor, Professor Rafn, gave an account of the historic discovery made by Norsemen. A man named Biarne first recorded to have had a glimpse of a land ‘never before found’ when driven by the storm towards the south on a journey to Greenland in 996 AD. Biarne could not be associated with the glory of the discovery because he did not possess an adventurous spirit that could have made him try out the newly found land; he rather put his sail on a reverse back to Iceland. It was not until four year later, in AD 1000 that a man called Leif summoned the courage to sail the seas and discover the new land which story, Biarne brought back four years before. On landing at the destination, Leif named the place Helluland (hella means flat stone) because of the flat stones he saw in abundance there.
Unlike the Viking travels, the discovery of Columbus2 is a well-documented one. That has been what subsisted for centuries due to its detailed account of the voyage and conquer of the New World. The collaboration of the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain with Columbus is what made the desire of the great adventurer come to fulfillment in AD 1492 when he landed on the shores of the place now regarded as the Caribbean Islands. The land was soon colonized, and so were all other nearby territories, including the place now called the United States of America.
Columbus, however, was sure that he fulfilled his venture of reaching India via the Atlantic Ocean. Hence the name "Indians" used until now for Native Americans. It was Italian Amerigo Vespucci who concluded that Columbus has indeed discovered a new continent, a New World.
The Old World, i.e. Europe, would never be the same again. The discovery of a whole new continent, rich with resources and shallow with population (contrary to the already dense Europe) had rearranged the intentions of all the big players. Starting from 16th century the World Powers of each era tried to colonize the Americas. Spanish and Portuguese did this in the south, British, French, Dutch – in the North. Even Russia claimed Alaska (although it happened several centuries later).
The native inhabitants were quickly wept out with the use of modern technology (they were unfamiliar with iron, let alone muskets and canons), forced to retreat to high mountains and other rough-terrain regions and age of colonization has begun. People were coming to the New World and established settlements. They traded successfully, providing their mother nations with tobacco, sugar, potatoes, and, of course, gold and silver. In exchange they had protection, food and other goods required to maintain their cities. More and more settlements were formed along the cost and, later, deeper into the continental territory.
Asia also was influenced by discovery of America. All of the sudden, main trade routes were headed west, instead of east. Ironically, Barcelona, the city that Columbus began his journey in, decreased in importance, as it was located facing the Mediterranean rather than the Atlantic. China and India were now not the only source of exotic goods thus less caravans crossed the deserts of the Middle East (although it always remained a busy region) and more and more ships traveled the Atlantic. Notably, the 16th century was also marked with the conclusion of Reconcista, as the Christians took all of Spain back from Muslims.
The discovery of new lands continued and more Europeans came, turning America to its colony. The British Empire had thirteen colonies in the New World around 1770s, colonies inhabited by over two million people which had become a revenue center for the Britons. The imposition of new taxes by the British Empire in these prospering colonies met the resistance of Americans, leading to a full-blown war in 1775.
References:
- Discovering America (online). http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/explorers/discovering-america-columbus.htm
- Morison, Samuel Eliot. America; Discovery and exploration; Voyages and travels. Oxford University Press. New York, 1971.
