America's discovery year can be considered turning inlife of Europe. Having learned about the existence of a new continent, many began to go to sea expeditions in order to explore new territories and try to master them.
The year that this Spanish navigator discoveredA new land, in history is indicated as 1492nd. And by the beginning of the eighteenth century, all other areas of North America, such as Alaska and the Pacific Coast regions, were already discovered and explored. It must be said that travelers from Russia made an important contribution to the study of the continent.
The history of the discovery of North America is enoughinteresting: it can even be called random. At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus and his expedition reached the shores of North America. However, he mistakenly believed that he was in India. From this moment begins the countdown of that era, when they discovered America and began its development and research. But some researchers consider this date to be inaccurate, claiming that the discovery of a new continent occurred much earlier.
The year of discovery of America by Columbus - 1492 minutes - notis the exact date. It turns out that the Spanish navigator had predecessors, and moreover, not one. In the middle of the tenth century, the Normans traveled here after discovering 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 also were frightened by the remoteness from Europe of a new continent.
According to other sources, this continent was discovered by antiquenavigators - the Phoenicians. Some sources say that the time when they discovered America is called the middle of the first millennium AD, and the pioneers - the Chinese. However, this version also has no clear evidence.
The most reliable information is thatthe time when the Vikings discovered America. At the end of the tenth century, the Normans Bjarni Herulfson and Leif Eriksson found Helluland - “stone”, Markland - “forest” and Vinland - “vineyards” of land, which contemporaries identify with the peninsula Labrador.
There is evidence that even before Columbus inFifteenth century northern continent reached Bristol and Biscay fishermen, 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.
And yet, when answering the question, in what yeardiscovered America, experts often call the fifteenth century, or rather its end. And the first who did it, consider Columbus. The time when America was discovered coincided in history with the period when Europeans began to spread the idea of the round shape of the Earth and the possibility of reaching India or China along the western path, that is, across the Atlantic Ocean. It was believed that this path is much shorter than the east. Therefore, taking into account the monopoly of the Portuguese on the control of the South Atlantic, obtained by the Alkasovas Agreement of 1479, Spain, always seeking direct contacts with eastern countries, warmly supported the expedition of the Genoese navigator Columbus in the western direction.
Христофор Колумб с раннего возраста интересовался geography, geometry and astronomy. From a young age he participated in sea expeditions, visited almost all the then known oceans. Columbus was married to a Portuguese sailor’s daughter, from whom he inherited many geographical maps and notes from the time of Heinrich the Navigator. The future discoverer of them carefully studied. His plans were to find a sea route to India, but not bypassing Africa, but directly across the Atlantic. Like some scientists - his contemporaries, Columbus believed that, going 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 on the way he would meet a whole continent, which until then was not known to Europeans. But it happened. And from this time the history of the discovery of America begins.
For the first time the ships of Columbus set sail from Palosskyharbor the third of August 1492. There were three of them. The expedition proceeded quite calmly to the Canary Islands: the sailors were already known to the sailors. But very soon they found themselves in the boundless ocean. Gradually, the sailors began to fall into despondency and raise a murmur. But Columbus managed to pacify the disobedient, maintaining hope in them. Soon, signs began to come across - harbingers of land proximity: unknown birds flew in, sailed tree branches. Finally, after six weeks of sailing, lights appeared at night, and when it dawned, a green picturesque island, covered with vegetation, opened up to the sailors. Columbus, having landed, declared this land to be the possession of the Spanish crown. The island was named San Salvador, that is, Savior. It was one of the small pieces of land belonging to the Bahamas or Lukay archipelago.
The natives are peaceful and good-natured savages.Noticing the greed of sailing to the gold jewelry that hung among the natives in the nose and ears, the signs told that in the south there is earth, literally teeming with gold. And Columbus went further. In the same year, he discovered Cuba, which, although he took it for the mainland, more precisely, for the east coast of Asia, also announced the Spanish colony. From here, the expedition, turning east, stuck to Haiti. At the same time all the way the Spaniards met savages, who not only willingly changed their gold jewelry to simple glass beads and other knickknacks, 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 Little Spain, he built a small fortress.
History of the discovery of North America, the start of whichwas given in 1492, continued. From September 1493 to June 1496, the second expedition of the Genoa explorer 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 on the lands of Haiti, making them their base and building in the south-eastern part of the fortress of San Domingo. In 1497, the British entered into rivalry, also trying to find the north-western route to Asia. For example, the Genoese Cabot under the English flag discovered the island of Newfoundland and, according to some information, came very close to the North American coast: to the peninsulas of Labrador and Nova Scotia. So the British began to lay the foundation for their dominance in the region of North America.
It began in May 1498 and ended in November.1500 years. As a result, the island of Trinidad and the Orinoco mouth were discovered. In August 1498, Columbus landed on the coast of South America on the Pariah peninsula, and in 1499 the Spaniards reached the shores of Guiana and Venezuela, after which - Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon. And in the course of the last - the fourth - travel from May 1502 to November 1504 Columbus opened Central America. His ships passed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, reached from Costa Rica and Panama up to the gulf of Darien.
In the same year, another navigator - AmerigoVespucci, whose expeditions were flying the Portuguese flag, also explored the Brazilian coast. Having reached Cape Cananea, he put forward the hypothesis that the lands that Columbus discovered are not China, and not even India, but a completely new continent. This thought was confirmed after the first round-the-world voyage, accomplished by F. Magellan. However, contrary to logic, the name America was assigned to the new continent - on behalf of Vespucci.
True, there is some reason to assumethat the new continent was named after the Bristol patron Richard of America from England, who financed the second transatlantic journey of John Cabot in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took his nickname in honor of the continent so named. As proof of this theory, researchers cite the fact that Cabot reached the shores of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to set foot on American soil.
Освоение континента Северная Америка продолжили seafarers such as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Baffin. It was thanks to their research that the continent was explored down to the Pacific coast.
However, history knows many other names.mariners, who moored to the American land before Columbus. This is Hui Shen - a Thai monk who visited the region in the fifth century, Abubakar - the Sultan of Mali, who sailed to the American coast in the fourteenth century, Count Orkney de Saint-Claire, Chinese explorer Zhee He, Portuguese Juan Korterial, etc.
But, in spite of everything, it was Christopher Columbus who is the man whose discoveries had an absolute influence on the whole history of mankind.
Fifteen years after the time whenAmerica discovered the ships of this navigator, was made the very first geographical map of the mainland. Its author was Martin Waldseemüller. Today, as the property of the United States Library of Congress, it is stored in Washington.
