Christopher Columbus discovered America, right?

Version 2
By Simone Brouwer | Published Thursday 15 December 2011

What if Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America? Would our whole world have changed?

            

Early in school youngsters are told that Christopher Columbus discovered America. He was the one who believed the world wasn’t flat and wanted to go to Asia by sailing west. However, recent discoveries reveal he actually wasn’t the first man who visited the Indians. What if the history books are mistaken and this may not be true? Could we cope with it or would we just deny it?

Where am I?

Christopher Columbus was an Italian world explorer and got famous with his discovery of America in 1492. At the time, there were sixty million people living in Europe, who were still haunted by several diseases because they were simply too hopeless to build a real bathroom. So the excitement of finding a new world led to further discovery and expansion. When Columbus arrived at the other side of the world, he thought he had arrived in Asia and called the inhabitants Indians. Stupid as he was, he would actually never realise he had discovered America.

The Vikings

On his way back to Spain, he took some Indians with him to show to the world. When Columbus paraded his newly discovered Indians through the streets of Spanish towns, the Indians weren’t surprised by the medieval disorder. They had actually already seen the dirty streets and habits of the Europeans before. According to The Guardian, scientists claim a woman from America probably arrived in Iceland five hundreds years before Columbus bumped into the big island. This woman left genes behind that are still reflected in about eighty Icelanders today. The most probable explanation is that these genes correspond to an Indian woman, who was taken from America by the Vikings. This way it would be the Vikings who have discovered America before Columbus got there.

Chinese map which suggests Chinese seamen
were the first to discover America

Or would it be the Chinese?

According to The Economist an ancient map strongly suggests Chinese seamen were the ones who sailed around the world first. This map contains notes that match the outlines of Africa, Europe and America. Of the west coast of America, the map says: “The skin of the race in this area is black-red and feathers are wrapped around their heads and waists.” Still I doubt whether this is actually about the Indians. How do you know the map isn't referring to some crazy people in Australia? However, Mr Menzies, a former submariner, is convinced this map shows the truth and China had indeed discovered America in 1421. A Chinese admiral named Zheng He sailed the oceans between 1405 and 1453. His discoveries were written in a book, which is called “The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft.” The map makes a good estimate of the world despite the errors that are in it. It recognizes that the earth is round. Nevertheless, the Europeans also had discovered the world wasn’t flat. We shouldn’t give the Chinese credit for this as well.

The consequences of the discovery of this map could be considerable. "The history of New World discovery will have to be rewritten," claims Mr Menzies. Personally, I don't really care who really has discovered America. The Vikings, the Chinese or my grandmother, it will always be the Europeans, which made the United States more powerful than China had even been. 

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