By Simone Brouwer | Published Thursday 15 December 2011
What if Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America? Would our whole world change?
Early in school youngsters are being 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 all wrong 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, emerging from medieval hopelessness into a period of renaissance. 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, he was not in fact introducing them to Europe. Scientists claim a woman from America probably arrived in Iceland five hundreds years before Columbus bumped into America. She left genes behind that are 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.
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Chinese map which suggests Chinese seamen were the first to discover America |
Or would it be the Chinese?
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. It shows the Nile with two sources. 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.” Mr Menzies, a former submariner, is convinced this map shows the truth and China had indeed discovered America in 1421 by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, who sailed the oceans between 1405 and 1453. His discoveries were written in a book, which appeared in 1418 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 recognises that the earth is round. Nevertheless, the Europeans had also 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.
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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