Who deserves credit
for discovering America?
Chief Howling Wind
Yes, it may be true that Chief Howling Wind and his people were the first people to live in America. They might have traveled far away from home to find the land. But does he deserve credit? They did not name it. Nor did they popularize it. In my opinion, he and his people deserve partial credit. So who else deserves credit? Christopher Columbus.
Christopher Columbus
Born in Genoa Italy in 1451 A.D Christopher had always thought he had a special mission in life. Living in the Renaissance, he was exposed to the idea that the earth was not flat, but spherical in shape. After being rejected by England, Portugal, and France, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella agreed to finance him. Sailing from West to East, Christopher and his men were supposed to end up in The Indies. Japan hadn't been where he calculated it to be. His men were angry and becoming mutinous. He kept them on task and sailed on. They bumped into land. There were people there. Thinking they were in India, he called these people Indians.
Christopher might deserve credit but, he did some pretty bad things. While on this new land, Christopher demanded gold. The native people or Tainos, told him that they did not have any. The very little gold they did have, came from natural deposits of the river.
Christopher left and then returned again. Disobeying King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, he did terrible things to the Tainos. He would cut off their hands if they did not bring him gold. He killed many and treated them all poorly. Taking Tainos as slaves he set up slavery. While on the boats if someone died they would just throw them overboard.
Although he did all this, I still belive he deserves credit. This is why. Christopher popularized America. He went back to Spain and brought people to America. After he started colinizing, it never stopped. He started it. The other guys only spoke of it, they never really did much with it.
Who doesn't deserve credit?
Hoei-Shin kept many detailed journals about his travels. But he just briefly visited where California would have been, and that was it. Brendan the Bold sailed in a Carah. Historians proved that he sailed the route he said by recreating it. But still, he wasn't the man who discovered America. He walked on Canada. Not America. Bjarni Herjulfsson claims he discovered America because, while he was sailing trying to find his father, he was blown off course. He never left the boat though. So how could he have discovered it? After returning, Bjarni sold his boat, maps, and crew to Leif Ericsson. So Leif dint really do anything except sail. That's just copying. Taking work. That's not fair and not discovering. Prince Madoc of Wales left his home because his brothers were fighting. Sailing across the Atlanic ocean he ended up in Mexico. Traveling up the Ohio river he ends up in a settlement. They lived there for awhile and had babies with the natives. Producing kids with pale skin and red hair. Unfortunately, they all died from smallpox. And we don't have any solid evidence of that. Just painting. So with no solid evidence how are we supposed to believe that he had discovered it? We can't.