Year discovery of America can be considered a turning point in the life of Europe.Upon learning of the existence of a new continent, many people began to go to sea expeditions to, explore new territories, try to master them.
Columbus discovered America
year, when the Spanish explorer opened a new ground in the history referred to as 1492-th.By the beginning of the eighteenth century had already been discovered and investigated all the other areas of North America, for example, regions of Alaska and the Pacific coast.It should be noted that an important contribution to the study of the continent and brought travelers from Russia.
Mastering
history of the discovery of North America is quite interesting: it can even be called accidental.At the end of the fifteenth century Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus with his expedition reached the shores of North America.He mistakenly thought that he was in India.From this point begins an era when America was opened and began its development and research.But some researchers believe this date inaccurate, arguing that the discovery of a new continent happened much earlier.
In what year was discovered America?
year Columbus discovered America - the first in 1492 - is not an exact date.It turns out that the Spanish explorer had predecessors, and where - no one.In the middle of the tenth century the Normans traveled here after discovered Greenland.However, they colonize the new land could not be alienated because their harsh weather conditions of the north of the continent.In addition, the Normans also scared distance from the new European continent.
According to others, the continent discovered ancient mariners - the Phoenicians.Some sources also the time when discovered America, called the middle of the first millennium BC, and the pioneers - the Chinese.However, this version also lacked a clear evidence.
considered most reliable information about the time when the Vikings discovered America.At the end of the tenth century Norman Heryulfsonom Bjarni and Leif Erikson were found Helluland - "stone" Markland - "forest" and Vinland - "vineyards" of land that contemporaries identified with Labrador.
There is evidence that even before Columbus in the fifteenth century, the northern continent reached Bristol and Cantabrian fishermen, who called it the island of Brazil.However, the time periods of these expeditions that can not be called a milestone in the history when discovered America really, t. E. Have identified it as a new continent.
Columbus - a real pioneer
Yet when asked what year discovered America, experts often referred to as the fifteenth century, or rather its end.And the first who did it, according to Columbus.The time when America opened to coincide in the history of the period when the Europeans began to spread understanding of the circular shape of the Earth and the possibility to reach India or China the Western path, that is, across the Atlantic Ocean.It was assumed that this path is much shorter than the east.Therefore, based on the Portuguese monopoly control over the South Atlantic, resulting Alkasovasskim agreement in 1479, Spain, always seeking direct contacts with Eastern countries, strongly supported the Genoese sailor Columbus expedition to the west.
honor of opening
Christopher Columbus from an early age interested in geography, geometry and astronomy.From a young age he was involved in the marine expeditions, I visited almost all the then known oceans.Columbus was married to the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from which he got a lot of maps and notes the time of Henry the Navigator.The future discoverer of them carefully studied.His plan was to find a sea route to India, but not without going through Africa, and directly across the Atlantic.As some scientists - his contemporaries, Columbus thought that by going to the west of Europe, it will be possible to reach the eastern coast of Asia - those places where there are India and China.However, he did not even know that the path will meet the whole continent, until then known to Europeans.But it happened.And since that time and has its origin in the history of the discovery of America.
first expedition
first ships Columbus sailed away from the harbor Palosskoy third in August 1492.There were three.Prior to the Canary Islands expedition proceeded quite calmly: This stretch of road was already known to sailors.But they soon found themselves in a vast ocean.Gradually the men began to lose heart and to raise a murmur.But Columbus managed to subdue unruly, supporting them hope.Soon began to appear signs - precursors proximity of land: unknown bird flew, sailed tree branches.Finally, after six weeks of sailing, the lights at night, and when dawn broke, before the sailors opened a green picturesque island, covered in vegetation.Columbus landed on the shore, declared the land possessions of the Spanish crown.The island was named San Salvador, that is the Savior.It was one of the smaller pieces of land belonging to the Bahamas or Lukaysky archipelago.
Earth, where there is gold
natives - peaceful and good-natured savages.Seeing sail to the greed of gold jewelry that hung among the natives in the nose and ears, signs told that the south is a land that is literally teeming with gold.Columbus went on.In the same year he opened Cuba, which, although taken for the continent, more precisely, for the eastern shore of Asia, also announced a Spanish colony.From this expedition, turning to the east, stuck to Haiti.At the same time all the way Spaniards met savages who are not only willing to change their gold ornaments to simple glass beads and other trinkets, but constantly pointed to the southern direction, when asked about this precious metal.On the island of Haiti, which Columbus named Hispaniola, or Little Spain, he built a small fort.
Return
When the ships moored in the harbor Palosskoy, all residents went ashore to meet them with honors.Very graciously took Columbus and Ferdinand and Isabella.The news of the discovery of the New World spread very quickly, as fast going and willing to go there with a pioneer.At that time the Europeans had no idea what America was discovered by Christopher Columbus.
second trip
history of the discovery of North America, which was launched in 1492, continued.From September 1493 for June 1496 was the second in a row expedition Genoese navigator.As a result, Virgin opened and Windward Islands, including Antigua, Dominica, Nevis, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Puerto Rico and Jamaica.The Spaniards settled down on the land of Haiti, making them its base and built in the south-eastern part of the fortress of San Domingo.In 1497th in competition with them came the British, too, trying to find a northwest path to Asia.For example, the Genoese under the English flag Cabot discovered Newfoundland and, by some accounts, came very close to the North American coast: in Labrador and Nova Scotia.So the British began to lay the groundwork for its domination in the region of North America.
third and fourth expedition
It started in May 1498 and ended in November 1500.As a result, it was discovered the island of Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco.In August 1498 the first Columbus landed on the coast of South America is already on the peninsula of Paria, and in the 1499th Spaniards reached the coast of Guiana and Venezuela, and then - Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon.And in the last - fourth - travel from May 1502 to November 1504, Colombia was already open Central America.His ships passed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, have come from Costa Rica and Panama up to the Gulf of Darién.
New Mainland
In the same year another sailor - Amerigo Vespucci, an expedition which took place under the Portuguese flag, also explored the Brazilian coast.Reaching Cape Cananea, he put forward the hypothesis that the land that Columbus discovered - is not China, and even India, but a completely new continent.This idea was confirmed after the first trip around the world, committed F. Magellan.However, contrary to the logic of the new continent was confirmed the name of America - the name of Vespucci.
However, there is some reason to believe that a new continent was named after philanthropist Richard Bristol America from England who financed the second transatlantic trip of John Cabot in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took the name in honor of the so-called continent.To prove this theory, researchers cite evidence that Cabot reached the coast of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became officially registered the first European to set foot on American soil.
In the mid-sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, reached the coast of Canada, giving the area its current name.
Other contenders
Development of the North American continent continued to seafarers such as John Davies, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Baffin.It is thanks to their research and studied the continent up to the Pacific coast.
However, history knows a lot of other names of sailors who have approached to American soil before Columbus.It Hui Shen - 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, the Earl of Orkney de Saint-Clair, a Chinese researcher Chzhee Ho, Portuguese Joao Korterial and so on. D.
But, in spite of everything, that Christopher Columbus is the man whose discoveries have had an absolute effect on the history of mankind.
Fifteen years after the time when the ships that discovered America navigator, was compiled the very first geographical map of the continent.Its author was Martin Valdzeemyuller.Today she, being the property of the Library of Congress of the United States, kept in Washington.
