Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
opments on their own. Beyond that, it seems obvious to wonder why only selected parts of these cultures
were transferred. If the Phoenicians truly came to America, why didn't they bring their alphabet and the
wheel, neither of which was in evidence when the Spanish arrived.
Was Columbus the first? Absolutely not, if we take into account the Vikings, who touched base in or
around Newfoundland in 1000, set up housekeeping, found the natives not too friendly, and headed home
a few years later. So yes, the Vikings were in America before Columbus. But their presence had no lasting
impact on either the history of America or the rest of the Western world. The “discovery” of America by
Christopher Columbus as the standard-bearer for Europe signaled the opening of an extraordinary period
of discovery, colonization, and yes, exploitation, unequaled in human history. It was a period that would
not have taken place if not for other extraordinary events taking place in Europe: the shaking off of the dark
shrouds of blind faith that kept Europe in the Dark Ages; the celebration of the human mind that became
the Renaissance; the slow, torturous move into a new era of rational thought that crested in the Enlighten-
ment. Of course, all that glory has its dark side, most notably the subjugation of the people the Europeans
found when they arrived in America and their introduction, not long after their arrival, of African slaves
and the great Atlantic slave trade.
Columbus's once heroic sheen has been considerably tarnished. The history topics now tell us that he
was sent back to Spain in chains for his grievous mismanagement of the colonies he had started. But even
now the myths remain powerful. There are still people who cling to the notion that Columbus was sailing
out into a completely unknown world, with a fearful crew believing the voyage was doomed because the
earth was flat and they would simply sail off the edge.
In a word, this is simply nonsense. While the conception of the world in the later fifteenth century was
still largely shaped by legend and mythology, Columbus certainly knew the world was round, as most ra-
tional people did, since it was an idea dating back to the great Greek philosophers.
There are still many who don't realize that Columbus never reached the shores of what is today the
United States of America. His voyages took him around the Caribbean and to the coast of South America.
He went to his deathbed thinking he had arrived at some island outposts of China, his original goal.
There were also millions of people living in the Americas when Columbus arrived, spread across two
continents. It seems difficult to concede that someone has “discovered” a place where forty million people
already live! It's like telling your friends you've discovered a great new restaurant. Great hamburgers and
french fries. You're just not crazy about the decor, with those golden arches.
The obvious answer to the question of who discovered America is that it was discovered by the people
already living here when Columbus dropped anchor off present-day Haiti. They had begun to arrive in
America fifteen to thirty thousand years ago, crossing the land bridge that connected Asia and America
during one of the last ice ages. In successive waves they came following the game they hunted, eventually
settling down and spreading out across two vast continents.
The one constant in the discussion of human views of the shape of the world and its place in the uni-
verse is that it has been an ongoing process of change. So while it is easy to snicker at earlier people's no-
tions of the world with their mystical beasts, flat earth floating on an endless sea, and dung-rolling beetles,
it is important not to get too secure in our own notions of the world.
The universe has a sneaky way of walking up to us and saying “You think you're so smart, but you've
got it all wrong.” It happens whenever science uncovers something that shakes our understanding of the
world all over again.
For instance, if you went to grade school twenty years ago or more, you can take pretty much
everything you learned back then or think you remember about dinosaurs, man's evolution, or outer space,
and throw it out the window.
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