Discoverer of the Americas
Encyclopedia
The discovery of the Americas in modern western history is mainly attributed to the voyages of Christopher Columbus
. The discovery of the Americas has also variously been attributed to others, depending on context and definition.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
In the early modern period, the voyages of Columbus initiated European exploration and colonization of the American continents, and are thus of great significance in world history. Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for Castile, a country that later founded modern Spain...
. The discovery of the Americas has also variously been attributed to others, depending on context and definition.
Prehistoric and Ancient history
- Indigenous peoples of the AmericasIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
, first people to live in the Americas,- Models of migration to the New WorldModels of migration to the New WorldThere have been several models for the human settlement of the Americas proposed by various academic communities. The question of how, when and why humans first entered the Americas is of intense interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, and has been a subject of heated debate for centuries...
, - Solutrean hypothesisSolutrean hypothesisThe Solutrean hypothesis proposes that peoples from Europe may have been among the earliest settlers in the Americas, as evidenced by similarities in stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture from prehistoric Europe to that of the later Clovis tool-making culture found in the Americas. It was...
.
- Models of migration to the New World
Middle Ages
- Norse colonization of the AmericasNorse colonization of the AmericasThe Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America....
- Gunnbjörn UlfssonGunnbjörn UlfssonGunnbjørn Ulfsson , name also given as Gunnbjørn Ulf-Krakuson, was the first European to sight North America....
, who first sighted islands off Greenland, probably in the early 10th century, - Bjarni HerjólfssonBjarni HerjólfssonBjarni Herjólfsson was a Norwegian explorer who is the first known European discoverer of the mainland of the Americas, which he sighted in 985 or 986.-Life:...
, who sighted mainland North America (Labrador, Canada) around 986, - Leif Eriksson, who landed in North America (Newfoundland, Canada) around the year 1000.
- Gunnbjörn Ulfsson