When did you open America? The history of the discovery of America. Year of discovery of America

The year of the discovery of America can be considered a turning point in the life of Europe. Learning about the existence of a new continent, many began to go to sea expeditions in order to explore new territories and try to master them.

Columbus discovered America

The year when this Spanish navigator discovered a new land in history is indicated as 1492nd. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, all other regions of North America, for example, Alaska and the regions of the Pacific coast, had already been discovered and explored. I must say that the important contribution to the study of the continent was made by travelers from Russia.

Mastering

The history of the discovery of North America is quite interesting: it can even be called accidental. At the end of the fifteenth century, the Spanish navigator Christopher Columbus with his expedition reached the shores of North America. However, he mistakenly believed that he was in India. From this moment the countdown of the era when they discovered America and began its exploration and exploration begins. But some researchers consider this date to be inaccurate, arguing that the discovery of a new continent occurred much earlier.

In what year did they open America?

The year of discovery of America by Columbus - 1492-th - is not an exact date. It turns out that the Spanish navigator had predecessors, and moreover - not one. In the middle of the tenth century Normans came here after they discovered Greenland. True, it was not possible to colonize these new lands, as they were repelled by the severe weather conditions of the north of this continent. In addition, the Normans also frightened the remoteness from Europe of a new continent.

According to other sources, this continent was discovered by the ancient seafarers - Phoenicians. Some sources, the time when they discovered America, called the middle of the first millennium of our era, and the pioneers - the Chinese. However, this version also does not have clear evidence.

The most reliable information is about the time when the Vikings discovered America. At the end of the tenth century Normans Bjarni Heryufson and Leif Eriksson found Hellulland - "stone", Markland - "forest" and Vinland - "vineyards" of the land, which contemporaries identify with the Labrador peninsula.

There is evidence that even before Columbus in the fifteenth century the northern continent reached Bristol and Biscay anglers who called it the island of Brazil. However, the time periods of these expeditions can not be called a milestone in history, when they discovered America really, that is, it was identified as a new continent.

Columbus is a real discoverer

And yet, when answering the question, in which year they discovered America, experts often call the fifteenth century, or rather its end. And the first who did it, believe Columbus. The time when America was discovered coincided in history with the period when Europeans began to expand their notions of the round shape of the Earth and the possibility of reaching India or China along the western path, that is, across the Atlantic Ocean. It was believed that this path is much shorter than the eastern one. Therefore, taking into account the monopoly of the Portuguese over the control of the South Atlantic, obtained by the Alcazowas Agreement of 1479, Spain, always striving to get direct contacts with the eastern countries, strongly supported the expedition of the Genoese explorer Columbus in a western direction.

Honor of discovery

Christopher Columbus from an early age was interested in geography, geometry and astronomy. From a young age he participated in marine expeditions, visited almost all the then known oceans. Columbus was married to the daughter of a Portuguese sailor, from whom he received many maps and notes from the time of Henry the Navigator. The future discoverer carefully studied them. His plans were to find a sea route to India, but not bypassing Africa, but directly across the Atlantic. Like some scientists, his contemporaries, Columbus believed that, having gone west from Europe, it would be possible to reach the Asian eastern coasts - those places where India and China are located. At the same time, he did not even suspect that the whole continent, which until then was not known to Europeans, will meet on the way. But it happened. And from that time the history of the discovery of America begins.

The first expedition

For the first time the ships of Columbus sailed from the Palos harbor on the third of August 1492. There were three of them. Before the Canary Islands expedition proceeded quite calmly: this segment of the route was already known to sailors. But very soon they found themselves in a vast ocean. Gradually the sailors began to fall into despair and raise a murmur. But Columbus managed to pacify the unruly, supporting them in hope. Soon began to come across signs - harbingers of the proximity of land: unknown birds arrived, tree branches sailed. Finally, after six weeks of sailing, lights appeared at night, and when it was light, a green picturesque island, covered with vegetation, opened before the sailors. Columbus, having landed on the shore, declared this land the possessions of the Spanish crown. The island was called San Salvador, that is, the Savior. It was one of the small pieces of sushi entering the Bahamian or Luka archipelago.

Earth, where there is gold

The natives are peaceful and good-natured savages. Noticing the greed that came to the gold ornaments that hung from the natives in the nose and in the ears, the signs were told that there was a land in the south, literally abounding in gold. And Columbus went on. In the same year he discovered Cuba, which, although he was mistaken for the mainland, or more precisely, for the eastern shore of Asia, also declared a Spanish colony. From here the expedition, turning to the east, stuck to Haiti. At the same time all along the way the Spaniards met savages who not only willingly changed their gold ornaments to simple glass beads and other knick-knacks, but also constantly pointed to the southern direction when they were asked about this precious metal. On the island of Haiti, which Columbus called Hispaniola, or Little Spain, he built a small fortress.

Return

When the ships docked in the Palos harbor, all the inhabitants went ashore to meet them with honors. Very graciously took Columbus and Ferdinand with Isabella. The news of the opening of the New World was spreading very quickly, just as quickly gathered and willing to go there together with the discoverer. Then Europeans did not even imagine what kind of America Christopher Columbus discovered.

The Second Journey

The history of the discovery of North America, which was launched in 1492, continued. From September 1493 to June 1496 the second expedition of the Genoese navigator took place. As a result, the Virgin Islands and the Windward Islands were discovered, including Antigua, Dominica, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Christopher, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Spaniards firmly established themselves on the lands of Haiti, making them their base and building in the south-eastern part of it the fortress of San Domingo. In 1497, the British entered into competition with them, trying to find also the north-western routes to Asia. For example, the Genoese Cabot under the English flag discovered the island of Newfoundland and, according to some information, very closely approached the North American coast: to the peninsulas of Labrador and Nova Scotia. So the British began to lay the foundation for their domination in the North American region.

The third and fourth expeditions

It began in May 1498 and ended in November 1500. As a result, the island of Trinidad and the Orinoco estuary were discovered. In August 1498 Columbus landed on the coast of South America on the peninsula of Paria, and in 1499 the Spaniards reached the coasts of Guiana and Venezuela, followed by Brazil and the mouth of the Amazon. And during the last - the fourth - the journey from May 1502 to November 1504 Columbus was already open Central America. Its ships passed along the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, reached from Costa Rica and Panama to the Darien Gulf.

New continent

In the same year another seafarer, Amerigo Vespucci, whose expeditions were under the Portuguese flag, also examined the Brazilian coast. Having reached Cape Cananea, he put forward the hypothesis that the land that Columbus discovered was not China, or even India, but a completely new continent. This idea was confirmed after the first round-the-world trip, made by F. Magellan. However, contrary to logic, the new continent was named America - on behalf of Vespucci.

True, there are some grounds for assuming that the new continent was named in honor of the Bristol philanthropist Richard of America from England, who financed the second transatlantic journey of John Cabot in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci already after that took the nickname after the so-called continent. In support of this theory, the researchers cite facts that Cabot reached the Labrador coast two years earlier, and therefore became officially registered as the first European to step on American soil.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, Jacques Cartier, a French navigator, reached the shores of Canada, giving this territory its modern name.

Other applicants

The development of the continent of North America was continued by such seafarers as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Baffin. It was thanks to their research that the continent was studied up to the Pacific coast.

However, history knows and many other names of seafarers, who moored to the American land even before Columbus. This is Hui Shen, a Thai monk who visited this 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, the Chinese explorer Zheye He, the Portuguese Juan Kortialel, etc.

But, in spite of everything, it is Christopher Columbus who is the man whose discoveries had an unconditional influence on the whole history of mankind.

Fifteen years after the time when the ships of this navigator were discovered by America, the very first geographic map of the continent was compiled. Its author was Martin Waldseemüller. Today, being the property of the Library of Congress of the United States, it is stored in Washington.