The idea that Columbus "discovered" America surely is not taken
seriously by anyone on this list. It would be fair to say that he
brought the Americas to the awareness of several 15th century
European sovereigns, but "discovered?" For Kennwicke Man, and a host
of others, such a statement would be hilarious. One of the nicest
developments in the past two decades has been the realization amongst
scholars that North America, dating back to at least to 15,000 BCE,
has always been a land of immigrants, multi-racial, multi-ethnic,
multi-religious in nature. No population is indigenous, all
populations were once immigrants. I find that rather lovely.
-- Stephan
On 4 May 2008, at 21:39, Anne Pemberton wrote:
> Anita,
>
> While this controversy is a sore issue here in Virginia (and
> therefore on this forum), a similar controversy over a book erupted
> on my American History forum when we read the book 1421, in which
> the author proposed that the Chinese may have "discovered" America
> before Columbus. Those who refused to admit there could have been
> others who preceded Columbus, shot holes in the book on the
> silliest grounds - editing problems, for example. They were adamant
> in insisting that if someone is going to refute what we've all been
> taught in school, they must have more prestige in the field of
> history than to be a mere retired navyman.
>
> What 1421 did was open my mind to other possibilities - perhaps the
> Chinese, perhaps the Basques, perhaps the Albans, perhaps the
> Russians, perhaps the Polenesians were the first non-Natives to
> view our continent. The only thing that is now certain, is that
> Columbus was the first to press with his "discovery"!
>
> Anne
>
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.erols.com/apembert
> http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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