Who really discovered America, Columbus or another gentleman (Americus?)?
912408
well... technically the vikings did... a guy named lief ericson then came amerigo vespucci and lastly and the one that got the credit: Christopher Columbus
442993
Christopher Columbus was the first to make the new land known to the rest of the world.  At that time, Europe was the area of the world where all information spread from. Also, Europe was in the Age of Exploration. The countries or should I say empires were looking for new routes to Asia to avoid import taxes which were common in ports on the Mediterranean Sea. This was the usual route most traders took in reaching Asia.  Christopher Columbus believed he had reached Asia until the time he died. Later explorers were the ones who realized he had landed in a new world. The Vikings were in North America much earlier, but their main concern was food, and the only record we have of their being in North America was found in the Sagas they wrote.
8360
Yep, there was a Native American geonocide.\n\nThere were millions of people living in the Americas when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492. Columbus's voyage to what Europeans called the "New World" set the stage for the later European colonization of the Americas, with millions of emigrants (willing and unwilling) from the "Old World" eventually resettling in the Americas. While the population of Old World peoples in the Americas steadily grew in the centuries after Columbus, the population of the American indigenous peoples plummeted. The extent and causes of this population decline have long been the subject of controversy and debate, which became particularly widespread in 1992 during the 500th anniversary of Columbus's famous voyage, with a number of people claiming that the natives of the Americas have been the victims of genocide.
472142
I read somewhere that Amerigo Vespucci authored a very popular map of the new world, but nobody knew what the interior of the continents looked like so he had to leave that area blank...and inasmuch as he had all that open space to work with, he placed his name very prominently in the middle of the continental area.  Other people saw the name and assumed it was the name of the land (and not the author) and started calling it America as a result.  So essentially it was a mistake.
801329
No. Both from different cultures.Both from different times (not contemporaries) Both were explorers yes....
1104410
Ok sweetie, first of all ignore the ignorants, they are partially right but they still don't know how to answer the question. Ok here we go.\n\nAmerigo Vespucci or Américo Vespucio in spanish (see the relationship?) was an italian explorer that in 1501 arrived in what now is Guyana (North of "South" América) he sailed through the Amazona River and ended up in Patagonia (The very south of the American Continent).\n\nAmérico was the first European that realized that this was a new CONTINENT instead of Asia (What they thought at the begining, that's why we call our natives Indians because that was the destination of Columbus). The news spreaded rapidly over Europe and in 1507 a publication of a map made by the German Martin Waldseemüller using the description given by amerigo (Américo) showed the new land name as AMERICUS (In Latin) or América (Spanish because Americo was with the Spanish explorers) in honor of Americo.\n\nThe actual concept of América is the name of what people call North Central and South America which at the end and technically AND CORRECTLY speaking is the name of the whole land that starts in Canada and ends in Argentina. Back then, and, some countries now call americans refering to all people of the new continent (Not only the USA).\n\nNow in the USA, This country was called in honor to that name and also was the first country that became independent from a European authority.\n\nBeing called United States of America means States unified in a land called America which means in some kind of selfish and honorable way that the name of USA is America.\n\nThe only thing I ask you to do is please know and spread the word because there's people that really don't know how they became what they are, and yes, you can and should refer to American or americans to all people in the new continent and the nationality of the USA citizens, but you have to explain when you mean which one. To finish my answer is that everybody that know the difference and knows how to explain it is right and everybody in this WHOLE CONTINENT is an AMERICAN, the north, central and south definitions came after.\n\nThanks for letting me finally explain this to everybody. It took me a long time to figure the why's and the how's (I was born in the USA but raised in Venezuela so it helped expand my mind and knowledge).\n\nTootles
631440
The Ancient Greeks knew the world was round.  Their work in mathematics and geography allowed them to calculate the approximate curvature and circumference of the Earth.  The Romans also knew the world was round.  So much of the information from the Classical world was destroyed either during the burning of the library at Alexandria or during the many purges and book-burnings of the Dark Ages.  Much more information was hidden by the Church and forbidden.  Both the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration were about a return to the enlightened times of Classical Europe.  Christopher Columbus theorized that the Earth was not flat, and attempted to sail to Asia in 1492.  He thought he had reached Asia, but it turns out that the Earth was much larger than expected.  He simply re-discovered the Western Hemisphere.
348194
He might not be the hero that people think he he was.\nProof of the vikings landing there before him might have survived.\nThe Pilgrim Fathers might have not bothered to colonise.\nThe Indigenous people may have divided the land with a tribal influence, instead of The United States.\nLord Cornwallis would have stayed at home and grown old.\nBoston Harbour would not have had a tea party.\nPlace names in America would not have been taken from Europe,ie, New York, New Jersey, LIVERPOOL, and would have all been Indian.\nImmigrants are and have been the life blood of the Americas and also the biggest perceived problem for the future, save terrorism.and if Columbus had not landed, you would be a far different person than you are today.\nGod Bless America.
7096
In 1507, cartographer Martin Waldseemueller named the New World "America" after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci.  Amerigo navigated a couple of trips to the New World beginning 1499, but never actually founded a voyage himself.  It remains a large mystery why Waldseemueller chose Amerigo's first name as the choice for the name of the New World.  It may be that he wrote about the New World and was more widely-known for his writings, which led to the naming.  It may be that Amerigo could be easily translated into Latin, and began with "A" like many other foreign continents.  Regardless, he lives in fame to this day.
1168324
Yes, it is proven in the same way you would claim to prove that George Washington or Christopher Columbus existed. Based on evidence provided by witnesses. \n\nNo one now alive has ever seen Washington or Columbus, but we all accept that they lived based on accounts from the period.  Same as Christ and God-- we can know Christ walked on Earth based on accounts written by witnesses (even those not included in the Bible, since you're so against that--there are secular reports of His earthly life as well, read Josephus among others). As for God, we see the order and beauty in the creation around us and see His handiwork & know that He exists.
585724
A number of theories exist regarding the naming of North and South America. The most widely recognized is that they are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a New World, previously undiscovered by Europeans. The second and less generally accepted is that the continents are named after an English merchant named Richard Amerike from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. A third theory that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of 'Amairick'.\n\nThe America's are the European name for the area know as the new world, once humans formd a country the people who are citizens are called AMERICAN's, a shortened name of USA. All US citizens are called Ameicans but not all people who live in the US are called that, some are called Illegal Immigrants, Undocumanted workers or plainly immigants
1009162
Seems to me like cultural bias. A "pasty white chick" who resides in Isreal ... somewhat illogical. If this is truly a "historical modification," it's not the first. Though Columbus was not the first person to "discover" America, Catholics engrained it into our national culture to retain a Catholic influence in Protestant America. I recall a book that suggested the Founding Fathers' economic interests superceded their other motives for founding this country. And, then, if you read the DaVinci Code, that poses an interesting and thoughtful idea as well.
832186
It was Thales of Miletus, 635 BC - 543 BC who first described it. Ben Franklin missed this discover by over 2000 years.
1178995
Ok sweetie, first of all ignore the ignorants, they are partially right but they still don't know how to answer the question. Ok here we go.\n\n Amerigo Vespucci or Américo Vespucio in spanish (see the relationship?) was an italian explorer that in 1501 arrived in what now is Guyana (North of "South" América) he sailed through the Amazona River and ended up in Patagonia (The very south of the American Continent). \n\nAmérico was the first European that realized that this was a new CONTINENT instead of Asia (What they thought at the begining, that's why we call our natives Indians because that was the destination of Columbus). The news spreaded rapidly over Europe and in 1507 a publication of a map made by the German Martin Waldseemüller using the description given by amerigo (Américo) showed the new land name as AMERICUS (In Latin) or América (Spanish because Americo was with the Spanish explorers) in honor of Americo.\n\nThe actual concept of América is the name of what people call North Central and South America which at the end and technically AND CORRECTLY speaking is the name of the whole land that starts in Canada and ends in Argentina. Back then, and, some countries now call americans refering to all people of the new continent (Not only the USA).\n\nNow in the USA, This country was called in honor to that name and also was the first country that became independent from a European authority.\n\nBeing called United States of America means States unified in a land called America which means in some kind of selfish and honorable way that the name of USA is America.\n\nThe only thing I ask you to do is please know and spread the word because there's people that really don't know how they became what they are, and yes, you can and should refer to American or americans to all people in the new continent and the nationality of the USA citizens, but you have to explain when you mean which one. To finish my answer is that everybody that know the difference and knows how to explain it is right and everybody in this WHOLE CONTINENT is an AMERICAN, the north, central and south definitions came after.\n\nThanks for letting me finally explain this to everybody. It took me a long time to figure the why's and the how's (I was born in the USA but raised in Venezuela so it helped expand my mind and knowledge).\n\nTootles
463921
I am assuming you mean the guy who explored with Merriwether Lewis. Here is something from PBS\n\nhttp://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/clark.htm
73839
I think the messy business of the European colonization of the American Continents is pretty much common knowledge.  Who, exactly, are you trying to incite then?  Is it the millions of North & South Americans who now lead comfortable, modern lives, or the two or three other people -- like yourself -- stuck in 1492?  Besides, people are solid believers in something that was made 'by man', but they are also free to choose not to believe, or to not be 'solid' believers.  Let it go, no one appriciates the people like you who have mistaken this service as a soapbox (though your ranting does help make the rest of us feel better about ourselves, so thanks for that public service) ;)
153803
I think you mean who discovered smoking? and i think it was the aztecs