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kapuerajam's avatar

Who do you think discovered America?

Asked by kapuerajam (920points) June 16th, 2008 from iPhone

Christopher Colombous,Asians,or Normans.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

34 Answers

kapuerajam's avatar

they came in about 908 A.D.
I think they landed in cape cod or something

wrestlemaniac's avatar

Well they didn’t know the word america back then to lay claim to it

marinelife's avatar

D None of the above. The so-called Native Americans walked across the Siberian land bridge earlier than that, say 13,000 years ago.

kapuerajam's avatar

word is that america is the related to the name of a chiniesee explorer that sailed across the pacific.

kapuerajam's avatar

Yeah but they were Asian hunters that ran out of bison. Easteren Siberia = part of asia (russia is most of Siberia and is divided between Eurupe and Asia)

shrubbery's avatar

Well I just started reading American Gods by Neil Gaimon and there’s a chapter near the start about guys landing there for the first time, doesn’t actually say who but they worship Odin so that would be the Vikings right? Not that this is definately true since it’s in a novel but hey, I’m sure he did research to base it on…

BirdlegLeft's avatar

“Discovered” as in by people who didn’t already live here? I mean, there is this group of people called Native Americans. Or do they not count?

marinelife's avatar

@kapurajam It doesn’t matter why they discovered it, does it? They stayed. Is running out of bison a lesser reason than seeking spices or other riches?

wrestlemaniac's avatar

Well whoever discovered the americas didn’t do it on perpose i mean they weren’t like “hey let’s get in our ships and set sail to find america” no they did it by accident, people were searching for a route to trade stuff.

kapuerajam's avatar

thats what my old teacher jammed into our adolesent brains and gave us a
pop quiz on

wrestlemaniac's avatar

Cavemen?? uh a little explaination please.

kapuerajam's avatar

@wrestlemaniac- yes,colombus was searching for the western passage to get to Asia (they
were looking for it for ages)

wrestlemaniac's avatar

there i rest my case:)

elchoopanebre's avatar

My point is that people were here long before famous Europeans like Vespucci or Columbus ever “discovered” it.

kapuerajam's avatar

@elchoopanebre yes,there were native amaricans but I would’nt call them cave men

playthebanjo's avatar

Didn’t the Anasazi Pueblos live in caves? Don’t let your personal definitions of the term “Cave Men” change a possible definition.

kapuerajam's avatar

I don’t think so they built their villages in the side of mountains using mud brick

elchoopanebre's avatar

@play the banjo

high five!

p.s. I play the mandolin…

kapuerajam's avatar

not exactly the stereotypical edition of a cave man but it took a while for Indians to filter to there

playthebanjo's avatar

Indians? Like from India? (sorry- couldn’t resist)

kapuerajam's avatar

no I ment native amaricans sorry to all native amaricans on fluthe

wildflower's avatar

The Vikings of course! Shortly after discovering my corner of the world :)

robmandu's avatar

Seriously, I hate getting into semantics. Really, I do.

Wouldn’t discovery imply that someone knew what they’d found? Newton discovered gravity when the apple fell on his head (figuratively). But of course, all people for all time had been subject to gravity all along. He gets credit because he measured it, quantified it, and explained it (mathematically).

In that regard, would the original native americans qualify to be called the discoverers of America? Or were they ignorant of their place in the world?

wrestlemaniac's avatar

now i think we both know that the apple on the head story is a fake. it could have been somthing else that inspired him, and if something did hit him on the head how do we know it was an apple why not a pear or an orange?

robmandu's avatar

@wrestlemaniac, try the link I placed on the word figuratively above:

Whilst he was pensively meandering in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from a tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from earth, but that this power must extend much further than was usually thought. Why not as high as the Moon said he to himself & if so, that must influence her motion & perhaps retain her in her orbit, whereupon he fell a calculating what would be the effect of that supposition.

—John Conduitt, Newton’s assistant at the Royal Mint and husband of Newton’s niece, described the event when he wrote about Newton’s life

marinelife's avatar

The pueblo dwellings only date to about 800 years ago (as compared to 13,000 for the Siberians). They were also much earlier than the Vikings (sorry, Wildflower).

b's avatar

Dinosaurs.

Trance24's avatar

What ever human life form got there first. Personally I would go with the indians, but thats only because I dont know much about the life on American soil before the indians. Or if there was any primitive human life that walked on it. (Before the time of the development of language, and villages and such.)

ckinyc's avatar

the Natives have names for their lands. Just because they didn’t call it America doesn’t mean they don’t know where they were. Imagine some space aliens landed on “America” tomorrow and decided to call it 100110110. Then what?

wrestlemaniac's avatar

It’s the-e-e end of the world as we know it and i fe-e-el fi-i-i-ne.(sorry couldn’t resist)

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