Posted on 03/11/2005 8:19:24 AM PST by MikeEdwards
Africans made successful journeys to the Americas in the 1100-1200s, but they used surface currents to get there so they didn't make it back. Another previous visit that doesn't matter as much as Columbus'.
This is pure fiction.
But making that discovery known to the rest of the world is part of the criteria for giving credit. For instance the patent office give precedence to the first person to file a patent for a device rather than the first person to design it. Science give priority to the first person to publish a paper not to the person who first came up with an idea.
"Africans made successful journeys to the Americas in the 1100-1200s, but they used surface currents to get there so they didn't make it back."
The evidence for this is what?
Yes. I read recently that archeologists on the east coast discovered an ancient kitchen midden with the remains of a boiled potato and several empty bottles of Guinness. ;^)
Things have changed in the world of sovereignty and stateness since then. At that time Columbus was legally entitled to claim the New World for Spain. The people who were here already had no claim since they could not refute the Euro claim. European rules were the rules of the day.
First, there's the kingdom of Mali (an absurdly rich, powerful kingdom) being known to have sent hundreds of boats to see what's out in the Atlantic to trade with. All disappeared, except on one trip some returned to say the rest of the fleet was sucked away by a westward current. You'll see this if you look at the surface current map of the Atlantic, which has currents going straight from where Mali was (Western tip of Africa) to where evidence was found.
Then we found many carvings depicting black men and women, and skeletons of blacks with African cultural dental mutilations, and all far predating Columbus. There was a lot more.
The good Commander does not realized that it matters little who discovered what first; what matters is who made it stick.
"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," will not likely be replaced with "In 1421, China was the one".
Columbus was the world's first democrat. When he left Spain, he didn't know where he was going. When he arrived in North America, he didn't know where he was. And when he got home, he didn't know where he had been. And he did it all on borrowed money.
"Then we found many carvings depicting black men and women, and skeletons of blacks with African cultural dental mutilations, and all far predating Columbus. There was a lot more."
I checked the source of this info and it reeks of multicultural BS. Lots of hearsay, legends and 2nd hand stories. Little fact. Sorry but the source is not credible.
The first boat sank because the modern-day builders ignored ancient carvings clearly showing ropes from the top of the mast supporting the stern and prow.
Keep reading, there's lots more. The team that found the negroid skeletons was from the Smithsonian.
One problem with people believing this is the common misconception that Africa was a very backwards continent, which is not factually true. They had rich kingdoms and overseas trading hundreds of years before Europeans rounded the tip of Africa.
BTW, Mali was so rich that it's king's spending money caused a gold market crash in Cairo when he went through on a pilgrimage.
Still, none of this takes away from Columbus. All previous visits resulted in no permanent settlement having contact with homeland.
And THAT is the key point. It took the Spanish & Portuguese -- followed by the English & French -- to integrate the western hemisphere with the rest of the "civilized" world. A chance visitation without lasting documentation really doesn't 'count'. BTW, I think the Vikings & possibly the Irish were here before Columbus. But I think that Columbus deserves the credit.
Thanks! As I recall, they got some South Americans indians to build the second raft. When was that, anyway?
Quite true. Thanks.
I read about it in high schol, so it's all pretty vague.
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