Ericson was far from the first person to discover the Americas. There’s a whole genre of literature devoted to the possibility that some other ancient culture may have landed here before the Europeans in the Age of Discovery. From the Chinese, to Arabs, to ancient Egypt, to Phoenicia; but so what? Columbus’s discovery of the New World was only the vanguard of the European expansion, whereby the various nations of the continent explored and colonized the whole world, in the process creating the modern era. Ericson discovered some new lands, and the world went on as before, nothing changed. That’s why Columbus get’s the credit, while Lief unfortunately (for him) gets the historical footnote.
“There’s a whole genre of literature devoted to the possibility that some other ancient culture may have landed here before the Europeans in the Age of Discovery.”
- I’m so impressed by these possibilities.
Perhaps India invented dynamite and everyone in shitholes like Caracas or Detroit drives around in a nice Volvo like people do in Gothenburg and Stockholm.