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> The reason why that is relevant is that the Viking discovery of America is of no significance if it didn't help European discovery in any way. In my opinion,

> The reason why that is relevant is that the Viking discovery of America is of no significance if it didn't help European discovery in any way. In my opinion, this is an incredibly narrow-minded view. Native Americans and pretty much the rest of humans were two branches of the human race that had almost been cut off from each other, and re-united after more than 10000 years. Showing the time and extent of this first contact is more or at least as significant as whether or not it helped "European discovery". For example, it could have been Polynesians being in extensive contact with South America – which would have zilch to do with Europe, but would still be very significant.

wavefunction 11y ago
There's evidence as others have pointed out of African expeditions and I've read about evidence of Chinese and Polynesian contact with South America so I'm not sure it was quite as drastic a gulf as you propose.
- cmrdporcupine 11y ago
  No significant gene flow, so quite a drastic gulf. The fact that populations in the Americas were decimated by disease after contact should be enough to show how significant it was.
- parennoob 11y ago
  I did mention the possibility of Polynesian contact in my comment. But neither this nor the Chinese contact has been comprehensively proved, especially not with archaeological evidence.
- runarberg 11y ago
  Not to mention numerous migrations over the Bering, one of the most resent, the Inuit migration, happened around the same time as the Norse explorations.
jernfrost 11y ago
I don't know what your metric for significance is, but for me it is related to the extent of change of history it causes. A Viking discovery which did not influence Columbus in any way is IMO of tiny significance, because whether it happened or not would have made no impact on history. Colombus discovery of America in contrast caused a dramatic change to development of world history. It could be claimed it was one of the major factors in European world dominance which has affected pretty much every society on the planet the last hundred years. I am saying this as a Norwegian. As much as I'd loved the Viking discovery of America to mean a lot it is completely overshadowed by the dramatic impact of Columbus discovery on later world events. Of course there are alternative ways in which Viking discovery could have been important without influencing Columbus. E.g. if they caused significant changes to native American culture, technology etc. But they seem to have had zero influence on native american culture. They were simply too few people to make any sort of influence.
- deleted 11y ago
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deepnet 11y ago
First contact may have infected that continent with virulent European pathogens. Recent discoveries suggest the Americas were vastly more populated but wiped out by viruses. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302445/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302...

wavefunction 11y ago

There's evidence as others have pointed out of African expeditions and I've read about evidence of Chinese and Polynesian contact with South America so I'm not sure it was quite as drastic a gulf as you propose.

cmrdporcupine 11y ago
No significant gene flow, so quite a drastic gulf. The fact that populations in the Americas were decimated by disease after contact should be enough to show how significant it was.
parennoob 11y ago
I did mention the possibility of Polynesian contact in my comment. But neither this nor the Chinese contact has been comprehensively proved, especially not with archaeological evidence.
runarberg 11y ago
Not to mention numerous migrations over the Bering, one of the most resent, the Inuit migration, happened around the same time as the Norse explorations.

jernfrost 11y ago

I don't know what your metric for significance is, but for me it is related to the extent of change of history it causes. A Viking discovery which did not influence Columbus in any way is IMO of tiny significance, because whether it happened or not would have made no impact on history. Colombus discovery of America in contrast caused a dramatic change to development of world history. It could be claimed it was one of the major factors in European world dominance which has affected pretty much every society on the planet the last hundred years. I am saying this as a Norwegian. As much as I'd loved the Viking discovery of America to mean a lot it is completely overshadowed by the dramatic impact of Columbus discovery on later world events. Of course there are alternative ways in which Viking discovery could have been important without influencing Columbus. E.g. if they caused significant changes to native American culture, technology etc. But they seem to have had zero influence on native american culture. They were simply too few people to make any sort of influence.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

deepnet 11y ago

First contact may have infected that continent with virulent European pathogens. Recent discoveries suggest the Americas were vastly more populated but wiped out by viruses. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302445/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/03/1491/302...