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Why obviously? How was America missed in earlier maps?
by altrego99 12y ago
Why obviously? How was America missed in earlier maps?
- trhway 12y agoi hope it was a joke :) Upvoted you back base on such hope :)
- 6581 12y agoColumbus discovered America in 1492.
- deadfall 12y agoArguable, some think that Viking explores like Leif Erikson discovered America first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson
- 6581 12y agoYes - I didn't mean to imply Columbus was the first one, but regarding the question of why America was not on maps before, Columbus' discovery is the relevant one.
- flipped_bit 12y agoPossibly Polynesians might have landed in California earlier than the Vikings: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Did-ancient-Polynesians-visit-California-Maybe-2661327.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Did-ancient-Polynesians-v... There was a documentary about this too which raised some interesting points. There is one more potential location they would have sailed to - Chile in South America: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/polynesian-seafarers-discovered-america-long-before http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/storie...
- maaku 12y agoAnd the Native Americans arrived thousands of years earlier. But it's kinda irrelevant to the question of why European map makers didn't have the Americas on their globes until post-1493.
- silvio 12y agoBecause Europe didn't know about America until 1492.
- qnaal 12y agoOr more accurately, as that wikipedia page mentions, March 1493- when Columbus got back.