When and who discovered America? The issue remains controversial to this day. Because, first, it is necessary to decide: what is considered the discovery of America? The first proven European visit to the New World? This happened half a millennium before Christopher Columbus (remember the Normans). The first settlement of Europeans on the new mainland appeared at the same time. Although, the Vikings did not appreciate their discovery …
But Columbus too! The discovery of America at the end of the Middle Ages is of particular importance: it was from this time that the colonization of the new continent by Europeans began, and then its study. However, uncertainty remains. Consider: in the first two expeditions, Columbus surveyed only the islands adjacent to the New World. Only in the summer of 1498 did he set foot on the land of South America.
A year earlier, members of an English expedition headed by John Cabot, an Italian by birth, reached North America. And in this case, it was assumed that the "Kingdom of the Great Khan" (China) was opened. In the spring of next year, the voyage was repeated. But the lack of economic benefits, income from this kind of enterprises cooled the interest of the British in the development of new territories. Scientific advances must be recognized and associated with the expansion of the horizons of knowledge. And here - a complete lack of understanding of the essence of what has been achieved. It is more logical to determine the moment when the truth was first revealed. And then the name Amerigo Vespucci comes to the fore.
But we must pay tribute to the feat of Columbus and his contribution to the knowledge of the Earth. It was he who obtained the evidence (albeit later substantially refined), received facts confirming the idea of the spherical shape of the Earth. It is no coincidence that he conceived a trip around the world and tried to implement it. Let Columbus imagine the Earth much less than it really is. It is more important that he not only speculatively, in his imagination, but also really, thanks to travel, became convinced of the spherical, closedness of earthly space.
And yet, the oceans have turned from a great barrier into great connecting links, connecting all continents and all peoples of the planet. The conditions have been created for the creation of a single all-terrestrial civilization (“oceanic”, according to LI Mechnikov's idea). In the following centuries, all that remained was to develop vehicles and establish contacts.
A significant fact: almost at the same time with the accession of Columbus to the land of South America, and Cabota - North, the Portuguese flotilla under the command of Vasco da Gama first reached India by sea. Dozens of years later, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Balboa with a military detachment, having overcome the mountain slopes and dense thickets, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and was the first of the Europeans to visit the shores of the unknown "South Sea".
The World Ocean somehow immediately, almost overnight, submitted to people. Why did it happen? First of all, as a result of the emergence of navigation devices that make it possible to navigate the open sea, as well as geographical maps of lands and oceans. Although the instruments and maps were imperfect, they made it possible to navigate in space, to outline specific goals and pave the way to them.
Christopher Columbus
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Amerigo Vespucci was a fairly experienced helmsman and cartographer, knew navigation; the last years of his life he was the chief pilot of Castile (he checked the knowledge of the ship's helmsmen, supervised the drawing up of maps, was engaged in drawing up secret reports to the government on new geographical discoveries). He took part in one of the first expeditions to reach the "Southern Continent" (as South America was originally called) and, perhaps, was the first to realize the essence of the achievement. In other words, he made a scientific theoretical discovery, while Columbus practically discovered new lands.
At the time of Amerigo, allegedly his letter was printed, which reported on his visit to the southern continent as early as 1497, that is, before Columbus. But this is not documented. It is very likely that nothing of the kind simply happened. But there is no doubt that Amerigo was not involved in this kind of misunderstanding. He did not claim the pioneering laurels and did not try to assert his priority. This was influenced by the popularization of knowledge and the spread of printing.
In Europe, messages about new lands and peoples were snapped up. People understood all the greatness of the deeds performed, their enormous significance for the future. Printing houses promptly printed messages about travels to the west. One of them appeared in 1503 in Italy and France: a small pamphlet entitled "New World". The preface says that it has been translated from Italian into Latin, "so that all educated people know how many wonderful discoveries have been made these days, how many unknown worlds have been discovered and what they are rich in."
The book was a great success with readers. It is written lively, interestingly, truthfully. It informs (in the form of a letter to Vespucci) about the voyage in the summer of 1501 on behalf of the King of Portugal across the stormy Atlantic to the shores of the Unknown Land. It is called not Asia, but the New World.
A little later published another message about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. And in the end, a collection appeared, including stories by different authors about the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and some other travelers. The compiler of the collection came up with a catchy title that intrigues readers: "New World and New Countries Discovered by Alberico Vespucci from Florence".
Thousands of readers of the book could decide that both the New World and the new countries were discovered by Amerigo (Alberico), although this does not follow from the text. But the title is usually better remembered and more impressive than any paragraphs or chapters in a book. In addition, the descriptions belonging to the pen of Amerigo were performed vividly and convincingly, which, no doubt, strengthened his authority as a discoverer.
A little later in Germany, Vespucci's New World was published under the title "On the Antarctic Belt." And then the same work, already under the guise of a letter to the ruler of a small German kingdom, appeared as an addition to the famous and now classic "Cosmography" by Ptolemy. They called the whole work like this: “Introduction to cosmography with the necessary foundations of geometry and astronomy.
Amerigo Vespucci
To this 4 voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and, in addition, the description (map) of the Universe both on the plane and on the globe of those parts of the world that Ptolemy did not know about and which have been discovered in modern times. " It is said about the discovery of America: "Amerigo Vespucci, truly speaking, informed mankind about this more widely." The authors of the supplement were sure that Amerigo first set foot on a new continent back in 1497. Therefore, it was proposed to name the open land "by the name of the wise man who discovered it."
Quite fantastic contours of the New World were drawn on the world map with the inscription: "America" The sound of the word turned out to be attractive to many people. It was readily put on maps. The opinion about Amerigo as the discoverer of the New World spread - spontaneously. And among specialists, the image of a clever rogue, an ambitious swindler who appropriated his name to an entire continent was more and more definitely formed.
Thus, a sincere fighter for justice Las Casas in his writings angrily denounced Amerigo. But not a single document was found to support such charges. Vespucci himself never suggested calling the open lands by his own name. He quite definitely wrote: "These countries should be called the New World" and referred to the facts obtained in travel and research.
The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig said well about Vespucci: “And if, in spite of everything, a sparkling ray of glory fell on him, then it happened not because of his special merits or special guilt, but because of a peculiar combination of circumstances, mistakes, accidents, misunderstandings … A person who talks about a heroic deed and explains it can become more significant for posterity than the one who accomplished it. And in the uncalculable play of historical forces, the slightest impulse can often have the strongest consequences …
America shouldn't be ashamed of its name. This is the name of an honest and courageous man who, already at the age of fifty, set sail three times on a small boat across the unknown ocean, as one of those “unknown sailors”, hundreds of whom at that time risked their lives in dangerous adventures … This mortal name was transferred to immortality not by the will of one person - it was the will of fate, which is always right, even if it may seem that it is acting unfairly … And today we use this word, which was invented by the will of blind chance, in a fun game, as a matter of course, the only conceivable and the only correct - sonorous, light-winged word America”.
True, there is reason to believe that the New World was named after the Bristol philanthropist Richard of America (England), who financed the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took the nickname in honor of the continent named so. To prove this version, the researchers cite the facts that Cabot reached the shores of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to set foot on a new land.
Navigators such as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Baffin continued to explore the continent of North America. And thanks to their research, a new continent was explored all the way to the Pacific coast. But history knows many other names of seafarers who visited the new land even before Amerigo Vespucci and Columbus. These are Hui Shen - a Thai monk who visited there in the 5th century, Abubakar - the Sultan of Mali, who sailed to the American coast in the 14th century, Count of Orkney de Saint-Clair, Chinese explorer Zhee He, Portuguese Juan Corterial, etc.
V. Markin