I’ve spent a little time listening to 1421: The Year China Discovered America (which I’m not sure what to do with), and I think most of us have known for a long time that the Vikings were in Newfoundland a long time before Columbus. (See Vikings settled in North America in 1021AD, study says.)
Some even say that St. Brendan and a collection of Irish monks went to America in the 6th century.
While those things are very interesting, I don’t think they diminish the significance of Christopher Columbus.
Even if Brendan, the Chinese and the Vikings were all in America before Columbus, nothing of any significance happened afterwards, while lots and lots of significant stuff happened after Columbus. Crops were swapped between Africa, Europe and America. Various sorts of trade were established. There were permanent European settlements.
The Vikings didn’t bring tobacco or coffee to Europe, or horses to America, or any number of other things that happened because of Columbus.
Which all raises the question, what does it mean to “discover” a new land? What if some Pacific Islanders were swept down to Antarctica and died there. Did they “discover” it?
Columbus was not the first non-native to set foot in the Americas, but it was his voyages that put America on the map.
In September I went on a week-long vacation to Newfoundland. I needed to get out of LargeCanadianCity and go someplace with more interesting topography.. Was a great trip, and though it’s out of the way, I recommend St John’s to anyone with an interest in things maritime or early NorthAm history.
I knew intellectually that Newfoundland only became a province midcentury, but only when you’re there do you realize it’s more than that. It was really another country, and still shows signs of it. I mean, I passed a building labelled Office of the High Sheriff, and the place was ruled by admirals for a long time. Plus the music and food are great, and the locals are fun to listen to.
In many ways it felt more alien than visiting Quebec because even though they speak French, the Anglo/Francophone split has always been part of the Canadian story. They’re the brother you’re different from. The Newfoundlanders are more like cousins.. they had their own parallel story going on all this time and developed in their own fashion. To me it felt more like visiting the US or Britain, which are at once familiar and strange, than visiting any other province I’ve been to.
Whenever people talk about the impossibility of reconfiguring the alignment of regions in the US, it’s worth remembering that Canada has both Quebec and western separatist movements, and we consumed the Dominion of Newfoundland not that ago..
Another thing they made clear was that even though Columbus kicked the New World into high gear, it was really John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) who was most responsible for the English-speaking world’s exploration of the New World, more so than Columbus. There are even arguments that sailors from Bristol made it to the Grand Banks a few decades earlier but who can tell? Evidence is very thin on the ground.
Still more plausible than the specifics of Menzies’ 1421 idea, IMHO. Although given the long time periods involved I wouldn’t be surprised if almost any seafaring people who had any chance of accidentally finding their way to the coast managed it at some point, even if they left no trace.
(rambling, I know, but off to the optometrist)
Your comment about French confused me, so I had to look up what language they speak in Newfoundland.
I’ve never been to Canada. I need to go sometime.
Sorry, yeah, poorly worded. Trying to say that allegedly English-speaking Newfies feel more alien to me than the Quebecois.