«- Okay, take care of him! There are many memories associated with this suitcase.
- What memories? Not a single trip...
- About all the trips we never went on…»
Jack and Jill: Love on Suitcases

Nowadays, everyone knows that the discovery of America belongs to a gentleman named Christopher Columbus. This is where the school program to cover such a grandiose event usually ends, and those interested have to independently search for the necessary information in the library and the Internet. At this moment the most interesting thing comes: a person learns that with Columbus’s visit to America, not everything is so simple. There is evidence that he was not the first there, that many years before his first steps along the shores of the New World, Scandinavian Vikings, Biscay fishermen and other travelers were already frolicking there.

Today we will try to go through all the stages of the discovery of America, which are known to us from reliable sources, and establish who was the first to officially set foot on the shores of the new continent and declare it the New World.

Columbus Expedition, 1492

The end of the 15th century, there are still many unexplored places on Earth where no human has ever set foot. Obsessed with great plans to conquer everything, the Spaniards decided to create the Great Expedition to the Canary Islands, consisting of three high-speed caravels, one of which was the Santa Maria, a ship whose admiral was Christopher Columbus. Ahead of him lay months of travel and one of the main achievements in the history of mankind. On August 3, 1492, the ship weighed anchor and set off.

Admiral of all seas and oceans

In the spring of 1492, a few months before the expedition, Christopher Columbus, or, as the Spaniards called him, Don Cristoval Colon, was in audience with the royal couple who ruled Spain. Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon suggested that the researcher conclude an agreement according to which Christopher Columbus is recognized as the admiral of all seas and oceans, as well as a high-ranking governor of all lands and islands that he can discover during his journey. It would be unforgivable to refuse such an offer.

An additional incentive in the kings' proposal was the fact that one tenth of all the wealth, treasures and goods that Columbus would be able to exchange or find on new lands, the traveler could take for himself, while the remaining nine-tenths would go to the disposal of the royal treasury. This was a truly generous offer that could make Columbus one of the richest men in Europe.

Along with the title and wealth, Don Cristoval Colon was offered guarantees that his title would be inherited forever. He will also be able to retain his privileges for life in the previously unexplored lands of India. All participants in the journey were convinced that, setting sail to the West, Columbus would reach the eastern shores of India, but a surprise awaited them.

« The admiral decided to count fractions of the journey less than they actually took, in the event that the voyage turned out to be long, so that people would not be overcome by fear and confusion»

The True Aims of Christopher Columbus

Despite all the royal promises, Columbus's true motives and ideas about the Earth at that time remain the subject of debate to this day. Historians recognize the significant contribution of the great traveler to the history of mankind and his influence on the era of the Great geographical discoveries. However, this does not negate the fact that Columbus was driven more by mercantile interests than by the spirit of exploration.

A generous offer from the royal couple, as well as the opportunity to discover new trade routes and the untold riches of the East, were of much greater interest than perishing in the middle of a storm or dying from an unknown disease on unfamiliar shores. It was the thirst for money that became the main incentive for travelers of those times to make the most striking geographical discoveries.

However, if Columbus was calculating, he was also smart. Many modern historians suggest that the discoverer knew in advance where he would sail. That there is no India beyond the Atlantic Ocean, there is New land, endless and uninhabited. There were even rumors that Columbus had a certain map on which researchers marked not only the already discovered islands in the Atlantic Ocean, but also East Coast continent, which would later be called South America.

IN In 1474, the Florentine scientist Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who devoted his life to astronomy, geography and mathematics, sent a letter to the Portuguese king in which he drew conclusions about the geography of our planet, given that it is a sphere. Toscanelli argued that in this way you can get to India much faster if you sail through Atlantic Ocean. There is evidence that Columbus somehow obtained this letter, or a copy of it, with an attached map on which new lands were marked. However, no one has been able to prove this.

Conspiracy theories surrounding the discovery of America

Like any other high-profile scientific discovery, Columbus's voyage quickly acquired its own conspiracy theories from ill-wishers and simply due to a lack of information. We have no way to verify the events that took place in the 15th century, so speculation and theories will continue to exist. These include the rumors that Columbus himself was looking for an opportunity to go on a trip to the West, because he knew that there was a New Land there, so he tried to persuade the kings to equip an expedition for him.

According to some theories, Columbus simply followed the “beaten path” from other navigators who discovered this route long before him. Indeed, to make such a desperate journey across the unfriendly Atlantic Ocean for ships of those times seemed, if possible, then deadly dangerous.

Despite the fact that the majority of historians are of the opinion that it was Columbus who discovered America, there are many people, including respected ones in the scientific community, who suggest that the continent was discovered long before Columbus’s historical voyage in 1492. One of the main proponents of this theory was an Englishman named Gavin Menzies, who once wrote a book called “1421, or the year China discovered the world.”

The public loves conspiracy theories, so Menzies' book caused concern among the masses. In the same time, science community is in no hurry to take seriously everything said in this book.

« Thursday, October 11. We sailed west-southwest. During the entire voyage there had never been such rough seas. We saw “pardelas” and green reeds near the ship. People from the Pinta caravel noticed a reed and a branch and caught a stick hewn, possibly with iron, and a fragment of a reed, and other herbs that were born on the ground, and one plank. People on the Niña caravel saw other signs of the earth and a twig strewn with rose hips. Everyone was inspired and happy when they saw these signs.»

Diary of the First Voyage, Christopher Columbus

The Great Journey of the Chinese

Despite the fact that the names of almost all great travelers are of European origin, the desire to explore the world was inherent in everyone on Earth.

In the spring of 1421, when the famous Christopher Columbus had not even been born, in one of the Chinese cities called Tangu, the ships of the Great Emperor's fleet were preparing to sail. The commander of the flotilla was the venerable Zheng He. More than a hundred huge unique ships were sent to the open sea. No other power in the world had similar ships: these were real autonomous floating giants that could calmly survive any storms on the high seas.

At that time there was a great holiday in China Forbidden City, after which the emperor instructed his admiral Zheng He to act as a kind of taxi driver and take high-ranking guests to their homes, who arrived from all over the world. When the admiral completed the task, the emperor ordered him not to rush back home, but instead to look “to the ends of the earth” and collect tribute from all the barbarians that he met along the way, and also wrap them in Confucianism in order to make civilized people out of them.

This voyage of the Golden Fleet was the largest ever undertaken by China. For three years, sailors explored our planet, and in his book, Gavin Menzies suggested that it was the Chinese travelers who were able to draw up an approximate map of the globe, putting all six continents on it, and also walked around all the oceans.

Obsessed with his idea of ​​​​dispelling the influence of Columbus, Menzies spent many years collecting the facts of the Great Chinese Voyage, bit by bit, that were left to us from those times. His task was complicated by the fact that all of Zheng He's diaries and ship's logs were destroyed or lost.

Some of Menzies' efforts were successful. For example, he established the fact that the wreckage of giant Chinese ships, the so-called “junks,” were found off the coast of almost all continents. Despite the fact that historians prefer to believe that junk wrecks could have been carried to Australia and America by currents, the research of Gavin Menzies cannot be ignored within the framework of modern history. Archaeologists also found Chinese maps on which all the continents were depicted, including America. Menzies is confident that these maps are much older than Columbus himself.

Amerigo Vespucci and the famous confusion

At school we were often told that although Christopher Columbus discovered America, it got its name in honor of another explorer. The fact is that Columbus never realized where he had sailed. Until recently, the researcher was sure that this eastern shores India and the Eurasian continent.

The traveler's research was inspired by the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who a few years later shared his thoughts about the discovery of Columbus with his mentor Francesco del Medici. In them, he suggested that the new lands that Columbus spoke about in Spain are not eastern part India, and this is a completely new continent. These letters, as well as Vespucci's thoughts on other travels, were published in a large collection in 1507, which for some reason was called "The New World and New Countries Discovered by Amerigo Vespucci of Florence."

The significance of Columbus's discovery of America was lost in writing, and in the same year, the German cartographer Waldseemüller, based on Vespucci's letters, proposed calling the new part of the world America in honor of the name Amerigo. He reflected all this in his book “Introduction to Cosmography”. It is noteworthy that although Vespucci wrote about Columbus, Waldseemüller did not attach any importance to this.

The style of the young German scientist was liked by the public, and a few years later, in 1520, during a scientific meeting of the greatest minds of those times, the general consensus geographical map The planet was named America.

Since then, the controversy has not subsided. If Columbus did not understand that he had discovered the New World, and Vespucci did it for him, then can the latter be credited with the discovery of the continent?
However, there is evidence that people conventionally discovered new continents long before the voyages of the Chinese, Columbus and Vespucci’s assumptions.

Ambitious Vikings

At the end of the 10th century, when Europe had not yet thought about domination over the whole world, a large boat with Nords on board set sail from the shores of Iceland. They were commanded by Björni Hjorlfson, a rugged Norwegian Viking who was motivated by a thirst for adventure and profit.

Björni Hjorlfson set out to sea to reach Greenland, where a colony of Vikings had already settled and traded with Scandinavia. But Hjorlfson lost his way due to a storm, and a few days later he arrived at the shores of an unknown land, which were dotted with dense impenetrable forests. Björni decided not to take risks and not to land on an unfamiliar shore, but simply swam along it, simultaneously remembering everything he saw. A few days later, the Viking managed to swim to Greenland, where he told about what he had seen.

Hjorlfson's stories inspired another settler of Greenland, Leif Erikson, the son of the same Erik the Red, who was famous among the Viking peoples for his heroic character. The spirit of adventure led Leif and his comrades along the route told by Björni. First, their boat sailed to the rocky shore, which is now called Baffin Island. The area here seemed lifeless, everything around was covered with glaciers. Deciding that there was no life and nothing good on this land, the Vikings moved on, simultaneously giving the stone land a name - Helluland, the Land of Boulders.

Then the travelers reached the Canadian shores, covered with vegetation and forests. The Vikings also gave this land a name - Markland. Forest Land. The young and profit-hungry people did not stop there, so they went further south. A few days later they dropped anchor in one of the coastal bays. Coming ashore, the friends found real wild grapes among other vegetation, so they named this area Vinland. Modern historians have found that this bay is now located in Massachusetts.

Having returned after a long journey along unfamiliar lands, the Nords did not want to miss the opportunity to populate them, so two years later they equipped a new expedition. Leif's brother, the famous Thorvald, went to the shores of America and dropped anchor at the place of his brother's last stop - in Vinland. Here they unexpectedly met local residents - Indians who appeared in the bay on their pirogues. Everyone knows that the Vikings were not timid and were not averse to fighting, so the Norwegians simply killed several Indians and captured the rest. That same night, the Indians came to avenge their slain brethren and rained down arrows on the Viking camp. One of them hit Torvald, and he died a few days later.

In 1003, the Vikings again came to the shores of America, now with serious intentions of settling in uninhabited lands. Almost two hundred people sailed here on three boats, established relationships with the local population and even built a village here. However, the Indians soon sharply changed their attitude towards uninvited guests, and flatly refused to share lands with them. A bloody war broke out between people again, and traces of the Scandinavians soon completely disappeared from the shores of America.

Everyone from school knows the story of how in 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus reached the shores of America, mistaking it for India. Many believe that this historical moment is the discovery of America, however, everything was much more complicated.

First Europeans in North America

Modern archaeological evidence suggests that the real discoverers of America were the Scandinavian Vikings. Written sources telling about these travels are:

• "Saga of the Greenlanders";
• "The Saga of Eric the Red."

Both works described the events of the late 10th and early 11th centuries. They told about the maritime expeditions of Icelanders and Norwegians to the west. The first person to decide to long journey among polar ice there was an adventurer and navigator Eric the Red. Eric committed several murders for which he was expelled first from Norway, then from Iceland. After the second exile, Eric assembled a whole flotilla of 30 ships and sailed west. There he discovered a huge island, which he called Greenland. The first Viking settlements appeared here, which gradually turned into full-fledged colonies that lasted for several centuries.

However, the Vikings did not stop there and continued to advance westward. According to medieval evidence, at the end of the 10th century the Vikings knew about the existence of a certain land called Vinland. The inhabitants of Vinland, according to the descriptions of the Scandinavians, were short, dark, with wide cheekbones and dressed in animal skins.

Similar legends existed among the indigenous people North America. Among the Indians who lived in Canada, there was a legend about a mythical kingdom of tall, white-skinned and blond-haired people who had a lot of gold and furs.

For a long time, the fact that the Vikings were in North America remained unconfirmed. But in the 1960s, a real Scandinavian settlement was discovered on the island of Newfoundland. Presumably, it was founded by Eric the Red, and then led by his followers, including the daughter and daughter-in-law of the navigator. However, this Scandinavian colony did not last long. Due to conflicts with the Indians, the Vikings had to leave Vinland.

Another indisputable fact in favor of the presence of the Vikings in North America was put forward by geneticists. Scientists studying the origins of the modern inhabitants of Iceland discovered the presence of Indian blood in their genes. And in 2010, anthropologists were able to study the remains of an Americanoid woman, who influenced the genetic structure of the Icelanders. Apparently she was taken from North America to Iceland as a slave at the beginning of the 11th century.

Thus, the first people to discover America to Europeans were undoubtedly the Vikings.

Activities of Amerigo Vespucci

Due to the fact that the Vinland colony existed for only a few years, specific information about it was gradually erased from human memory. The once open America again ceased to exist for Europeans. When Christopher Columbus set out on his journey, only two continents were depicted on world maps - Eurasia and Africa. In 1498 to India via Pacific Ocean the Portuguese Vasco da Gamma passed. His journey ended successfully, and then it became known in Europe that the lands that Columbus reached were not India at all. All this negatively affected the authority of the Italian navigator. Columbus was declared a fraud and stripped of all his discoverer privileges.

The man who drew up maps of new lands and subsequently gave them his name was the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was originally a financier. In 1493, he was approached by Christopher Columbus, who had recently returned from his first expedition and wanted to continue exploring the discovered lands. Columbus decided that the land he discovered were some islands in Asia that required closer study. Vespucci agreed to finance Columbus's subsequent voyages. And in 1499, Vespucci decided to leave his banker's chair for sea adventures and went on an expedition to unknown lands.

Vespucci's path lay to the shores South America, while the traveler used the maps that Columbus gave him. Vespucci carefully studied the coast and came to the conclusion that these were not separate Asian islands, but an entire continent. Vespucci decided to call these lands the New World.

Many European monarchs became aware of the former banker’s expeditions. At the beginning of the 16th century, Vespucci served as cartographer, cosmographer and navigator to the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs.

In total, Vespucci participated in three trips. During their course he:

• explored the coasts of Brazil and Venezuela;
• explored the mouth of the Amazon;
• managed to climb the Brazilian Highlands.

From his travels, Vespucci brought slaves, sandalwood and travel notes to Europe, which were later published and sold in large numbers. In addition to his geographical discoveries, Vespucci described in his diaries the customs of local residents, the flora and fauna of new lands.

Already in 1507, the first maps appeared on which the new continent was plotted. According to the tradition that developed during this period, the lands of the New World began to be called America - in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.

(1492-1493) consisting of 91 people on the ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta", "Nina" left Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, from the Canary Islands turned to the West (September 9 ), crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas archipelago, where Christopher Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 (the official date of the discovery of America). On October 14-24, Christopher Columbus visited a number of other Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5 he opened and examined the site northeast coast Cubes. On December 6, Columbus reached Fr. Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on a reef, but the people escaped. Columbus on the ship Niña completed his exploration of the northern coast of Haiti on January 4-16, 1493 and returned to Castile on March 15.

2nd expedition

The 2nd expedition (1493-1496), which Christopher Columbus led already with the rank of admiral and as viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of over 1.5 thousand people. November 3, 1493 Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, turning to the North-West - about 20 more Small Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands, and on November 19 - the island of Puerto Rico and approached the northern coast of Haiti. On March 12-29, 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, made an aggressive campaign into Haiti, and crossed the Cordillera Central ridge. On April 29-May 3, Columbus with 3 ships sailed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, turned south from Cape Cruz and discovered the island on May 5. Jamaica. Returning to Cape Cruz on May 15, Columbus passed along south coast Cuba to 84° west longitude, discovered the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, the Zapata Peninsula and the island of Pinos. On June 24, Christopher Columbus turned east and explored the entire South coast Haiti. In 1495, Christopher Columbus continued his conquest of Haiti; On March 10, 1496 he left the island and returned to Castile on June 11.

3rd expedition

The 3rd expedition (1498-1500) consisted of 6 ships, 3 of which Christopher Columbus himself led across the Atlantic Ocean near 10° north latitude. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco River delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Having then entered the Caribbean Sea, Christopher Columbus approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered Margarita Island on August 15, and arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti) on August 31. In 1500, Christopher Columbus was arrested following a denunciation and sent to Castile, where he was released.

4th expedition

4th expedition (1502-1504). Having obtained permission to continue the search for the western route to India, Columbus with 4 ships reached the island of Martinique on June 15, 1502, the Gulf of Honduras on July 30, and opened the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to the Gulf of Uraba from August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503. Turning then to the North, on June 25, 1503 he was wrecked off the island of Jamaica; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Christopher Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504.

Discoverer Candidates

• The first people to settle in America were the indigenous Indians, who moved there about 30 thousand years ago from Asia along the Bering Isthmus.
• In the 10th century, around 1000, the Vikings led by Leif Eriksson. L'Anse aux Meadows contains the remains of a Viking settlement on the continent.
• In 1492 - Christopher Columbus (Genoese in the service of Spain); Columbus himself believed that he had discovered the route to Asia (hence the names West Indies, Indians).
• In 1507, cartographer M. Waldseemüller proposed that open lands were named America in honor of the New World explorer Amerigo Vespucci - this is considered the moment from which America was recognized as an independent continent.
• There is sufficient reason to believe that the continent was named after the surname of an English philanthropist Richard America from Bristol, who financed John Cabot's second transatlantic expedition in 1497, and Vespucci took his nickname in honor of the already named continent. In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on American soil, two years before Vespucci (we are talking about North America). Cabot compiled a map of the coast of North America - from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. In the Bristol calendar for that year we read: “... on the day of St. John the Baptist, the land of America was found by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name “Matthew” (“metic”).

Hypothetical

In addition, hypotheses were put forward about the visit to America and contact with its civilization by sailors before Columbus, representing various civilizations of the Old World (for more details, see Contacts with America before Columbus). Here are just a few of these hypothetical contacts:

• in 371 BC e. - Phoenicians
• in the 5th century - Hui Shen (Taiwanese Buddhist monk who in the 5th century traveled to the country of Fusang, identified in different versions with Japan or America)
• in the 6th century - Saint Brendan (Irish monk)
• in the 12th century - Madog ap Owain Gwynedd (a Welsh prince, according to legend, visited America in 1170)
• there are versions according to which, at least from the 13th century, America was known to the Templar Order
• in 1331 - Abubakar II (Sultan of Mali)
• OK. 1398 - Henry Sinclair (de St. Clair), Earl of Orkney (c. 1345 - c. 1400)
• in 1421 - Zheng He (Chinese explorer)
• in 1472 - João Corterial (Portuguese)

Thor Heyerdahl's version about the Egyptians visiting America is also known. As part of the evidence there were expeditions on boats Ra and Ra-2, built using ancient technologies. The first boat failed to reach the Caribbean islands, but was only a few hundred kilometers short. The second expedition achieved its goal.

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Notes

Literature

• Bakeless D. America through the eyes of discoverers / Trans. from English 3. M. Kanevsky. - M.: Mysl, 1969. - 408 p.: ill.
• Magidovich I. P. History of the discovery and exploration of North America. - M.: Geographgiz, 1962.
• Magidovich I. P. History of the discovery and exploration of Central and South America. - M.: Mysl, 1963.
• John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. The Book of General Delusions. - Phantom Press, 2009.

Before Columbus Great maritime discoveries Conquistadors Mapping

Excerpt characterizing the Discovery of America

While Boris continued to make mazurka figures, he was constantly tormented by the thought of what news Balashev had brought and how to find out about it before others.
In the figure where he had to choose ladies, whispering to Helen that he wanted to take Countess Pototskaya, who seemed to have gone out onto the balcony, he, sliding his feet along the parquet floor, ran out the exit door into the garden and, noticing the sovereign entering the terrace with Balashev , paused. The Emperor and Balashev headed towards the door. Boris, in a hurry, as if not having time to move away, respectfully pressed himself against the lintel and bowed his head.
With the emotion of a personally insulted man, the Emperor finished the following words:
- Enter Russia without declaring war. “I will make peace only when not a single armed enemy remains on my land,” he said. It seemed to Boris that the sovereign was pleased to express these words: he was pleased with the form of expression of his thoughts, but was dissatisfied with the fact that Boris heard them.
- So that no one knows anything! – the sovereign added, frowning. Boris realized that this applied to him, and, closing his eyes, bowed his head slightly. The Emperor again entered the hall and remained at the ball for about half an hour.
Boris was the first to learn the news about the crossing of the Neman by French troops and thanks to this he had the opportunity to show some important persons that he knew many things hidden from others, and through this he had the opportunity to rise higher in the opinion of these persons.

The unexpected news about the French crossing the Neman was especially unexpected after a month of unfulfilled anticipation, and at a ball! The Emperor, at the first minute of receiving the news, under the influence of indignation and insult, found what later became famous, a saying that he himself liked and fully expressed his feelings. Returning home from the ball, the sovereign at two o'clock in the morning sent for secretary Shishkov and ordered to write an order to the troops and a rescript to Field Marshal Prince Saltykov, in which he certainly demanded that the words be placed that he would not make peace until at least one the armed Frenchman will remain on Russian soil.
The next day the following letter was written to Napoleon.
“Monsieur mon frere. J"ai appris hier que malgre la loyaute avec laquelle j"ai maintenu mes engagements envers Votre Majeste, ses troupes ont franchis les frontieres de la Russie, et je recois a l"instant de Petersbourg une note par laquelle le comte Lauriston, pour cause de cette aggression, annonce que Votre Majeste s"est consideree comme en etat de guerre avec moi des le moment ou le prince Kourakine a fait la demande de ses passeports. Les motifs sur lesquels le duc de Bassano fondait son refus de les lui delivrer, n "auraient jamais pu me faire supposer que cette demarche servirait jamais de pretexte a l" aggression. En effet cet ambassadeur n"y a jamais ete autorise comme il l"a declare lui meme, et aussitot que j"en fus informe, je lui ai fait connaitre combien je le desapprouvais en lui donnant l"ordre de rester a son poste. Si Votre Majeste n"est pas intentionnee de verser le sang de nos peuples pour un malentendu de ce genre et qu"elle consente a retirer ses troupes du territoire russe, je regarderai ce qui s"est passe comme non avenu, et un accommodement entre nous sera possible. Dans le cas contraire, Votre Majeste, je me verrai force de repousser une attaque que rien n"a provoquee de ma part. Il depend encore de Votre Majeste d"eviter a l"humanite les calamites d"une nouvelle guerre.
Je suis, etc.
(signe) Alexandre.”
[“My lord brother! Yesterday it dawned on me that, despite the straightforwardness with which I observed my obligations towards Your Imperial Majesty, your troops crossed the Russian borders, and only now have I received a note from St. Petersburg, with which Count Lauriston informs me regarding this invasion, that Your Majesty considers yourself to be on hostile terms with me from the time Prince Kurakin demanded his passports. The reasons on which the Duke of Bassano based his refusal to issue these passports could never have led me to suppose that the act of my ambassador served as a reason for the attack. And in fact, he did not have a command from me to do this, as he himself announced; and as soon as I learned about this, I immediately expressed my displeasure to Prince Kurakin, ordering him to carry out the duties entrusted to him as before. If Your Majesty is not inclined to shed the blood of our subjects because of such a misunderstanding and if you agree to withdraw your troops from Russian possessions, then I will ignore everything that happened, and an agreement between us will be possible. Otherwise, I will be forced to repel an attack that was not provoked by anything on my part. Your Majesty, you still have the opportunity to save humanity from the scourge of a new war.
(signed) Alexander.” ]

On June 13, at two o'clock in the morning, the sovereign, calling Balashev to him and reading him his letter to Napoleon, ordered him to take this letter and personally hand it over to the French emperor. Sending Balashev away, the sovereign again repeated to him the words that he would not make peace until at least one armed enemy remained on Russian soil, and ordered that these words be conveyed to Napoleon without fail. The Emperor did not write these words in the letter, because he felt with his tact that these words were inconvenient to convey at the moment when the last attempt at reconciliation was being made; but he certainly ordered Balashev to hand them over to Napoleon personally.
Having left on the night of June 13th to 14th, Balashev, accompanied by a trumpeter and two Cossacks, arrived at dawn in the village of Rykonty, at the French outposts on this side of the Neman. He was stopped by French cavalry sentries.
A French hussar non-commissioned officer, in a crimson uniform and a shaggy hat, shouted at Balashev as he approached, ordering him to stop. Balashev did not stop immediately, but continued to walk along the road.
The non-commissioned officer, frowning and muttering some kind of curse, advanced with the chest of his horse towards Balashev, took up his saber and rudely shouted at the Russian general, asking him: is he deaf, that he does not hear what is being said to him. Balashev identified himself. The non-commissioned officer sent the soldier to the officer.
Not paying attention to Balashev, the non-commissioned officer began to talk with his comrades about his regimental business and did not look at the Russian general.
It was unusually strange for Balashev, after being close to the highest power and might, after a conversation three hours ago with the sovereign and generally accustomed to honors from his service, to see here, on Russian soil, this hostile and, most importantly, disrespectful attitude towards himself of brute force.
The sun was just beginning to rise from behind the clouds; the air was fresh and dewy. On the way, the herd was driven out of the village. In the fields, one by one, like bubbles in water, the larks burst into life with a hooting sound.
Balashev looked around him, waiting for the arrival of an officer from the village. The Russian Cossacks, the trumpeter, and the French hussars silently looked at each other from time to time.
A French hussar colonel, apparently just out of bed, rode out of the village on a beautiful, well-fed gray horse, accompanied by two hussars. The officer, the soldiers and their horses wore an air of contentment and panache.

23.03.2016

The name of the American continent is strongly associated with the name of Christopher Columbus, the famous discoverer of the New World. There is evidence that even before the 15th century, Europeans managed to reach the shores of America. These were the Vikings who sailed to the coast of the Labrador Peninsula in the 10th century. However, their travels did not have much practical significance for Europe; they were generally unknown to contemporaries. Therefore, the honor of being considered the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach a new continent began to belong to Columbus. Although the question is still sometimes asked: “Who was the first to discover America - Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci?” So, first things first...

In 1492, Christopher Columbus, trying to get to India by a short route from the eastern side, discovered the islands Central America. Columbus hatched the project of an expedition to the west for ten years, and it took about eight more to find organizers and sponsors. He proposed the idea to Genoese merchants, Portuguese, French, English rulers, and, more than once, to the Spanish royal couple.

Ultimately, it was the Catholic monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, who agreed to patronize Columbus, gave him a title of nobility and promised a monopoly on income from the territories that he managed to discover. On his first voyage in 1492-1494, this Spanish subject (although he was Italian by origin) discovered the islands: Haiti (Hispaniola), Cuba, San Salvador (one of the Bahamas).

Columbus returned to his homeland in full confidence that he had achieved East Asia, mistaking Cuba for a peninsula of China. On the next sea voyage, several thousand people on 17 ships set off to the shores of still unexplored islands. In search of gold and other treasures, Europeans began to seize the islands and subjugate the natives, who were called Indians.

The maps included Dominica, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Montserrat, Antigua, Puerto Rico and other names. But the mainland of “India” had still not been discovered, as well as the gold promised to the king. Having learned about the dissatisfaction of his patrons, Columbus was forced to return to Spain in order to somehow justify himself. He managed to regain the favor of the rulers and gain the right to sole exploration of the lands of the West Indies.

The third expedition in 1498 turned out to be more modest; it was possible to raise funds to send only six ships. But this time Columbus was able to explore about 300 km of mainland Central America. Once at the mouth of the Orinoco River, he realized that such large river must flow from a large land mass. But he was unable to continue the expedition due to illness.

In 1499, Vasco da Gama triumphantly returned to Portugal, opening the sea route to real India. Columbus, after such news, completely lost the trust of the Spanish monarchs and was even taken into custody. He was soon released under the patronage of influential friends who financed the expeditions. However, the monopoly on land development was taken away from Columbus. And the supply of settlers in the West Indies (as this region was still called) was entrusted to the new manager of the finances of the Florentine trading house - Amerigo Vespucci.

Vespucci was an employee of the trading house that sponsored Columbus's second and third expeditions. The navigator's successes aroused curiosity in the Florentine, and when such an opportunity arose, he himself set off on a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean. On the voyage of 1499, he received a position as navigator on the ship of Admiral Alonso de Ojeda. Using maps compiled by Columbus, Ojeda easily led his crew to the coast of the mainland.

They reached land on the territory of modern Suriname. Moving along the coast, the travelers reached the Bay of Maracaibo, where Vespucci saw houses standing in the water on stilts. He called this country “Little Venice” - Venezuela. In 1500, a map of the West Indies was published, where, among others, all the names given by Amerigo Vespucci during the expedition of Alonso de Ojeda were plotted. The author of the map was the pilot Juan de la Cosa.

Vespucci, returning from his first trip, moved from Spanish Cadiz to Lisbon, from where, already under the patronage of the Portuguese king, he visited the shores of the new continent twice more. Information about Vespucci's travels is preserved in letters to his patron Lorenzo Medici and the gonfaloniere (guardian of justice) of the Florentine Republic and longtime friend Pietro Soderini. These texts aroused keen interest in Europe and were translated into French, German, Italian and spanish languages(the originals were written in Latin).

The German cartographer and publisher Martin Waldseemüller published the book “Introduction to Cosmography,” where he published letters from Vespucci, in which he called the discovered lands the New World. The publisher himself was so delighted with the travels described that he suggested naming the mainland in honor of Amerigo. The public supported this idea. This is how America acquired its modern name.

The achievements of Columbus quickly faded into the background among his contemporaries, because after him much more large-scale discoveries began to occur in the continental regions of the New World. However, when looking at the events of more than five hundred years ago, the primacy of Christopher Columbus in the exploration of America is no longer in doubt.

As everyone probably knows well, such a process as the discovery of the continent of America is a very broad topic, but this article will talk about the discovery of America briefly, laying out the main essence.

The discovery of America is one of the most important events in the world history of mankind, as a result of which, the Old World - that is Western Europe, learned about the existence of a new, huge continent called America.

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus - discovery of a new continent

Great navigator Christopher Columbus in 1492 year went on a sea voyage to to find a shorter route to the rich country of India.

The King and Queen of Castile and Aragon sponsored this expedition, consisting of three ships.

12 October the same year Christopher Columbus reached the present-day Bahamas and this day is considered the date of the discovery of a new continent. After that, they discovered a number of more islands. In March 1493 Columbus returned to Castile. Thus ended his first of four expeditions to America, which he discovered.

The second expedition already included quite a large number of ships and people. If in the first there were only three ships and a crew of less than a hundred people, then in the second expedition there were seventeen ships or more 1 thousand people on board. The most important achievement of this expedition can be considered conquest of Haiti. After this, Columbus V 1496 year returns to Spain again.

Scope third expedition, which started V 1498 year, was much smaller - only six ships. The discovery of South America began precisely with the third expedition. This expedition was interrupted V 1500 year for the reason that Columbus was arrested and sent to Castile, but upon arriving there, he was completely acquitted.

Already at this moment, a huge number of people appeared who wanted to take credit for the brilliant discovery of Christopher Columbus. IN 1502 Columbus is struggling to be sponsored again for another search for a short, sea ​​route to India. During this expedition he discovered the shores of modern Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama and so on. But in 1503 year, Columbus's ship was wrecked, which forced him to stop his expedition to 1504 year, returning to Castile.

After this, Christopher Columbus never returned to America.

However, as further study of history has shown, it was not Christopher Columbus who first set foot on the lands of the new continent; this was done long before his birth.

And yes, in general, humanity began to populate America only in 30 thousand years BC e.

And they discovered it for the first time, although they did not know that it was an entire continent, by none other than the masters of the seas - Vikings, back in the 10th century.

Leif Eriksson should be considered the discoverer. Leif is the son of Erik the Red, a Viking and navigator who discovered Greenland.
This fact is confirmed by traces of a Viking settlement found in L’Anse aux Meadows (the current territory of Newfoundland and Labrador (in Canada)).

As for Columbus's voyage, he himself believed that he had discovered not a new continent, but the shores of Asia. And only in his last years did he realize that he had discovered a new continent.

The open continent was named after one of the main explorers of the New World - Amerigo Vespucci. This memorable event took place in 1507 year, from that moment on the continent was considered independent.

There are also several hypotheses in history that other sailors could have discovered America. The most popular hypotheses are:
- in the fourth century BC. e. it could have been discovered by the Phoenicians;
- in the sixth century AD e. it could have been the Irish monk Brendan;
– approximately in 1421 year Chinese navigator Zheng He;

However, there is no confirmation of this yet.