Who Discovered America Essay

The age old question of who discovered America first has been debated over for many years now. Throughout history many people have been given the credit as being the first to arrive, or discover, America over the time span of hundreds of years. Some theories of who discovered America are Leaf Erikson, Native Americans, China, and surprisingly Muslims. All of these people, nation, or group of people, have been proven or thought of to have arrived, lived, or landed on America before Christopher Columbus even thought about sailing. Native Americans were in fact living in North America when the colonist came over from England. That question that remains unanswered however is how and when the Native Americans settled in North America. The internet

The most notable, or remembered, viking that pops into people’s minds is Leif Eriksson, yet people don’t know much about who Leif Eriksson is exactly. In the article, “The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America” by Christopher Klein talks about Leif Eriksson and the voyage that led to Eriksson accidentally landing on North America because his ship got off course. “After crossing the Atlantic, the Vikings encountered a rocky, barren land in present-day Canada” (Klein p.4). While in this statement the vikings landed in Canada it can still be considered they made it to North America before Columbus ever did, but after the Native Americans arrived. Many people must also remember that this is not the only place that Eriksson landed when he traveled across oceans to spread the word about Christianity. Leif Eriksson was also first only known as a myth and legend among the Norwegian people until actual proof was founded that Viking indeed landed in North America. Daniel Luzer wrote an article titled, “How We Discovered That Christopher Columbus Didn’t Get to America First” is a detailed article that explains to readers the proof that was founded to prove this theory of Columbus not being the first. Many artifacts were soon being founded were it was believed the Vikings landed. Lutzer explains, “Eventually Ingstad recovered hundreds of Norse artifacts-a