Who was the first navigator to discover America and sail around Africa?

For a long time, people have always thought that Columbus first discovered America, and its classic story goes like this:

Christopher Columbus, an Italian, was born in Genoa, Italy in 145 1. He has no formal education, but with his love for the sea since he was a child, he learned a lot about sailing and made a plan to sail eastward to win gold. In the hierarchical society at that time, his ambitions and plans were not understood by the authorities because of his humble background. After many twists and turns, in the late15th century, facing the historical trend of the replacement of old and new worlds and the great collision between eastern and western civilizations, he finally gained the appreciation of the Spanish royal family, making this scientific and brave adventurer, who believed in God and was predatory, a trend leader.

With the support of the Spanish royal family, Columbus led a fleet of three ships and 88 people to cross the Atlantic for the first time in August 1492. Two months later, they came to Watling Island in the Bahamas, declared the island as Spanish territory in the name of the Spanish king, and named it "San Salvador" (savior). He mistakenly thought that this place was part of East India, so he called the residents here "Indians" (that is, the residents of India). Then I mistakenly thought that it was not far from the east of Duran Peanut, so I took a break here and continued my western expedition. What was left along the way was the brutality of the colonists and the blood and tears of the Indians. Because of the shipwreck on Christmas Day, Columbus was forced to return to Spain and suffered heavy losses. The royal family held a grand welcoming ceremony for this expedition to plunder treasures and slaves, which made this once unknown civilian suddenly become a "great national hero".

1493 In September, after careful preparation, Columbus left Barros harbor with a huge fleet consisting of 17 ships and 1200 people, and began his second transatlantic expedition. The brutality of Columbus and his associates met with strong resistance from American Indians. Being outnumbered and attacked by yellow fever, Columbus was forced to return home only after sailing to the Caribbean. The Spanish royal family was very dissatisfied that he didn't grab more gold and slaves, and his expedition was put on hold. After more than four years of extensive lobbying, we obtained the permission of the third western expedition in May 1498. The size of the fleet is far less than last time, with only six ships. In order to make up the necessary number of people, he collected many criminals and barely made up 300 people. The voyage was not only in vain, but also because the news that the Portuguese expedition arrived in India debunked his lie of "discovering the Indies", which made Columbus suddenly fall from a "national hero" to a "liar" and then a prisoner. Later, with the rescue of his friends, he was pardoned and released from prison, and was allowed to make another expedition.

1502 In February, Columbus led a fleet of four ships and 150 crew members to start his last voyage. This time, he finally landed on the Central American continent. But because he didn't plunder much gold and silver, his ship was damaged one after another, and finally he was trapped on an island in Jamaica for a whole year and almost died of illness. 1504165438+10, Columbus returned to Spain with his sick body empty-handed. The angry king arrogantly confiscated all his property to pay off the debts owed by the expedition. Poor and ill, Columbus ended his sailing career and died in the crew dormitory where he lived 1506.

Today, five centuries have passed, and people have not only questioned Columbus's "first discovery in America", but also produced many rhetoric about Columbus himself.

Eric williams, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said: "Now every student knows that Columbus was not the first person to' discover' America."

When talking about Columbus, latin american history experts Curtis Willges and Raul Degahe said, "We can't know exactly when and where he was born, what his early life was like, what his face was like, whether he could read and write, where he first landed in America, or where he was buried after his death."

Historian Thomas said in his History of Latin America: "Columbus is a mystery ... few people can tell his life exactly."

Historian Elmano Nectario Maria is a first-class scholar in the National Institute of History of Venezuela. He believes that there are two Columbus, one is cristobal Columbus, a Spanish Jew, born in Genoa, Mallorca, Spain, who can only speak Spanish but not Italian; The other is Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, Italy, who is engaged in commercial navigation in the Mediterranean. It was Spanish cristobal Columbus who discovered America, not Italian Christopher Columbus. Their birthplaces "Genova" and "Genoa" have the same spelling letters. The story of Columbus spread, and people confused the two Columbus. This is also the reason why the portraits of Columbus in different versions of the book are completely different.

Nectario further pointed out: In fact, it was not Columbus who first discovered America, but a Spaniard named Alonso Sanchez de huelva who first discovered America. Sanchez landed on the American continent around 148 1. When he came back, he went to cristobal Columbus' home in Las Vegas, Made Island, and died there. Before he died, he gave him all the navigation materials. 10 years later, cristobal Columbus used these materials to make that famous voyage.

Obviously, whether Columbus or Sanchez landed on the American continent, it was not the "first discovery". Before they came, there were not only tens of millions of residents here, but also Europeans, Africans and Asians had already landed in America before them. It's just that they didn't come to expand their sphere of influence and plunder the colonies, but to avoid disasters, cultural exchanges or commercial trade, and they were peaceful exchanges or explorations.

The exploration of America before Columbus

In the past few centuries, especially since the 20th century, with the development of archaeology, anthropology, ethnology and linguistics, important progress has been made in the study of America, especially after a long period of archaeological excavations, where the Indians came from and who their ancestors were, which has aroused widespread concern among scholars. At present, it is basically clear which nationalities visited America earlier, namely Phoenicians, Wiggins, Welsh and China. This is also the reason why Indians are multi-ethnic. But the ancestors of Indians mainly came from Asia, and mainly from China. There are two channels for China people to migrate to America, one is the northern land channel (Bering Strait Bridge) and the other is the southern waterway channel (Southeast Asia and South Pacific Islands). Personally, I think that at the end of the Quaternary Glacier, the ice margin extended southward greatly, and the whole North Pacific region was a world of ice and snow. Archaeological findings confirm that American pioneers arrived in central North America (the border area between the United States and Canada) along the ice margin much closer than the Bering Strait, and then dispersed from here along the fan-shaped south and southeast direction, instead of reaching Alaska in North America through the land bridge in the Bering Strait.

Vikings in ancient Scandinavia were a nation with superb shipbuilding technology and navigation experience. According to documents, in 985 AD, an expedition led by Bigani Herufsen arrived in America, and then the Vikings moved to America one after another. Due to 300 years of colonial rule and ethnic integration in the United States, there are no traces of Vikings in the United States at present.

According to British historical records, Prince Madoko Owen Gwen Nedel fled his brother's persecution because of the problem of succession to the throne. 1 170, he led a Welsh fleet to immigrate to the United States. At present, there are still medieval Welsh-style buildings in the United States, and the descendants of the Welsh nation have not been found.

The Phoenicians in ancient Africa were a country with an early civilization and were also famous for shipbuilding and navigation. In the 10 century BC, they once ruled the Mediterranean region. According to research, as early as the 6th century BC, they sailed around Africa and arrived in America.

As for the statement that other Europeans, such as Norwegians, Irish, Caucasians, etc., also visited America before Columbus, there is either a lack of evidence or a relatively late time, so I won't go into details here.

China arrived in the United States:

Historians believe that China immigrated to America twice in ancient times, once more than 6,000 years ago. At that time, in order to capture the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Emperor Yan launched a "battle of competing deer" with the Yellow Emperor in the north, and Emperor Yan was defeated. Chiyou, the chieftain of Jiuli tribe who took part in the war, was killed. Some of his tribe fled to the north with their ally Kuafu, and some of them returned to the land of wuyue in the south, becoming the ancestors of Yao people now. A tribe heading north was chased to North Yan Di by the Huangdi tribe, so people naturally didn't want to go back to China, and Huangdi people didn't want to go back to China, because it was a long way and dangerous all the way, so people from two tribes settled down in America and became the first residents to immigrate to America. 199 1 On the cover of National Geographic magazine in June, 2008, a picture of toast of Huangdi in Xuanyuan was published. The magazine is sponsored by the National Geographic Society of the United States, and it is very authoritative in professional aspects. Publishing this picture on the cover is enough to show that it is unusual. In addition, this picture was repeatedly published on page 83, and at the same time, the same unusual "Hibiscus Picture Returning to the Market after a windy night in Chiyou" was published on page 77. Both photos are in color. They were preserved by Iroquois Indians in the village of Ottungo near the Mohawk River in the northeastern United States. Obviously, these two paintings, which are hard to see in China, could not have been created by Indians, nor could they have been introduced to the United States in modern times. They can only be the product of the worship of the Yellow Emperor and were brought to the United States by people at that time.

The second large-scale immigration to the United States occurred in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties more than 3,000 years ago. A week later, the commander-in-chief of Yin Jun, You Houxi, led an army of 100,000 and 150,000 people, and 250,000 people suddenly disappeared. At the same time, Olmec civilization rose in Central America. This civilization has two remarkable characteristics: first, it lacks a transitional stage, as if it suddenly fell from the sky. Second, it has amazing consistency with Chinese civilization. For example, a large number of Yugui statues in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, engraved with the names of Yin ancestors, have been unearthed in the excavation of the ruins of this civilized temple of Lavanta, with a history of 365,438+000 years. Obviously, these jade guis-instruments for ancestor worship-are not only useless to others, but also the burden of long-distance migration, which can only be brought by the descendants of these jade guis (Yin people). At that time, the worship of God had given way to the worship of ancestors.

In addition to these two large-scale immigrants, there are scattered immigrants.

In China's ancient book Biography of Liang Shu and Zhu Yi, it is recorded that in about 458 AD, a monk from Huiyu came to America. This incident once triggered an international debate on "Who first discovered America", and the focus of the debate focused on whether Liang Shu meant Mexico or Japan when he said "Fuso". The debate failed to reach a consensus.

Zhang Taiyan, a master of Chinese studies, Lian Yunshan, a reporter from People's Daily, and historians from Taiwan Province Province and France all made painstaking studies on Fa Xian's expedition to the East in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They all agreed that Fa Xian arrived in America at the end of April12, lived there for five months, and returned to China in May of April13.

Shan Hai Jing is a classic of China, which has attracted the attention of many famous scholars at home and abroad. It is regarded as a unique encyclopedia handed down from ancient times and a record of measuring the earth in ancient times. This book was written 4000 years ago, and the things described in it are even older, even dating back to 1 10,000 years ago. American scholars found that Shan Hai Jing described the landforms in the western United States, indicating that Americans had explored the American continent for an unusually long time. "We have to bow our heads to the resolute and fearless people of China who mapped the snowy peaks 4,000 years ago."

Gavin Mansis, a British historian, recently quoted a lot of evidence in his masterpiece 142 1: China Discovered the World, proving that the fleet led by Zheng He in the Ming Dynasty not only reached America in 142 1, but also successfully sailed around the world, and also visited Oceania and Antarctica, leaving behind along the way. Zheng He's voyage to the West was 70 years earlier than Columbus' arrival in America, 0/00 years earlier than Magellan's voyage around the world, 350 years earlier than the British's discovery of Australia and more than 380 years earlier than the Europeans' discovery of Antarctica.