7. Christopher Columbus was not the first European man to “discover” the Americas, beaten to that title by approximately 500 years by the Vikings.
Naturally, the very idea of being the first to discover a continent inhabited by millions is an outdated racialist and highly patronizing interpretation of history. Nonetheless, unverified instances of contact between native inhabitants of the Americas and peoples from Polynesia and East Asia throughout the early history of humanity remain questions of considerable debate within academic circles. Despite these uncertainties, historical opinion is conclusive that, preceding Columbus by half a millennia, Norse Vikings reached the Americas by the late-10th century. Arriving in roughly 980 CE, Erik the Red, having been banished for a period of three years from Iceland for manslaughter, named the territory “Greenland” to encourage migration.
Gathering followers, a Viking colony is believed to have ultimately consisted of two main settlements, an East and a West, with a combined population of between 2,000-3,000. At least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists, thriving before the site declined into abandonment during the mid-15th century. Although L’Anse aux Meadows remains the only confirmed site of Viking settlement in North America, the Icelandic Sagas make reference to the exploration of lands to the west of Greenland. Leif Erikson is believed to have led an expedition to these regions, known to the Vikings as Vinland, as did his brother, Thorvald, in 1004, and Thorfinn Karlsefni in 1009.