I believe that the Vikings were in fact the first to find America. The key word is Discover for the native Americans did not discover America, they more or less just lived there. Also the Vikings were not very bright and named things very obviously, so why would they call the new land Newfound Land if it was inhabited by people, it would not be new.

America was discovered by native americans who come from Mongols or the Inuit. It was the Mongols and native southeast asians that inhabited most of the old world from the Pacific to America all the way to Northern Europe and Asia. Their DNA and physical appearance testifies to that fact. Therefore, native americans would most certainly have been the first to discover America. They did not just appear from out of the ground. Evolutionists and Creationists alike believe that we all came from the same geographical place. So the native americans had to discover the place before they lived in it dont you think?

Okay First off the Vikings were some of the greatest Military and Naval Practitioners known to man kind. Their influence during the viking age (8th through 11th centuries AD) can be traced to as far East as Baghdad

native americans came from somewhere, they didn't just appear or come out of the ground. and it's called asia (where they came from)

newfound, as in newly found for them, not entirely something new. Just like when we found the first other planet, or the planet after that, we called it new, but its not new, its NEWLY FOUND

Yes, the Americas were discovered by Paleo-Indians from Eurasia (a continent currently inhabited by modern-day Asians and Europeans). No, the Paleo-Indians did not come from Mongols nor the Inuit (as the Mongols did not exist as an ethnic group then and the Inuit are relative newcomers in comparison to the older Amerindian population). Both groups can probably be traced to a common ancestor but that does not make Indians Monogls nor Inuit just as it wouldn't make sense to call everyone an African today, now would it?

Very good article.

The Vikings discovered America in year 1000 and before Columbus in 1492.
There are very detailed description of this event if you can read the original documentation. Also findings of Viking items in America has verified this.

The Iceland chronicles from the centuries XII-XIV mention other journeys made from Greenland to Markland and Vinlandia.

As mentioned in the article: It is possible that Columbus knew about all this, and some say he visited Iceland before his journeys to the Americas.

As we know Columbus got money from the Queen of Spain in Granada to go on his journey
I have seen one painting of him in a Spanish Newspaper(this should be the only original painting where they believe this is how he looked like). What stuck me was that he looked like a man from Scandinavia. He looked like a Viking, so it is not unlikely that his family/father/grandfather etc told him about some land to the West....
Not proven, but some claims that Columbus came from Nordfjord in Norway.
His name was Kristoffer Bonde.

By the way and not linked directly to the discovery of America: York in England is originally a Norse/Viking word and is Jorvik in Norse or Norwegian. So New York is then a real Viking name. I think all Americans should be aware of this.

Arild Aarskog:
"By the way and not linked directly to the discovery of America: York in England is originally a Norse/Viking word and is Jorvik in Norse or Norwegian. So New York is then a real Viking name. I think all Americans should be aware of this"

###############

NOT TRUE, THE NAME YORK, COMES FROM "IORC" IN GAELIC LANGUAGE. IORK, WHICH IS A SPECIES TREE.

Thanks Arild Aarskog
this information was very helpful
it proves my point that i am related to Christopher Columbus. You see my Great Grandmother was called Kari Bonde (she was norwegian) and Columbus was originally Kristoffer Bonde! Wow!

"When the Danish army conquered the city in 866, the name became rendered as 'Jórvík'.

Jórvík was gradually reduced to York in the centuries following the Norman Conquest, moving from the Middle English Yerk in the 14th century through to Yourke in the 16th century and then Yarke in the 17th century."
So that actually is true.
That one dude who keeps trying to put people down just can't handle the magnanimity of viking power.

That's really interesting info on Christopher Columbus. I Don know could be true its food for thought...

The first who went to America were Illyrians.

cool, i am from nordfjord, and i dident know that! ist cool if its true !

heehehehe:)

I think the Vikings were already in the Americas, when the land was still connected. When the land separated into the present continents evidence of their residence still remained. Rock on the Eastern shores of America are the same as rocks found in Eastern Western Europe. Vikings were living in America when the land was one piece.

Great! That means the vikings were already there about 100 million years ago. The human race even did not exist then. Hence the vikings are the oldest humans, too. Skal!

Well it's pretty much proved that the Norse Vikings discovered America, but do anyone know how many times they could have visited the area?

I DISCOVERED AMERICA!!! :P JK
In any event i wanna ask all of you something... How can discover a place with people already on it?

this information was very useful.

i know right

I have to agree to that how can a person say they discovered america if people was already on it????? I would not be proud to say I am related to Columbus...after what he did...rape,...dude was not good news.

here's a link: http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/art/CCNORWAY.ART

Several historians now agree on the fact that Columbus was Norwegian. Family escaped from Nordfjord in the late 1400's. His physical frame, blonde hair, blue eyes, size, he never really learned Spanish, nor Italian but communicated well with Icelanders and he was a proper sailor. As well he described himself as a foreigner, "a man of the sea", sounds like a Norwegian, huh?

I can't understand where you get your "information" from Kristian?
Christopher Columbus spoke both Italian AND Spanish. Although his origins are still a matter of contention among historians. It is known that he AT LEAST lived in Genoa from a very early age. also that he (understandably) spoke AND wrote in Italian(with a Catalan style). Not only that but one would have to be supremely gullible to believe that an admiral in the Spanish navy would not speak Spanish! Not to mention he spent the majority of his life there. Also, the indigenous people of north Italy are tall with blond hair and blue eyes(my fathers side of the family are from the north and i am 6'3" with blue eyes and blonde hair and my father is 6' with blue eyes blonde hair etc..). Then you have the fact that Spain had a formidable navy(Spanish armada etc) and were extremely competent seafarers. Just because his coat of arms was similar to a Norwegian families coat of arms (btw they fled Norway in the 15th century)and he described himself as "a man of the sea" DOES NOT make him sound like he's Norwegian! lol! Also your statement of:-"several historians now agree on the fact that he was Norwegian" is simply a bare-faced lie. One Norwegian; Tor Borch Sannes has merely SPECULATED that Columbus was Norwegian because of the similarity in the coat of arms. Now, I am NOT trying to say that he was Spanish, Italian, Greek, English, Jewish or Norwegian(although out of all of them the Norwegian theory has the LEAST to substantiate it) as i don't much care where he came from. Where he came from i don't think will EVER be proven(too many people want a piece of that pie.myself, i find MANY of his deeds to of been incredibly cruel and abhorrent.i would even go so far as to say, evil.) but you should not write such unsubstantiated and quite frankly laughable suppositions as if they are facts. That is simply wrong and misleading.

Very interesting article, but your written English is appalling.There are spelling mistakes throughout. Practically every other word there are extra/missing words. For an educational piece written by a science "editor" this is simply inexcusable sir. The people that wrote responses to it can be forgiven for their poor English, bless them. The article itself though needs/deserves at least a modicum of grammatical correctness. For if an "educational" piece like this is to be written in "English", write it in English. This is why children these days are so infuriatingly ignorant of the written word. If you need any proof, have someone correct your text and you will see the same mistakes in the peoples responses to your article where they have quoted you. You have a certain responsibility to the readers of your piece as it is taken as being educational, ergo, correct.

The article has been revised completely. Thanks for reporting this.

Wow, you are dumb. The continents werent in one piece, allegedly, until millions of years ago. There is no way in the year 1000 North America and Europe were connected.

You need an education.

Since it is generaly accepted that humans did not originate in North America but migrated there, it would be whichever tribe first arrived in North America that discovered it technically speaking. Wether that would be Native Americans or not, they would have still discovered it before the Vikings.

not true, approximately 20,000 years ago the first people to come to the new land were
from Asia, they were the first native Americans to come over a land bridge between Asia
and North American.

I can't understand where you get your "information" from Kristian?
Christopher Columbus spoke both Italian AND Spanish. Although his origins are still a matter of contention among historians. It is known that he AT LEAST lived in Genoa from a very early age. also that he (understandably) spoke AND wrote in Italian(with a Catalan style). Not only that but one would have to be supremely gullible to believe that an admiral in the Spanish navy would not speak Spanish! Not to mention he spent the majority of his life there. Also, the indigenous people of north Italy are tall with blond hair and blue eyes(my fathers side of the family are from the north and i am 6'3" with blue eyes and blonde hair and my father is 6' with blue eyes blonde hair etc..). Then you have the fact that Spain had a formidable navy(Spanish armada etc) and were extremely competent seafarers. Just because his coat of arms was similar to a Norwegian families coat of arms (btw they fled Norway in the 15th century)and he described himself as "a man of the sea" DOES NOT make him sound like he's Norwegian! lol! Also your statement of:-"several historians now agree on the fact that he was Norwegian" is simply a bare-faced lie. One Norwegian; Tor Borch Sannes has merely SPECULATED that Columbus was Norwegian because of the similarity in the coat of arms. Now, I am NOT trying to say that he was Spanish, Italian, Greek, English, Jewish or Norwegian(although out of all of them the Norwegian theory has the LEAST to substantiate it) as i don't much care where he came from. Where he came from i don't think will EVER be proven(too many people want a piece of that pie.myself, i find MANY of his deeds to of been incredibly cruel and abhorrent.i would even go so far as to say, evil.) but you should not write such unsubstantiated and quite frankly laughable suppositions as if they are facts. That is simply wrong and misleading.

Looking at why people are forgetting the real explorers that not only discovered the Americas but were living here when the ships headed here. It wasn't the Vikings, it wasn't the Chinese, It wasn't Columbus although he was accreditted with it. I believe the Native
Americans or Indians were here and crossed here by land during the great ice age.
Maybe we should focus on when they discovered the Americas. Some of thier tribes were wiped out by those who came later like the Chinese, the Vikings and Columbus party.
If you came to my house with land and said you just discovered my address, would that really make sense?
Lets see the discovers of the Americas were living here long before any of the Asians and Europeons figured out that the earth was not flat. Columbus was notible for deciding to venture outside of the ideal that the world was flat. He should be noted that he overcame that obstacle.

Someone who lived and spoke a language that wasn't written down until a much later time of America history.
THe native americans saved us in WWII, which wasn't even in my history book. I think who ever cut out the Native Americans from history are still holding on to the prejudice.

Quit being prejudice! NATIVE AMERICANS discovered the Americas and most likely walked here over the land and oceans covered in ICE!

I totaly agree with you man.

i think the vikings discovered america for one they around befor the chinease or cloumbus

PEOPLE GET IT IT YOUR HEAD!!!! THE PEOPLE WHO FOUND THE LAND FIRST WERE LIVING THERE!!!!!!!!!!!! THE VIKINGS AND COLUMBUS BOTH POINTED OUT THE FOUND PEOPLE LIVING THERE!!!.. HUMANS ORIGINATED FROM AFRICA WE CROSSED THE WORLD THE NATIVE AMERICANS CROSSED FROM ASIA INTO AMERICA THEY WERE 1ST TO DISCOVER AND FIRST TO HABITAT!! THEY WERE NOT CAUCASIANS! THEY WERE NOT VIKINGS NOT CHINES NOT SPANISH OR WHAT EVER ELSE!

this was such an awesome article!

do u goto anderson middle school?

WHERE DID THE VIKINGS LAND IN THE U.S.A.

the native American found it first they were there almost one million (1,000,000) years ago.

12,000 years ago. but u were close.

it was great and will will be graet on history report to thanks guys now i know im gonna get an A

lol so guess wat yesterday i waz like sayin stuff and ppl were like wtf?

wow...i didnt know that!!!!--_- im so happy now!!!!not but in glad i found out

it's a great story

I am part Indian and NOT related to Asians. Utter crap. My DNA does NOT match that of Asians.

Then you must be East or West Indian as opposed to North American "Native". Sorry to tell you but your ancestors were either 'Asian' or Norwegian if you consider yourself 'Native'.

i seriously don't u had ur mitochondrial dna compared to that of asians.

Its too long you could of summed it done a bit.. :D

what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this article in addtion is an intersting and remarkable i really loved it awsome. my name robben tankyou.

by boat... pretty much sums it up to be honest

Bjarni Herjólfsson dit not sail from Norway to Iceland at the beginning. He was born in Iceland like Leifur Eiríksson, as their ancestors certainly were. But he was just back from a business trip to Scandinavia from Iceland when he found out his father had left Iceland for Greenland. It was the politician Eiríkur Rauði (Eric the red) who named the ice covered island Greenland to make people believe it was nice to live there.

I am not very familiar with Viking history, but I remember archeologist saying that they had found viking coins before Columbus, so is their any truth, that the Vikings did indeed Discover the new world ''America"

vikings are very interesting haha

ummmm i need help with my report :/ help pliiiz!

i think you should add what challenges they faced

Agreed, Sara. : )

They probably didn't completly "vanish", they probably headed back for Europe and left no trace. And also one might think if sent with 500 people to an unknown and distant land, that after a while more people would come and settle or at least leave other records in greenland. Also the colony that the author refers to, isn't probably the only colony the Vikings had in North America.

a pretty reliable article, lots of info. : )

The vikings discovered america, and were here before the America Indians. The American Indians did not come over to America from Asia until there was the land bridge from Asia to Alaska.

Yay! I can do my report now.... XD

i thought it was very good because i am doing a report about the vikings to and this story that you all put up on this website has really helped me out so thanks, thanks alot! :) ~carolyn~

it had hardly anything to do with what they did in america. not that great.

this just goes to show that (yet another example) what our teachers are teaching us are wrong

I don't understand!!!!!!!!!

could care less who or what columbus was. Bottom line native americans discovered america before that dude and before them africans were the first there, noted by olmec head statues found there with full african features. Now lets debate that!

i like this web site

great story..thanx .

cool info

good info

vikings are harry;)