I mean, there’s a corner of Russia that’s close to Alaska!! I mean, didn’t they notice that or something?! They sailed distances equal to going around the Earth twenty times years before ever discovering America!! I’m sure someone went to that little corner and went “Hey! There’s some kind of land over there! Maybe we should set sail to see what it is instead of commissioning an Italian explorer to go the long way around and mistaking some brown-skinned people for Indians!!” (Maybe not phrased like that exactly but still! I mean…damnit! This makes no sense to me!) Help? I’d really appreciate someone satisfying my curiosity.
By they I’ll presume you mean Europeans. As others have pointed out the Vikings had discovered the Hudson’s Bay area, but they saw little potential in it and abandoned what was never more than a fishing station. The Basques had discovered the Newfoundland Bank and fished there for cod which they then salted for the home market, but they were only interested in the fish. The Russians had not even reached their Far East, which was still inhabited by aboriginal tribes related to the native Americans. Rather more surprisingly the civilisations of China, Korea and Japan had shown no interest in exploring to the east, and the Arab traders who reached the Spice Islands much earlier than the Europeans apparently heard no rumours of another continent which might have led them further but again they were exploring along coasts not into the deep ocean. They never even got past Darwin in Australia. Even the Pacific Islanders had not established a route to central America despite regular and convenient winds in both directions.
When the Age of Navigation begins the first explorations are around the coast of Africa, not out into the empty Atlantic Ocean. It had taken the Arab traders centuries to get the courage to sail with the monsoon winds to India rather than take the coastal route. Without reliable navigation instruments most navigation was guided by local knowledge and “rutters” coastal gazetteers. These were jealously guarded secrets, sailors did not share this kind of information with rivals. We think Cabot bought some for his voyage but no one was admitting it. The Canary Islands had been known since at least Roman times, but it is when Castile takes possession in 1402 (although it takes years to make it secure) that it becomes a useful starting point for the voyage as the westerly winds had been noted. It takes a lot of courage to sail into an empty sea with little idea what you are going to find, how long it will take and how you will get back. Columbus had to resist a mutiny by his crew when it took longer than he had promised.
Until the Ottomans closed the route to the east there was no incentive to seek a westward route to the Indies. Remember they were not looking for America, they were looking for India and the Spice Islands. It is significant that Columbus was reputedly from Genoa, which with Venice had been one of the trading cities most affected by the loss of the eastern trade. Once he got there he was still convinced that he was in the Spice Islands and not that he had discovered another continent. It was later explorers who confirmed this.
I suppose “they” are the europeans powers at the end of 15th century, no? So “they” hardly could have lunch an expedition before, because nobody would have financed an expedition with no direct interest. Only the church with missionaries, and some traders of Italian cities travelled, the first to convert and the second to make business, ans they avoid Siberia, which it unpopulated, unressourceful and hard to survive.
And Russia at the time was not so extended to Siberia, dominated by mongol-like tribes, which were quite more strong than regular cristians armies (and not tlking about small expeditions).
Technically, it was possible even to go to America with medieval boats (even the Viking succeded in it), but the problems was the financing, the caravelle are not so breakthrough technologically than medieval nefs, but are far more cheaper than it.
Moreover, the kingdoms were relatively weak and few centralised, this impeding the finance for such expedition.
Also, they were no inetrest to launch such expedition, because the kingdoms could trade throughout the mediteranean sea. It is with the surge of the Turkish empires that the trades were complicated and incitated powers to search for new routes and new suppliers.
Hi,
Well they did. It depends by what you mean by “they”. Remember that America was already populated by Indians. Where did they come from? They came from Asia and crossed into Alaska. We are talking thousands of years ago and they didn’t have to sail then because it was all covered with ice. They just walked from today’s Russia to Alaska.
There is also more and more evidence that the Vikings discovered America hundreds of years before Columbus.
Nobody of any significant was in the eastern corner of Russia.
Also, if you do not know what is over the horizon, why go?
How are you going to track where you are?
And more important, how are you going to get back?
Remember, Columbus lied about the size of the globe to convince the money people that he had a chance. If he had told the truth, nobody would have bought into it.
It is also quite different sailing near land than straight out into the unknown.
And have you ever seen the size of the ships Columbus used?
I have seen private yachts that are larger than the Nina.
The thing did not even have a rudder. It had an oar sticking out one side.
I would not sail to Long Island on that thing.
And that was the best he could get.
as bad as siberia is now, it was even worse earlier in history.
anyway america obviously was discovered sooner…it was already inhabited when europeans found it. The vikings and probably egyptians had also already probably crossed the atlantic. Christopher columbus didnt really discover america. He jsut happened upon it in an interesting time.
Actually the viking Bjarne Herjolfsson was the first European to discover this continent. He sailed to “Labrador” which is in Canada in the year 985.
Vikings and people from Asia discovered America long before Columbus did. You can’t forget about the Native Americans. How do you think they got there? They traveled from Asia
Because “they” thought they already had all the good **** where they were.