Arrivals in the Americas

I think there is a fair amount of confusion as to who arrived in the Americas first. The reason for it is because there are several figures who led voyages to totally different parts of the Americas.

First of all we know that people have lived in the Americas for atleast 13,000 years. Archeologists have many different theories as to when and how the first people arrived in the New World. Some believe they crossed the Bering land bridge, where as others believe they travelled by boat. It is believed that the ancient polynesians posessed extremely advanced sailing and navigation techniques. Even today they can sail to any island within the triangle of Hawaii , Easter Island and New Zealand with the same technology they have used for thousands of years. If the polynesians could sail this far they could have easily reached South America.

In addition to this, remnants of Coca leaves found in an Egyptian tomb suggest that there was travel across the Atlantic during the era of the Egyptians beacause Coca plants are native only to South America.

The first Europeans to arrive in the Americas are the Vikings. Not much is known about this arrival, but we do know that they arrived somewhere in eastern Canada in the 10th century.

After the Vikings came Christopher Columbus who was an Italian sailing for Spain. He and his men left from Lisboa, Portugual and arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Repulic in 1492.

The next European to arrive was another Italian named Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot). He sailed from Bristol, England to Newfoundland, which was originally called Terra Nova (New land in Italian). Nova Scotia is also Italian and means (New Scotland). Cabot is generally credited with being to first European since the Vikings to arrive on mainland in the Americas.

The first European to arrive in South America was Pedro Alverez Cabral a Portuguese explorer. He arrived in Porto Seguro, Brazil in 1500.