Christopher Columbus Case Study

Research Question: Assess the validity of Christopher Columbus’s claim of discovering the new world prior to 1492 against the evidence that suggest that there was a West African presence prior to Christopher Columbus.

Problem statement: It was the Africans who discovered the new world not Christopher Columbus.

Introduction

Many historians have put forward the view that the Americas was discovered by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. It is commonly thought and accepted that with the approval of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Columbus went in search for India which was located in the East. However Columbus unknowingly sailed to the west across the Atlantic Ocean which led him to a land mass which was unknown to

Evidence came from Christopher Columbus himself via his journal. According to the renowned American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Howard University in Weiner’s book, “Africa and the Discovery of America,” he explains that “Columbus noted in his journal that the Native Americans confirmed “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”Thus this entry into Columbus’s journal showed that he was fully aware that people had discovered the Americas before him. Columbus was not the only explorer to make note of the presence of the Africa upon their arrival into the new world explorers such as Vasco Nunez de Balboa, also made record of seeing “Negroes” when they reached the New

There have been many instances of archaeologists discovering skulls and skeletons that they believed clearly belonged to people of African descent. “An excavation of La Isabella known as the Dominican Republic today revealed over 1,200 skeletons test revealed that these skeleton remain belonged to Africans.” Also Polish professor Andrzej Wiercinski revealed the discovery of African skulls at Olmec sites in Tlatilco, Cerro de las Mesas and Monte Alban. Even more ancient African skeletons that would clearly predate Columbus’ arrival in the Americas were discovered throughout Central America and South America with some even being unearthed in what is now California. There is also a clear link between the religion of the indigenous people and that of the