North American and Caribbean Exploration after Lief and Before Columbus

I very much doubt that any European prior to Columbus visited the Caribbean. Ericsson traveled much farther north, and possibly some later Scandinavios did likewise, but the more southerly climes seem to have been entirely unknown. Columbus never knew he hadn't really discovered the westerly route to Asia, so there doesn't seem to have been much prior knowledge of these New World isles. If anyone did manage such a discovery, they seem to have left no known records.

The other great sailing nation of the European World, prior to Columbus, was Portugal, and their navigators were fixated on sailing eastward, around the southern tip of Africa, across the Indian Ocean, in quest of spices and other goodies. The Spaniards couldn't compete with them on that route, which led to the hiring of Columbus (an Italian) with his scary idea of sailing into the unknown West.

caw

It is much more difficult to hit the Caribbean from Europe by sail ship than it is do the gradual island hopping that the Scandinavians did, and which eventually led them to Newfoundland. It is not really a wonder why nobody attempted it before a madman did, because if I'm not mistaken... in order to hit the Caribbean you have to shoot yourself off like on a swing from the Cape Verde islands because the trade winds and currents around the equator start there. But if you've never explored those winds and currents, it seems a mad thing to do.

The Scandinavians had already settled Greenland and Iceland, so the trip to Newfoundland was much shorter. It was just a bit over the horizon for them.

1421, The year the Chinese discovered America, by Gavin Menzies is worth a read. A lot of controversy surrounds it, but his evidence, other than written record, is, at the very least, interesting.

I tend to believe it but I've done no original research. Google it to see what others think, probably after you read a way into the book and have preformed some opinion about it, and understand what the argument is about.

Maxinquaye said:

It is much more difficult to hit the Caribbean from Europe by sail ship than it is do the gradual island hopping that the Scandinavians did, and which eventually led them to Newfoundland. It is not really a wonder why nobody attempted it before a madman did, because if I'm not mistaken... in order to hit the Caribbean you have to shoot yourself off like on a swing from the Cape Verde islands because the trade winds and currents around the equator start there. But if you've never explored those winds and currents, it seems a mad thing to do.

The Scandinavians had already settled Greenland and Iceland, so the trip to Newfoundland was much shorter. It was just a bit over the horizon for them.

Click to expand...

Sea currents and prevailing winds from northern Africa, not far from the straights of Gibralta will take to right to the Carribean, as they did Columbus. But, yes, other than weather, there is much more likelihood of a northern visit first.

I don't know how much help this will be, but 1491 is an awesome book about the Americas before Columbus came. It's mostly an exploration of the state of Native American cultures that includes a lot of theories and other new ideas.

I don't recall it specifically addressing any other non-Columbus European visitors, but it included an extensive section on the Caribbean and Hispaniola in particular.

It was a fascinating read, too.

Good luck with your project.

But there must have been at least a few lost ships that landed in the Caribbean? Nice surprise for the sailors! Europe just didn't know because they never came home.

There were several recorded visits to North Ameerica during that interval.

Saint Brendan is probably yh best knoown; search and you will find quite a lot about him. There were regular visits by Portuguese and Basque fisherman. One of the American Indian tribes of Newfoundland has about a quarter of its vocabulary from Basque.

There were seasonal colonies in New England that the fisherman used.

There may have been a map of the East Coast of North AMerica in the Vatican, but I don't know for sure. There is a rumor that Columbus saw that map.

When one sarts looking into those tvoyages more and more information starts showing up, and someof the alleged information is fictional, so be careful what you put your faith in. Some of the fiction is very good, but the only piece I can think of right now is the romance that Salomon Spaulding wrote that was later stolen by Joseph Smith and turned into the Book of Mormon, but that was set earlier than Leif Ericson.

apologies on the Menzies stuff .. missed the 'after erickson' part

more coffee please

There's the Prince Madoc legend, he was an exiled Welsh prince who supposedly sailed to North America c 1170. Quite a few scholars back in days of yore labored hard to prove various Indian languages are actually Welsh, though their success is hard to measure.

While actual visitors are thin on the ground (or sea), there are more than a few legends.

Massachussetts was visited by the Vikings, although they didn't settle there. No pricy ivory to be had there.

As for the aboriginal languages, there is only one aboriginal language in Newfoundland and it was imported after the Basques and Bretons were kicked out of there: the Miqmaq language. There is a possibility that the Beothuk had quite a few Basque words, but the tribe that spoke the language has long been dead.

One of the reasons why the Newfoundland colony was so successful for the Vikings was that the island was lightly populated.

There is some comments made in the 16th century that the Portuguese made it to the Grand Banks in the 1470s (Tierra de los Bacallao.)