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hello and welcome to history in seven

facts the history side of this channel

check out this playlist watch the entire

series and please subscribe if you want

to see more videos like this one it's

common knowledge that the Genovese

Explorer Christopher Columbus was the

one who discovered America in 1492 but

at the same time this is wrong

centuries before he was even born others

already set foot on the grounds of the

new world in some ways it is true that

Columbus's discovery gave birth to the

new world as it set in motion a wave of

colonial expansionism

but he wasn't the first European to set

foot there nor was he trying to prove

that the earth is round people already

knew that he was simply trying to find a

new shorter way to sail towards Asia not

for the sake of discovery but for

financial reasons and by the way one

more little detail Columbus first set

foot on San Salvador in the Bahamas not

the mainland and not on present-day US

territory on the other hand the term

discovery doesn't really fit into this

picture either the Americas have been

inhabited by people for at least 20,000

years

today we know that ancient civilizations

such as the Egyptians or Phoenicians did

have the means to get to America some of

their ships were indeed capable of a

transatlantic sailing so there have been

speculations that they might have

actually made the trip but the lack of

evidence dismisses the idea for now but

in the case of the Romans there might be

some hints that they made it the Roman

Empire once stretched from Hadrian's

Wall between England and Scotland all

the way to the deserts of Syria so they

had to build large sturdy ships in order

to cross the Mediterranean Sea and sail

in rough waters some Roman galleys were

as big as the 18th century warships so

it's quite likely that these ships could

have survived a trip to America but

there are no written records of such a

trip nor will they found any remains of

Roman settlements anywhere in the

Americas but there was one thing that

spurred the imagination of many

archaeologists a small terra cotta

figurine of a man's head found in the

Toluca Valley in Mexico in 1933 this

head is very very similar to the style

of statues and figurines made in the

greco-roman world using a method called

thermoluminescence scientists

established the figuring state of

creation 200 AD this again matches the

style of the head with that present in

the Roman Empire in this era but how the

hell did such a figurine end up in

Mexico the soil in which it was found

was dated to sometime around 1510

shortly before any Europeans reached

this area could this be proof that Roman

galleys visited Mexico 1,800 years ago

well the Romans were a messy bunch they

always left lots of traces wherever they

went so we should find more than just a

small clay head most probably this

figurine drifted from a shipwreck all

the way to Mexico where someone found it

but it needs to be said that a Roman

contact with the Americas hasn't

vinick's

yet there's another civilization that we

know for sure visited America before

Columbus the Vikings the evidence in

this case is undeniable and is

corroborated by the tales found in the

saga of the Greenlanders according to

these writings the first discovery was

accidental in the year 1986 ad an

Icelandic merchant BR Denis Ariel son

left Norway to go home but when he

reached Iceland he found that his father

Harry Uhl left to join a new colony in

Greenland so he decided pretty much on

the spot to go after him but on his way

he got lost and drifted on a different

course one that pushed him on the shores

of a hilly and forested land he didn't

land on these shores but the description

of his travel enticed an Explorer Leif

Ericson he bought Bernie's ship and in

the year 1000 he and his crew of 35 left

Iceland in search of this new land the

evidence we found today point to the

Canadian shores to be this new found

land the remains of an entire

scandinavian colony was found at glance

amador in newfoundland in an area that

looks like the descriptions from the

saga the colony could fit some 100

people was built in the style that

matches scandinavian villages from one

millennium ago and carbon dating 'he's

come up with the same date so there's

pretty much no dispute that Norseman set

foot in America long before Columbus did

before we continue I'd like to ask you

something

this channel has no sponsors so if you

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patron you can check out my patreon page

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description ok now we can move on to the

next fact there are other more disputed

proofs of annos inclusion in North

America in 1958 an antiquarian put up

for sale on old parchment that displayed

the European continent

it was immediately bought by

philanthropist Paul Mellon who donated

it to Yale University there it was

analyzed and was declared to be an

authentic Scandinavian map from the mid

15th century that shows a part of North

America in the upper left corner west of

Greenland an island called Vinland is

clearly visible and is described to be

the land discovered by Bernini and life

where vines grow plenty hence its name

there have been disputes about the

authenticity of this map but to this day

it hasn't been disproven this map is

real and so some Europeans of the time

did have knowledge about the land beyond

Greenland

but we're still not done with the

Vikings in the ruins of the Norse colony

in Newfoundland three knots of a

tropical species have been found

although they shouldn't exist there this

indicates that these Vikings might have

explored way beyond what we think today

1600 kilometers to the south in Maine a

single Norse coin called the Maine penny

was found at the very least this proves

that the Vikings made contact and

possibly traded with the local natives

the coin was of Norwegian origin minted

between 1067 and 1092 and was found

together with native tools and pottery

so the Vikings definitely visited

America settled there and made contact

with the locals but their

accomplishments weren't meant to last

today no trace of their influence can be

found in the new world okay so what

about other civilizations did anyone

else visit the Americas before Columbus

possibly there was one mighty

civilization that had extraordinary

sailing skills the Chinese Empire in

1421 emperor zhudi ordered an immense

fleet to sail from nanjing to escort a

group of ambassadors home after this

mission they were ordered to set sail to

the end of the world to collect taxes

from barbarians over the sea Admiral

John Hare was in command of this large

fleet of advanced ships equipped with

magnetic compasses and detailed maps we

don't know how far did this fleet go but

we do know that after they returned

about one year later China's policy of

intense exploration just stopped and the

Empire entered an era of isolation that

was to last 600 years could jenkees

ships have reached America 150

kilometers inland at the bottom of the

Sacramento River the remains of a

possibly Chinese vessel lie undisturbed

small wooden remains have been recovered

and were dated to around the Year 1410

it was also established that the wood

came from a cattle area tree a pine tree

that only grows

in southeast China but amazingly there

is still a debate whether there is a

shipwreck on the bottom of the river in

the first place so far this theory has

been labeled as a ludicrous idea with no

evidence to back it up

there are however what seemed to be

traces of a Chinese language in the

dialect of Native Americans from

California this at least indicates some

contact between these two worlds a much

more striking evidence of China's

knowledge of America comes from a

historian Matt one lean in volume 231 of

the great Chinese encyclopedia there's a

mention of a Buddhist priest Oh Asian

who in the year 458 left China to spread

the word of Buddha he crossed the Great

Sea of the east and came back 40 years

later with incredible tales of a country

called foo sang he talked about an arid

landscape dominated by the full Sun

plant the succulent plants fruit looks

somewhat like a pear but red in color

and the tree bark can be used to make

textiles he might have been talking

about the agave Americana plant a

species still widely spread around

Mexico the priest also mentioned that

there were no sources of ayran in this

area and amazingly parts of Central

America are indeed among the very few

places on earth where this mineral

cannot be found the people of foo sang

were called itchy and were peaceful the

it's a tribe lived in Central America at

the time and were indeed a peaceful

nation PO Asian strip was 20,000 days

long which is roughly 14,000 kilometers

which puts full sang somewhere in

Central America such tales and other

subtle hints of America can be found in

historic records and it's clear that

America was discovered and rediscovered

many times throughout history

I hope this video was interesting enough

to have inspired you to look into it

further on your own if you liked it

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bye