Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Who was the first person to discover America?

For many years, Christopher Columbus was considered the first person to discover North America.  However, it was Leif Erikson, a Viking, who was the first documented European explorer to reach North America.  Of course, there had been native people who had lived in North America for centuries before Leif Erikson arrived in around 1000 AD.  Leif Erikson built a settlement in what is now Newfoundland.  Today, there is still evidence of that settlement.  There are even remains of houses.  Erikson was impressed with the natural resources he found in North America.  There was plenty of timber, and there were also grapes.  The timber was used to build houses.  Poor relations with the native people caused the Vikings who had settled there to eventually leave.

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