interesting civs excluded

[Waku]

I guess someone has to do this...

Originally posted by Ribannah
The Vikings were the first to explore the seas, reaching America probably as early as 500 AD.

LOL They eventually got them circa 1000 AD. And their atlantic navigation skills were only functional far north:
- solskuggjáfjöl: "sun shadow board" req: summer, day, North
- Iceland Spar : "sunstone" req: summer, day, north
To sum up, with their techniques they would have never sailed safely the ocean as the spaniards did

Originally posted by Ribannah
China came next, thanks to the invention of the compass. They set up a large number of embassies in Africa. Before they had already discovered America and Australia, but were not able to establish proper colonies or trade routes, lacking the more advanced navigational skills to make ocean faring consistently feasible.

LMAO What a huge imagination!
They didn't lack navigation skills they simply destroyed them:
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/1997/01/msg00255.html

Originally posted by Ribannah
Portugal, with new inventions, was the first ocean farer.

This is probably the only truth in your post

Originally posted by Ribannah
Spain however, a little less advanced in navigation than their contemporaries

At that time only Portugal was more advanced than Spain in navigation, and it wasn't for long. Why did Mr Columbus come in Spain looking for support?

Originally posted by Ribannah
Spain however had the thrive to take over since they needed the world's riches to support their population (they didn't produce enough food at the time) and their enormous war efforts. That is also the reason why Spain plundered the newly found lands while Portugal (and later The Netherlands) mostly set up trading posts.

ROTFLMAO This is the most hillarious part, FYI early spanish colonies weren't self-sufficient so most of the food was imported from Spain.

Those trading posts you refer to were mainly intended to the triangular system, what made your country a maritime power (slaves)

And btw, haven't you ever wonder where did Cornelis de Houtman and Jan Huyghen (fathers of the Dutch Navigation) learn to sail?

get a book!

Looking forward to hearing from you... (i made a lot of laughs reading you)

 

[Shaka Naldur]

Originally posted by Dario


There are several historical theories on the subject. 20 years ago you would learn that columbus was a portuguese sailor who discovered america. 10 years ago you would learn that columbus was a genovese sailor who discovered america. Nowadays, there are 3 main theories on the subject:
- North America was discovered by Gaspar Corte-Real some years before 1492. However portugal (corte-real was portuguese) was not quite sure of what they had found also (was it the indies, was it a new thing...) and they sure as hell didn't have the resources to explore it properly, since they were pushing for the more profitable (in the shor term) sea route to india, around africa. Somehow, the spanish knew that there was something out there worth exploring, so portugal sent columbus to "find it" for spain, and report back the spanish intentions. This is the most plausible theory in my opinion, because it explains why the spanish wich were no explorers (unlike the portuguese) decided to fund an expedition to the unknown: they knew there was something out there already, and they could only have known that by the portuguese...
- North America was discovered by the spanish and the portuguese knew nothing about it. Unlikely. Portuguese were doing all the sea exploring back then. If someone would know there was something in the ocean, that someone would be the portuguese...
- Portuguese knew that north america was there (again due to corte-real's voyage), but columbus was not a spy. This is a good theory. The only think that makes me believe that columbus was in fact a spy, is the fact that he was portuguese...

Evidence apparently points towards corte-real visiting america before columbus (an inscription was found i don't remember where that apparently proves that). What is relevant however, is the fact that if corte-real discovered america, then both the portuguese and the spanish knew that already, and columbus jorney served only to make it official.
That happened with cabral's jorney to brazil. There is proof that when he discovered it in 1500, portugal already knew it was there, hence the change in the tordesilhas treaty imposed by portugal to include it on its part of the world.

so columbus was a portuguese spy??



tell us something more please