Why do so many people misinterpret what is meant when people say Columbus "discovered" America?

Question

Why do so many people misinterpret what is meant when people say Columbus "discovered" America?

Answer 1

Because United States is confused with America, but Columbus discovered "The Americas" the continent.

Answer 2

Because both 'discovered' and 'America' can be taken several different ways.

'Discovered' can mean either first found by human beings, first found by Europeans, or first documented discovery by Europeans.  (Only Columbus fits in the last category.)

'America' can mean either the New World, the continent of North America, or the land that is now the US. (Columbus fits only the first category of these.)

Answer 3

Political correctness. What people neglect to see is that despite the Viking connection with Canada, it was Columbus and his "discovery" that resulted in the revolutionary transformation of both the Old World and the New. The Viking prediscovery remains an asterisk in history.

Answer 4

Western ethnocentrism. How can you discover something that was already discovered?

Its more like stumbling across something.

It's like archeologists finding Egyptian sites that were retaken by the desert that have been already catalogued.

Answer 5

Columbus found the Americas and let them be known to most of the rest of the world. So why is it so wrong to say he discovered America?

My ancestors -good old Vikings- were here a bit before, but I read that about 15,000 years ago, some Europeans might have somehow floated over and started some tribes of their own. Pretty interesting stuff.