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Ostrich-egg globe showing Newfoundland hailed as ‘oldest’ New World orb
"...a crude depiction of the “New World” as it was understood just a few years after the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and others — is the earliest image of Newfoundland or any other part of Canada on any surviving globe in the world."
posted by Louise at 1:50 pm
3 Comments:
There was a program on the History Channel down here in the Great Satan recently concerning European exploration of N. America. In this program, an English historian stated that the existence of North America was well known to English fishermen about 2 centuries before Columbus. Supposedly, west coast English fishermen fished in the Grand Banks back to the 1300s and knew of the adjacent great land masses. Also, it seems fairly established that the Vikings, traveling from Iceland and/or Greenland, landed at various N. American points-Newfoundland, the other Maritimes, New England areas, long before Johnny-Come-Lately Chris Columbus.
I think (seem to remember reading it eons ago) the Basques were fishing those waters before CC showed up.
But it was only after Columbus that settlement started in earnest. So he gets the glory rightfully so.
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