Known as the “Age of Discovery”,European exploration during the 13th and 14th centuries was a huge leap forward in status and power for all countries who participated, including Spain, Portugal, and others. However, this frequent title is largely a misnomer. While it is true that many explorers were the first europeans to set foot on lands new to them, what they did was far from true discovery. Firstly, much of it is miscredited. The most famous example is relevant when discussing the New World. For a very long time, Christopher Columbus has been credited as the first person to discover the new place, or North America. Six hundred years later, we still have a holiday for him and yet, we know that he wasn’t even the first european to land in North America. That was in fact Norse Leif Eriksson, who landed in Newfoundland nearly four hundred years before Columbus came anywhere near the continent. And yet, this is…show more content… Every place that is new to someone is already the root of life and culture for someone else. Every step taken is one taken from someone else, every resource plundered or bought is taken from the hands of another being. When Columbus came to the new world and took resources, that was less for the Native people. Yet because he claimed that land for Spain, he felt that all his eyes could see now belonged to him. Nothing is truly discovered; every thing found or taken was first someone else’s. It is because of this, and the misunderstanding of this, that discovery is misused to describe the “Age of Exploration”. It is misused because the sense of entitlement instilled in people, and because for many, what you find is yours. Discovery is misused, because it is seen as a synonym for stealing, invading, and owning. All in all, the term discovery is inaccurate for this period of history because it’s not accurate for any history at
