Nothing is discovered until a white man finds out about it
Upvote:4
The issue here is more about "us" usually being mostly Europeans, or descendants thereof, and that tends to bias our perception, and our historical writing.
Something put into writing accounts for a great deal, because written documents survive. Our "view" on many historical things is very much influenced on who has written about it -- and if you go back 1500 years or more, you will find there were only a few cultures with a strong written tradition (as opposed to oral tradition, which usually dies together with the culture -- which doesn't mean the culture had less worth, just that its history and knowledge is mostly lost to history).
Our knowledge of Gauls and Germanic tribes of about two thousand years ago, for example, is heavily influenced by the Romans, because they wrote about it and the Gauls / Germans didn't.
So, there have been many people at Lake Victoria before Mr. Livingston, and there is little doubt today that there have been Nors*m*n in Newfoundland long before Columbus...
But they didn't write about it, and others didn't write about them.
Upvote:5
Your question is based on ambiguity of the word "discovered". Let us talk on geography for simplicity. Since the times immemorial, people live almost everywhere on Earth (except Antarctic). Does it follow that nothing in geography except Antactica could be discovered in principle? Then the word "discovery" in geography at least will be totally meaningless.
Instead we give it a meaning. The meaning of "discover" in geography is that the thing is described and made a "common knowledge". Yes, through wide publication. In books and scholarly journals, or by other means of communication. In this sense, Columbus (not Vikings and not American Indians) "discovered" America. Viking's discovery came to nothing and was forgotten. Columbus's discovery led to an enormous transfer of population, plants, animals and information, existence of America became a common knowledge in the Old world.
Same applies more or less to everything else.
Remark. Columbus did not write any books. All his writings are travel logs, reports and letters. Other people wrote books after his discovery.
More post
- 📝 Why did ZANU (instead of ZAPU) come to power after the Rhodesian Bush War?
- 📝 How to explain the apparent discrepancy in the use of papyrus vs. clay tablets between Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia?
- 📝 Why didn't Hannibal attack Rome after the Battle of Cannae?
- 📝 Maximum speed of communication prior to Trans-Atlantic Cable?
- 📝 Do we know how much alcohol Vikings drank?
- 📝 Was this anecdote about the bad effects of military secrecy told by Colin Powell?
- 📝 What is the largest overnight depreciation?
- 📝 General Sherman's March to the Sea
- 📝 Heads of state convicted in international court
- 📝 Why would graphite have been confused with lead?
- 📝 Were slaves allowed to use the Roman baths?
- 📝 Why was John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry treason?
- 📝 How did pirates back in the day not get killed themselves when they attacked ships?
- 📝 What were the dates & details of assassinations in Vienna, Austria of Bulgarian defectors Veselin Stoyov, Peter Niezamov, and Ivan Kolev (circa 1974)?
- 📝 What is the reason for Burma/Myanmar's recent reforms?
- 📝 Are there factors which caused the printing revolution to begin in Europe in 1450 and not some other place some other time?
- 📝 What did the sympathies lie of the US Navy around the time of the American Civil War?
- 📝 Early Telegraph Systems
- 📝 How historically correct is the Maharana Pratap serial?
- 📝 Is there any research explicitly contradicting facts in Suvorov's "Icebreaker" book series claiming that Stalin intended to attack Hitler in 1941?
- 📝 What did 19th century playgrounds look like?
- 📝 Why has the Brazilian currency been changed so often throughout its history?
- 📝 Where did Cicero talk about Plato's Menexenus Funeral Oration?
- 📝 Aside from Saint Francis of Assisi, were there other famous figures-(distant or near) who walked along the Camino Del Santiago in Northern Spain?
- 📝 What actions did the KKK take against miscegenation after 1967?
- 📝 Was Casablanca a "safe" place for the Allies to hold a global conference in January, 1943?
- 📝 How economically profitable for Nazi Germany were the occupied countries in Western Europe?
- 📝 How did society regard identical twins in the 17th century in Europe?
- 📝 What happened to the cross on the dome of Hagia Sophia?
- 📝 What are the various theories behind why Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered Sen no Rikyu to commit suicide?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Nothing is discovered until a white man finds out about it
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Why were schoolchildren in the USA taught virtually nothing about the Holocaust during the fifties and sixties?
- 📝 Before entering WW II, why was the US so against Japanese aggression in China but did nothing about Germany in Europe?
- 📝 How did historians find out about the undoctored version of Stalin's doctored photographs?
- 📝 Help on finding out about a sword
- 📝 Are there any theories about what health problems would a man of the past suffer in the current age?
- 📝 Do NKVD files say that during WWII, Soviet leadership knew about the rape of Soviet women liberated from labour camps and did nothing to stop it?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 Have there been any countries that voted themselves out of existence?
- 📝 Why did Europe not see Roman-era numbers of men participating in battles until the 17th century?
- 📝 Why did China shut itself out of the world in the 15th century?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 What is the oldest authentic example of people complaining about modern times and the young?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 Was slavery really on the way out in the antebellum USA?
- 📝 What do the modern Japanese people think about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?
- 📝 Until when was Marseille Greek-speaking?
- 📝 Why did the grip-centered viking shield fall out of use relative to the kite shields?
- 📝 When did Britain learn about the American Declaration of Independence?
- 📝 Why are there so many laws about eye injuries in the Code of Hammurabi?
- 📝 Why could Phoenicians sail past Cape Bojador but later Europeans could not until 1434?
- 📝 Given their reputation for fighting to the last man in the Pacific, why did 700,000 Japanese troops surrender in Manchuria?
- 📝 Why did Switzerland not grant votes to women until 1971?
- 📝 Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Romans know about China?