1492 Columbus discovers America. North American explorers

The most important event in the history of the great geographical discoveries, and indeed in world history in general, was discovery of America by Columbus- an event as a result of which the inhabitants of Europe discovered two continents, called the New World, or America.

The confusion began with the names of the continents. There is strong evidence for the version that the lands of the New World were named after the Italian patron Richard America from Bristol, who financed the transatlantic expedition of John Cabot in 1497. The Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci, who visited the New World only in 1500 and after whom America is believed to have been named, took his nickname in honor of the already named continent.

In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on American soil, two years ahead of Amerigo Vespucci. Cabot mapped the coast of North America from New England to Newfoundland. In the Bristol calendar for that year we read: “... on the day of St. John the Baptist found the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship with the name "Matthew".

Christopher Columbus - discovery of America

Christopher Columbus is considered the official discoverer of the continents of the New World. He was originally from Italy, arrived in Spain from Portugal. Having found a familiar monk in a monastery near the city of Palos, Columbus told him that he decided to sail to Asia new by sea- across the Atlantic Ocean. He was admitted to an audience with Queen Isabella, who, after his report, appointed a scientific council to discuss the project. The members of the council were mostly clerics. Columbus passionately defended his project. He referred to the evidence of ancient scientists about the sphericity of the Earth, to a copy of the map of the famous Italian astronomer Toscanelli, which depicted many islands in the Atlantic Ocean, and behind them - the eastern shores of Asia. He convinced the learned monks that the legends spoke of a land beyond the ocean, from the shores of which sea ​​currents sometimes they bring tree trunks with traces of their processing by people. Columbus was an educated man: knew how to make maps, drive ships, knew four languages. He managed to convince the academic council of the validity of his expectations.

The rulers of Spain believed the traveler and decided to conclude an agreement with Columbus, according to which, if successful, he would receive the title of admiral and viceroy of the lands discovered by him, as well as a significant part of the profits from trade with countries where he would be able to visit. Thus began an era geographical research and discoveries, initiated by Christopher Columbus with the discovery of America.

Discovery of America by Columbus: year 1492

On August 3, 1492, three ships "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina" with 90 participants set sail from the port of Paloe. The crews of the ships consisted mainly of convicted criminals. It has been 33 days since the expedition left the Canary Islands, and the land was still not visible. The team started murmuring. To calm her down, Columbus wrote down the distances traveled in the ship's log, deliberately underestimating them.

On October 12, 1492, sailors saw a dark strip of land on the horizon. It was small island with lush tropical vegetation. Tall people with dark skin lived here. The natives called their island Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador and declared it a possession of Spain. This name stuck with one of the Bahamas. Columbus was in full confidence that he had reached Asia. Having visited other islands, he everywhere asked the locals whether it was Asia. But I did not hear anything consonant with this word. Columbus left some people on the island of Hispaniola, and he went to Spain. As proof that he opened the way to Asia, Columbus took with him several Indians, feathers of unseen birds, some plants, among them maize, potatoes and tobacco. On March 15, 1493, he was greeted as a hero in Palos.

This is how the first visit by Europeans to the islands happened. Central America, as a result of which the foundation was laid for the further discovery of unknown lands, their conquest and colonization.

In the 20th century, scientists turned their attention to information suggesting that contacts between the Old World and the New took place long before the famous discovery of America by Columbus.

In addition to the hypotheses about the settlement of America by the “ten tribes of Israel”, as well as by the Atlanteans, there is a number of weighty scientific evidence that America was visited long before Columbus. Some researchers even argue that the culture of the Indians was brought from outside, from the Old World. In academic science large quantity There is a theory that the civilizations of the Americas developed almost entirely independently before 1492.

Hypotheses about visiting America by the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Japanese and Celts remain unconfirmed, however, there is fairly reliable data on visiting America by Polynesians, preserved in their legends; in addition, it is known that the Chukchi established an exchange of fur and whalebone with the ancient population of the northwestern American coast, but it is impossible to establish the exact date of the beginning of these contacts. Europeans also visited the American continent during the Viking Age. Scandinavian contacts with the New World began around 1000 AD and continued until about the 14th century.

The name of the Scandinavian navigator and ruler of Greenland, Leif I Ericsson the Happy, is associated with the discovery of America. This European discovered North America five centuries before Columbus. His campaigns are known from the Icelandic sagas preserved in such manuscripts as the Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. Their authenticity was confirmed by archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland in the family of Erik the Red, who was expelled from Norway along with his entire family. Eric's family in 982 was forced to leave Iceland, fearing blood feuds, and settle in new colonies in Greenland. Leif Eriksson had two brothers, Thorvald and Thorstein, and one sister, Freydis. Leif was married to a woman named Thorgunna. They had one son - Thorkell Leifsson.

Before his trip to America, Leif made a trading expedition to Norway. Here he was baptized by the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason, an ally of Prince Vladimir of Kyiv. Leif brought a Christian bishop to Greenland and baptized its inhabitants. His mother and many Greenlanders converted to Christianity, but his father, Eric the Red, remained a pagan. On the way back, Leif rescued the wrecked Icelander Thorir, for which he received the nickname Leif the Lucky. On his return, he met a Norwegian named Bjarni Herjulfsson in Greenland, who said that he saw the outline of the earth in the west far out to sea. Leif became interested in this story and decided to explore new lands.

Around the year 1000, Leif Eriksson sailed west with a crew of 35 on a ship bought from Bjarni. They discovered three regions of the American coast: Helluland (probably the Labrador Peninsula), Markland (possibly Baffin Island) and Vinland, which got its name from a large number of vines. Presumably it was the coast of Newfoundland. Several settlements were founded there, where the Vikings stayed for the winter.

Upon his return to Greenland, Leif gave the ship to his brother Thorvald, who instead went to explore Vinland further. Thorvald's expedition was unsuccessful: the Scandinavians collided with the Skralings - North American Indians, and in this clash Thorvald died. If you believe the Icelandic legends, according to which Erik and Leif made their campaigns not at random, but based on the stories of such eyewitnesses as Bjarni, who saw unknown lands on the horizon, then in a sense America was discovered even before the year 1000. However, it was Leif who first made a full-fledged expedition along the coast of Vinland, gave him a name, landed on the coast and even tried to colonize it. According to the stories of Leif and his people, which formed the basis of the Scandinavian "Saga of Eric the Red" and "The Saga of the Greenlanders", the first maps of Vinland were compiled.

This information, preserved by the Icelandic sagas, was confirmed in 1960, when archaeological confirmation of the early settlement of the Vikings was discovered in the town of L "ans-o-Meadows on the island of Newfoundland. The discovery of America by Columbus at that time was really a discovery, because they are nothing about the New World did not know. But Columbus was not the discoverer in the full sense of the word. At present, the study of the territory of North America by the Vikings long before the travels of Columbus is considered to be a finally proven fact. Scholars have agreed that the Vikings among Europeans were indeed the first to discover North America, however exact location their settlement is still unknown. In the beginning, the Vikings made no distinction between their settlement in Greenland and Vinland, on the one hand, and Iceland, on the other. Feeling different worlds appeared to them only after meeting with local tribes, very different from the Irish monks in Iceland. The Saga of Eric the Red and The Saga of the Greenlanders were written about 250 years after the colonization of Greenland and tell that there were several attempts to establish a settlement in Vinland, but none of them lasted more than two years. There are several possible reasons why the Vikings left the settlements, among which are disagreements among the male colonists regarding the few women who accompanied the journey, and armed skirmishes with local residents, which the Vikings called skraling. Both of these factors are indicated in written sources.

Until the 19th century, historians considered the idea of ​​Viking settlements in North America exclusively in the context of the national folklore of the Scandinavian peoples. The first scientific theory appeared in 1837 thanks to the Danish historian and antiquary Carl Christian Rafn. In his book American Antiquities, Rafn conducted a comprehensive examination of the sagas and explored possible sites on the American coast, as a result of which he concluded that the country of Vinland, discovered by the Vikings, really existed. History continues to lift the veil of its secrets. Scientists have yet to verify the likelihood and time of an even earlier discovery of America and contact with this continent by immigrants from the Old World.

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October 12, 1492 is a significant date in world history, since it was on this day that the expedition of Christopher Columbus reached the island of San Salvador and thereby discovered new continent- America. We will deal with the main prerequisites for such an “incident”, highlighting some facts, analyze the course of the expedition itself and briefly summarize its results for the states of that time.

Basic prerequisites

It is not entirely correct to talk about the prerequisites for the discovery of America in isolation from the context of other great geographical discoveries: in addition to the Columbus expedition, many attempts were made to reach new lands by sea. There are three main factors that are crucial for the formation of such aspirations in many states and travelers:

• Not so long ago, under the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks, Byzantium fell, which was the birth of Ottoman Empire. Since the latter was located in the east of the Mediterranean and in Asia Minor, all trade relations ("Silk Road") with the countries of the east were terminated.
• Spices, which were purchased in India and Indochina, as well as many other goods, were extremely important for European states.
• In the 14th century, learned geographers misunderstood the size of the Earth. It was believed that all land was limited to the continents of Eurasia and Africa; also thought that the distance between western point Europe and eastern point Asia - no more than a few thousand kilometers.

Expedition progress

The beginning of the expedition is considered to be August 3, 1492 when: it was on this day that three ships (“Santa Maria”, “Pinta”, “Nina”) began their journey from the Spanish city of Palos de la Frontera. The first documented event was the appearance of aquatic algae on the way, which occurred on September 16th. We mention this fact for a reason: during the passage through body of water with algae, the Sargasso Sea was discovered. The next event occurred on October 7, 1492, when the course was seriously changed: it seemed to the crew that the ships had passed Japan. Therefore, the expedition headed southwest.

Soon - on October 12 - from the ships they saw one of the famous Bahamas, which received the name San Salvador - a kind of symbolic tribute to the image of Jesus Christ. According to available information, the land was spotted by the sailor of the caravel "Pinta" Rodrigo de Triana, who never managed to receive the reward promised by the King of Spain afterwards.

It is worth noting that the duration of the Bahamas archipelago is more than a thousand kilometers: it “stretches” from Florida to Haiti and includes about three thousand islands of different sizes. On October 13, Columbus decided to land, during which he planted the Castilian banner; in fact, it was an official "taking over": a corresponding document was even drawn up.

For two weeks the expedition moved to south side during which islands such as Cuba and Haiti were discovered. Since the geographical representations of the 15th century were seriously different from modern ones, Columbus considered these lands East Asia. Subsequently open areas received the corresponding name - "West Indies".

The next important incident happened already in December - on the 26th, the ship "Santa Maria" was not lucky enough to get on the reefs. Due to the help of the natives - the indigenous people - the sailors managed to cope with the scourge: guns, supplies, and valuable cargo were removed. The wreckage of the ship became the basis for the creation of a fort, which became the first settlement of Europeans on the new continent. Its name is known to many - "Navidad".

The next major date is March 15, 1493, when the expedition returned to their homeland. It is worth noting that Columbus took with him the natives ("Indians"), a certain amount of gold and plants outlandish for Europeans, among which were potatoes, tobacco and corn. Subsequently, three more expeditions were carried out, which we will not describe in detail; we only note that their result was the discovery of the islands of Jamaica, Dominica, Puerto Rico, as well as the territories of Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

moment of awareness

It should be noted that at the time of the return of the expedition, many did not realize the significance of the discovery made. Columbus himself was vehemently disappointed: the natives did not make a special impression on him, and no wealth was found during the expedition. Soon - in 1494 - the so-called. Treaty of Tordesillas, which divided the open territories between Portugal and Spain. At that time, it was unknown that the entire West Side American continent. Soon after the return of Columbus, many travelers headed towards open lands, but the realization of what had happened did not come immediately.

In itself, the name "America" ​​appeared only in 1507: this is how cartographers named the continent in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. The latter is also a famous discoverer: it was he who first suggested that the discovered lands were not India at all, but the so-called. "New World". He sent reports in 1502 and 1504.

Results

Obviously, the results of the discovery of a new continent were stunning: the situation in the world has fundamentally changed. Active development of new lands began, the development of shipbuilding was spurred on. It is natural that for some time international relations were significantly strengthened, but soon the new territories became the cause of numerous conflicts.

Another important point- fundamental changes in the economy. There was a so-called. "revolution" of prices, due to the flow of various metals (gold, silver and some others). Significantly strengthened world trade, a huge number of new products have appeared.

Naturally, certain areas of science and technology began to develop more rapidly. Moreover, the discovery of America was reflected even in culture: Europeans learned about a fundamentally different structure of society, which was reflected in the works of Thomas More.

History of the Discovery of America

When and who discovered America? The issue remains controversial to this day. Because first you need to decide: what is considered the discovery of America? First proven European visit to the New World? This happened half a millennium before Christopher Columbus (remember the Normans). The first settlement of Europeans on the new mainland arose at the same time. Although the Vikings did not appreciate their discovery…

But so is Columbus! The discovery of America at the end of the Middle Ages is of particular importance: it was from that time that the colonization of the new continent by Europeans began, and then its study. However, uncertainty remains. Consider: in the first two expeditions, Columbus explored only the islands adjacent to the New World. Only in the summer of 1498 did he set foot on the ground South America.

A year earlier, members of the English expedition, led by John Cabot, an Italian by birth, reached North America. And in this case, it was assumed that the "Kingdom of the Great Khan" (China) was discovered. In the spring of next year, the voyage was repeated. But the lack of economic benefits, income from such enterprises cooled the interest of the British in the development of new territories. Scientific achievements should be realized and connected with the expansion of the horizons of knowledge. And here - a complete misunderstanding of the essence of what has been achieved. It is more logical to determine the moment when the truth was first revealed. And then the name of Amerigo Vespucci comes to the fore.

But we must pay tribute to the feat of Columbus and his contribution to the knowledge of the Earth. It was he who obtained the evidence (albeit later significantly refined), received facts confirming the idea of ​​the Earth's sphericity. It is no coincidence that he thought trip around the world and tried to make it happen. Let Columbus imagine the Earth much smaller than it really is. More importantly, not only speculatively, in his imagination, but also really, thanks to his travels, he was convinced of the sphericity and closedness of the earthly space.

And yet, the oceans have turned from a great barrier into great connecting links connecting all the continents and all the peoples of the planet. Conditions have developed for the creation of a single all-terrestrial civilization (“oceanic”, according to the idea of ​​L.I. Mechnikov). In the following centuries, it remained only to develop vehicles and make contacts.

A significant fact: almost at the same time with the entry of Columbus into the land of South America, and Cabot - North, the Portuguese flotilla under the command of Vasco da Gama for the first time reached India by sea. Dozens of years later, the Spanish conquistador Vasco Balboa with a military detachment, having overcome mountain slopes and dense thickets, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and was the first European to visit the shores of the unknown "South Sea".

The World Ocean somehow immediately, almost overnight, submitted to people. Why did it happen? First of all, as a consequence of the appearance of navigational instruments, which make it possible to navigate on the high seas, as well as geographical maps lands and oceans. Although the instruments and maps were imperfect, they made it possible to navigate in space, set specific goals and pave the way to them.

Christopher Columbus

Amerigo Vespucci was a fairly experienced helmsman and cartographer, he knew navigation; last years life was the chief pilot of Castile (he checked the knowledge of ship helmsmen, supervised the compilation of maps, was engaged in compiling secret reports to the government on new geographical discoveries). He took part in one of the first expeditions to reach " southern mainland”(as South America was originally called) and, perhaps, the first to realize the essence of achievement. In other words, he made a scientific theoretical discovery, while Columbus practically discovered new lands.

At the time of Amerigo, his letter was allegedly printed, which reported on his visit to the southern mainland as early as 1497, that is, before Columbus. But this is not documented. It looks like nothing like that ever happened. But Amerigo's non-involvement in such misunderstandings is beyond doubt. He did not claim the laurels of the discoverer and did not try to assert his priority. The popularization of knowledge and the spread of typography had an effect here.

In Europe, reports of new lands and peoples were in great demand. People understood all the greatness of the deeds performed, their enormous significance for the future. Printing houses promptly printed messages about travels to the west. One of them appeared in 1503 in Italy and France: a small pamphlet entitled " New World". The preface says that it has been translated from Italian into Latin, “so that all educated people know how many wonderful discoveries have been made these days, how many unknown worlds discovered and how rich they are.

The book was a great success with readers. It is written vividly, interestingly, truthfully. It reports (in the form of a letter to Vespucci) about a voyage in the summer of 1501 on behalf of the King of Portugal across the stormy Atlantic to the shores of the Unknown Land. It is not called Asia, but the New World.

A little later, another message was published about the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. And in the end, a collection appeared, including stories by various authors about the voyages of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and some other travelers. The compiler of the collection came up with a catchy title that intrigues readers: "The New World and New Countries Discovered by Alberico Vespucci of Florence."

Thousands of readers of the book could decide that it was Amerigo (Alberico) who discovered both the New World and new countries, although this does not follow from the text at all. But the title is usually better remembered and more impressive than any paragraphs or chapters of the book. In addition, the descriptions written by Amerigo were vivid and convincing, which, no doubt, strengthened his authority as a discoverer.

A little later, Vespucci's "New World" was published in Germany under the title "On the Antarctic Belt." And then the same work, already under the guise of a letter to the lord of a small German kingdom, appeared as an addition to Ptolemy's famous and now classic Cosmography. The whole work was called as follows: “Introduction to cosmography with the basics of geometry and astronomy necessary for it.

Amerigo Vespucci

To this, 4 voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and, in addition, a description (map) of the Universe both on a plane and on a globe of those parts of the world that Ptolemy did not know about and which are open in modern times". About the discovery of America, it is said as follows: "Amerigo Vespucci, truly speaking, has informed mankind more widely about this." The authors of the supplement were sure that Amerigo was the first to set foot on the new continent back in 1497. Therefore, it was proposed to name the discovered land "by the name of the wise man who discovered it."

Rather fantastic outlines of the New World with the inscription: "America" ​​were put on the world map. The sound of this word turned out to be attractive to many people. He was willingly put on the cards. Spread - spontaneously - the opinion of Amerigo as the discoverer of the New World. And among the specialists, the image of a clever rogue, an ambitious swindler who appropriated his name to an entire continent, was becoming more and more definite.

So, a sincere fighter for justice, Las Casas, angrily denounced Amerigo in his writings. But there was not a single document confirming such accusations. Vespucci himself never suggested naming open lands by your own name. He quite definitely wrote: "These countries should be called the New World" and referred to facts obtained in travels and research.

The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig said well about Vespucci: “And if, in spite of everything, the sparkling ray of glory fell on him, then this happened not because of his special merits or special guilt, but because of a peculiar combination of circumstances, mistakes, accidents, misunderstandings... A person who talks about a feat and explains it can become more significant for posterity than the one who accomplished it. And in the uncalculable play of historical forces, the slightest push can often cause the strongest consequences ...

America should not be ashamed of its name. This is the name of an honest and courageous man who, already at the age of fifty, set sail three times in a small boat across an unknown ocean, as one of those “unknown sailors”, hundreds of whom at that time risked their lives in dangerous adventures ... This mortal name was transferred to immortality not by the will of one person - it was the will of fate, which is always right, even if it may seem that she is acting unfairly ... And today we use this word, which was invented by chance, in a fun game, as a matter of course, the only conceivable and the only correct one is the sonorous, light-winged word America.

True, there is reason to believe that the New World was named after the Bristol philanthropist Richard America (England), who financed the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot in 1497, and Amerigo Vespucci after that took on a nickname in honor of the continent so named. To prove this version, the researchers cite the facts that Cabot reached the shores of Labrador two years earlier, and therefore became the officially registered first European to set foot on the new land.

Navigators such as John Davis, Alexander Mackenzie, Henry Hudson and William Buffin continued to explore the continent of North America. And thanks to their research, a new continent was studied up to Pacific coast. But history knows many other names of sailors who visited the new land even before Amerigo Vespucci and Columbus. This is Hui Shen - a Thai monk who visited there in the 5th century, Abubakar - the Sultan of Mali, who sailed to American coast in the XIV century, the Earl of Orkney de Saint-Clair, the Chinese explorer Zhe He, the Portuguese Juan Corterial, etc.

As everyone is probably well aware, such a process as the discovery of the continent of America is a very extensive topic, but this article will talk about the discovery of America briefly, laying out the main essence.
The discovery of America is one of the most important events in the world history of mankind, as a result of which, old light- that is Western Europe, learned about the existence of a new, vast continent called America.

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus - discovery of a new continent

Expeditions of Christopher Columbus

1st expedition

The first expedition of Christopher Columbus (1492-1493), consisting of 91 people on the ships Santa Maria, Pinta, Nina, left Palos on August 3, 1492, from canary islands turned west (September 9), crossed Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, where Christopher Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 (the official date of the discovery of America). On October 14-24, Christopher Columbus visited a number of other Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5, he discovered and explored the site northeast coast Cuba. On December 6, Columbus reached Fr. Haiti and moved along its northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on a reef, but people escaped. Columbus on the ship "Nina" January 4-16, 1493 completed the survey of the northern coast of Haiti and March 15 returned to Castile.

2nd expedition

The 2nd expedition (1493-1496), which Christopher Columbus led already in the rank of admiral, and in the position of viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of over 1.5 thousand people. November 3, 1493 Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe, turning to the North-West - about 20 more Small Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands, and on November 19 - the island of Puerto Rico and approached north coast Haiti. On March 12-29, 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, made an aggressive campaign into Haiti, and crossed the Cordillera Central ridge. On April 29-May 3, Columbus with 3 ships passed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, turned from Cape Cruz to the South, and on May 5 discovered about. Jamaica. Returning on May 15 to Cape Cruz, Columbus walked along south coast Cuba to 84° west longitude, discovered the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, the Zapata peninsula and the island of Pinos. June 24, Christopher Columbus turned east and explored August 19-September 15 the entire South coast Haiti. In 1495 Christopher Columbus continued the conquest of Haiti; March 10, 1496 left the island and June 11 returned to Castile.

3rd expedition

The 3rd expedition (1498-1500) consisted of 6 vessels, 3 of which Christopher Columbus himself led across the Atlantic Ocean near 10 ° north latitude. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco Delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Having then left for the Caribbean Sea, Christopher Columbus approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered Margarita Island on August 15, and on August 31 arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti). In 1500, Christopher Columbus was arrested on a denunciation and sent to Castile, where he was released.

4th expedition

4th expedition (1502-1504). Having obtained permission to continue the search western way to India, Columbus with 4 ships reached the island of Martinique on June 15, 1502, on July 30 - the Gulf of Honduras and opened from August 1, 1502 to May 1, 1503 Caribbean shores Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to Uraba Bay. Turning then to the North, June 25, 1503 was wrecked off the island of Jamaica; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Christopher Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504.

Data

Hypotheses

In addition, hypotheses were put forward about visiting America and contact with its civilization by seafarers before Columbus, representing various civilizations of the Old World (for more details, see Contacts with America before Columbus). Here are just a few of these hypothetical contacts:

• in the 5th century - Hui Shen (Taiwanese monk)
• in the 6th century - St. Brendan (Irish monk)
• there are versions according to which, at least from the 13th century, America was known to the Knights Templar
• OK. d. - Henry Sinclair (de St. Clair), Earl of Orkney (c. 1345 - c. 1400)
• in - Zheng He (Chinese researcher)
• in Juan Corterial (Portuguese)

Notes

Literature

• Magidovich I.P. History of discovery and exploration of North America. - M .: Geografgiz, 1962.
• Magidovich I.P. History of discovery and exploration of Central and South America. - M .: Thought, 1963.
• John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. The book of general delusions. - Phantom Press, 2009.

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