Is "making noise about it" what we consider discovery now? I'd say the first person finding and visiting the place is indeed the discoverer of that place. Maybe Columbus popularised it rather.
If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If someone discovers something and nothing really comes of it, is it really a more significant discovery than one which changes the world profoundly, immediately, and forevermore?
When I was a kid I remember seeing weird bugs in the garden and wondering if I was the first person to find that bug. I’m sure I wasn’t, but in theory I could have “discovered” loads of new species - but would it even matter if I wasn’t aware enough of my own discovery to share it?
Did the Vikings even realise they were on a new continent? My understanding is that they “settled” a tiny area and may have thought it was just an island off of Greenland or something.
Columbus also didn't realize he was on a new continent. If that's the standard, then Amerigo Vespucci discovered it, because he's generally considered to be the first to realize it was a new continent.
I would say yes, "making noise about it" would be a relatively important part of discovery. Did Erikson know that there was an entire continent with advanced societies completely seperated from the "old world"? Because that is what Columbus discovered. I'm making the distinction between Leif Erikson discovering a tundra-like landmass beyond Greenland that they didn't think was significant, and Columbus's actions which ended up connecting the old world to the new. Those two things are very different from each other. If I google "who discovered america" and got Leif Erikson, I think that would be more confusing than Columbus.
> Did Erikson know that there was an entire continent with advanced societies completely seperated from the "old world"? Because that is what Columbus discovered.
If knowing it was separate from the Old World is what makes it a discovery, then for all we know Columbus absolutely didn't discover any such thing. He went to his grave convinced he'd found a route to India, which was very much the Old World. Conquered by Alexander and everything; stuff doesn't get much older than that.
