Did columbus know America existed before he set sail?
No, Columbus did not. He was looking for a more economical and simply an easier route from Europe to what we know of as the Far East. If he knew of it, it would have been exploited and colonised long before Columbus ever lived. It is quite likely a lot of people knew about the Americas before Columbus’ voyage, and it is thought lilely that several Scottish and English fisherman have encountered huge areas of land out past Greenland, plus, many historians suspect Vikings to have settled in Newfoundland in the late 900s, but no, Coumbus did not know about the Americas.
Popular history says that when Columbus hit landfall in North America he believed he was in India and that is what most people accept. However, Columbus was not an idiot. He was a very experienced navigator and sailor and had travelled extensively all over Europe and the Mediterranean and had undoubtedly talked to people or heard second hand of people who had sailed westwards. Fisherman from the British Isles are believed to have fished the Grand Banks (in the Atlantic, off Nova Scotia) since around 1000 AD and the voyages of the Vikings to Greenland and North America were not unknown in the 15th century. The Turkish admiral Piri Reis produced a map in 1521 (71 years before Columbus’ first voyage) which showed a landmass lying between Europe and Asia and it is very possible that Columbus may have seen this map, or a copy of it, or heard of the details. However, I (along with many other historians) believe that if Columbus had talked of another continent he would been regarded as crazy.
