In 14hudred and nintytwo 45 is an asshole too.

[Minimalist]

Jesus Christ, can we at least rename Columbus Day after Leif Erickson, A) who made it to the New World over 400 years before Columbus, B) made it onto the continent, C) actually realised he had discovered a new world unlike Columbus who died convinced he had gone to India, D) shockingly for belonging to a proud warriot race, was most likely NOT complicit in crimes against humanity?

Hell, there already is a Leif Erickson Day, and it actually falls on October 9th, like Columbus Day does this year.

Or at least rename it after Amerigo Vespucci, who has fallen into obscurity despite figuring out that Columbus erred in assuming he reached India, and HAVING TWO CONTINENTS NAMED AFTER HIM as a result.

Why would we give credit to late comers, did nobody read the science article? Humans have been in the Americas for an estimated 50,000 years. Europeans did learn how to map things sure, but they were never the first humans on any continent.

Marketing.  Columbus and his Spanish patrons advertised their finds and went back and forth repeatedly.  The Norse did not.

There are well documented plagues throughout Greek and Roman history and we have Egyptian mummies with signs of small pox.  And the Silk Road was in full swing when the Han Dynasty of China linked to it during the late 2d century BC.  Plus there was a sea route as well which would have been not only faster but would have opened up the more southerly parts of Asia to east-west trade.  There has to be another answer.

[GUBU]

I wonder if there was contact at all.  The Norse were certainly not immune to European diseases and we know that after 1492 when there was documented contact the Indians died in droves from contracting those diseases.  In fact, Charles Mann in his book 1491 makes the point that most Indians died of European diseases without ever having seen a European.  The diseases were carried along internal trade routes and devastated the local population long before Europeans ever landed on the mainland and followed those trails.

If there was contact why is there no evidence either of disease spreading or surviving populations having some degree of immunity?  Would make for an interesting discussion.

It may have been a timing thing. A lot of diseases came after the mongols opened the silk road and the crusades brought back some nasties so it may have been that the Vikings that went across were relatively disease free.

Most of the European diseases which were so devestating to the Native American cultures were actually cross contaminants from domesticated animals. The Europeans had built upbimmunity from many centuries' contact with these animals. But because the Americas had no large domesticable animals (with the exceptions of llamas/alpacas) they never developed similar diseases or any immunities.