Africans also “discovered” Australia
Oceania, 1768-1771. In the first expedition mandated by the Royal Society to the explorer and cartographer James Cook, the English captain discovered New Zealand and the west coast of Australia. After the first conquerors came the settlers and the islands became the property of the United Kingdom.
Several historians have tried to change this official version by claiming that before Cook there had been fishermen and traders from neighboring countries, but so far they have not found conclusive evidence.
During the years of World War II, Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg found some old coins on an island in the Wessel archipelago in northern Australia. On a map, he pointed out the exact location of the finding and left the coins in the hands of the experts so that they could be examined.
But those coins were forgotten until Ian McIntosh, from the University of Indiana, USA. The Australian anthropologist has concluded that the coins are between 1,000 and 1,300 years old and that the Kilwa sultanate, the current Tanzania, devoured them. In particular, these currencies were the first currencies created in sub-Saharan Africa.
Thus, according to McIntosh, fishermen, traders or explorers of the African sultanate arrived in Australia over a thousand years ago and negotiated with the natives, as indicated by the coins.
It's still early to know if that test will be enough to rewrite the story. In addition, the coins were removed from the place of origin, so archeology will not be able to check whether they were abandoned by Kilwa travellers about a thousand years ago or, for example, if they were lost by a collector much later, after Cook’s landing.
Although the McIntosh hypothesis is confirmed, it is clear that the influence of the alleged discoverers in Oceania was much less than the British would have, who used to keep the locale unlike the Europeans.
In addition, the debate about discovery becomes meaningless if you take into account that Australia was actually discovered by humans long before. 40,000-50,000 years ago, in the Pleistocene, the first Australians left Southeast Asia. The islands reached the present New Guinea through much narrower intersections at the time. And because the Australian continental shelf was then above sea level, they came to Australia on foot.
Copenhagen, 18 December 1974 At 12 noon a ferry arrived at the port, from where a group of about 100 Santa Claus landed. They brought a gigantic geese with them. The idea was to make a kind of “Trojan Goose” and, upon reaching the city, to pull the white beard costumes... [+]
