Did The Polynesians Discover America?

And you can see the rest of the video focussing on the Early Modern Period here -
History With Hilbert
Brandon F

Captain Cook, sailing around the Pacific in the 17th century, found every island inhabited. The people there shared languages, cultures, and a love of navigation. Spread thousands of miles across the open ocean the Polynesians are history's greatest navigators. But could they have discovered the Americas before Columbus? And how is the second most beautiful thing on Earth, the potato, a key to this story? Let's find out.

In this video, we'll look at Polynesian history, Polynesian Navigation, Polynesian boat building, and all things Polynesian. The history of Polynesia is fascinating and interest in it has spiked over the last few decades due to voyages upon the Hokule‘a
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SOURCES (Affiliate Links)

On the Road of the Winds, Patrick Vinton Kirch

Other Sources

In Search of the Ancient Polynesian Voyaging Canoe -

SOME SFX TAKEN FROM AGE OF EMPIRES II

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#operationodysseus #history #polynesia

[CogitoEdu]

And you can see the rest of the video focussing on the Early Modern Period here -
History With Hilbert -
Brandon F -

[jimpaea]

Thank you man. I'm a Tongan and to watch this makes me see the origin of Polynesia and as a Polynesian I'm proud of our ancestors

[TheArmchairHistorian]

Way to go with picking a topic outside of Europe, really makes the collaboration diverse and unique! Great job.

[MythologywithMike]

I love Polynesian history! It's criminally underrated and I hope it becomes more popular in the next few years

[iammrbeat]

I agree that the potato is the most sacred thing on earth. LONG LIVE POTATO.

[faanengaaw]

On my island we still travel by the stars without no use of the compass. I am frm Micronesia & i am so proud of my culture & happy to say my people brought it back for the other Pacific islanders! On my island we call the sweet potato “kaamu” while others called it “kuumara”
Mau pialug is frm my clan✊🏽✊🏽

[joshou]

Columbus- I discovered America
Polynesia- I did it first
Vikings- What about me?
Native Americans- BOI

[StefanMilo]

That's crazy aligning your boat with the motion of the ocean. Great video!

[UsefulCharts]

Been watching Operation Odysseus for the past hour and while I've enjoyed them all, I think I liked this one the best! So well done. Also, happy to have found your channel.

[AngloFrancoDane]

And polynesians left chickens in Peru, DNA tests of old chicken bones in Peru prove.

[kayakat]

Polynesian history is so cool to learn about. The saw the whole ocean as a highway system of winds and currents.

[starkofasshai]

I love how in a generation we have gone from "Columbus discovered America" to "Everyone knew America existed but nobody bothered telling the Europeans about it".

[zolacnomiko]

Aloha from Hawai‘i! Mahalo piha for covering this topic and broadening its exposure. Having read a lot on this topic myself, I congratulate you on your thorough research. The Austronesian peoples and especially the Polynesians deserve credit for what is still one of the most impressive human achievements of all time—navigating to and colonizing tiny islands in a swath of open ocean that is 1/4 of the face of the planet... as you say, at a time when other sailing cultures were hugging coastlines! Austronesian non-instrument wayfinding is a skill and a technology that blows my mind the more I learn about it. Mahalo as well for highlighting the achievements of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Hōkūle‘a, and the great Papa Mau.

[artemis_smith]

Something about this story fills me with a weird sort of pride. I'm not Polynesian but the fact that humans were able to navigate the Pacific using such simple tech and orally-imparted knowledge makes me proud to be human. And the fact that the knowledge wasn't lost and there seems to be an ongoing renaissance, a growing global appreciation for the Polynesian people, fills me with the same sort of pride. Our species is awesome. We should do better to respect each other, learn from each other, teach each other.

[shboi]

The Polynesians didn't go with the waves to new islands like most civilisations would. They followed the stars. Often going against the waves, so if anything bad happened, they could go straight back home.

[mgmcdb]

More Polynesian history please. The Tūhoe from New Zealand have a super interesting oral history.

[EpimetheusHistory]

Fantastic video! makes so much sense that they reached the Americas-I think biggest question now is how often? Love your animations and drawings

[tnty]

The fact that a dude went onto a raft to sail into something that he didn't know was true or not, basically risking his and his crew's life, is actually very awesome. Let's have a moment of silence for him and just admire his dedication to find out his theory.

[Pandroo]

As a Peruvian with a Samoan Girlfriend I believe we have very long and strong connections with polynesians. I can’t say y’all come from us or Asians but I know there’s an obvious connection and we’ve met and got along in ancient times

[saftsuse]

I think Thor Heyerdahl was onto something, but maybe not the way he thought.

He took the Easter Island myth of people coming from the East seriously. And the only thing East of Easter Island, was South America, and not Polynesia.

We now know that there was people, coming from the East. But perhaps not with Balsa wood floats, as Heyerdahl thought.

Analysis showed that _"although the European lineage could be explained by contact with white Europeans after the island was 'discovered' in 1722 by Dutch sailors, the South American component was much older, dating to between about 1280 and 1495, soon after the island was first colonised by Polynesians in around 1200."_ - The Independent. 2014-10-23.

It seems to me more likely, that Polynesians went to South America, traded and mixed with the locals, and then went back and conquered Easter Island.

This shows that taking people's native tales and myths seriously, might sometimes be a good clue as to understand their origin. This respect that Thor had for the native story is the legacy he left, showing that even though he had interpreted it wrong in some respect, there is still room to argue the native myth is true; people coming from the East came to, and perhaps even conquered, the Easter Islands. This is evident by the genetic evidence they left behind, somewhere in the 14th or 15th century, over 300 years before the Dutch discovered the island.