Muslims discovered Australia?

[Master of Ossus]

There weren't enough of them to carve out a niche in the area anyway; they were greatly outnumbered by the Indians and their presence didn't seem to cause any widespread plagues like when the English and Spanish began colonizing a few hundred years later.

Also, the indians in the area didn't have anything they wanted. There were no gold reserves there, and no metal, and very little in the way of food and arable land. When you add in the fact that the Indians were all hostile and that there were VERY few Viking settlers, the area simply couldn't possibly support them.

[Master of Ossus]

I think Columbus did not even knew he discovered a new continent when he found America. He was searching for a sea route to India.

That's really a myth perpetrated by one of his most sensational biographers. Columbus and his crew would have had to have been fucking morons not to understand that they had discovered a new continent, since the flora and fauna there were nothing like descriptions of Indian and Oriental plants and animals. Also, traders had been landing in India for years and none of them claimed new lands for Spain and God when they landed, nor did they enslave the nearby Indian villagers. Either he was the most aggressive and sociopathic merchantman ever, or he understood he had discovered a new continent and didn't want to tell anyone about it (entirely possible).

[Gandalf]

Sorry about the age of Islam thing. I misinterpreted the article to mean they helped found Aborigine culture. Aborigine culture is apparently 10,000+ years old. Some say 40,000, even been said that 100,000 was possible.

[Sarevok]

Sorry about the age of Islam thing. I misinterpreted the article to mean they helped found Aborigine culture. Aborigine culture is apparently 10,000+ years old. Some say 40,000, even been said that 100,000 was possible.

Good point. Aborginal culture has existed for over 40000 years while Islam is only 1400 years old.