How come it took so long for the Americas to be discovered by not only European nations, but by Asian nations?

Question

Title pretty much sums things up

In: 6

Answer 1

The Americas are *far* from where most people lived in both Europe and Asia. Maps do not do it justice. And trips of that length are extremely expensive to fund, and need a payoff. Only reason Columbus found Cuba etc is because of political reasons, trading with the far east was too expensive the way they had to do it.