Meaning of North America sources questions I changed the claim of Cabot being commonly credited as the first European to discover North America to commonly credited as the first European to discover the mainland of North America as that is how the Catholic Encyclopedia puts it Note the fairly common meaning of North America includes Central America and the Caribbean where Columbus made his discoveries in 1492 The North America pages makes this clear while noting alternate meanings Of course even this claim is troublesome if Cabot landed on Newfoundland since that it not the mainland Still the mainland statement is sourced so Actually the Catholic Encyclopedia takes it further saying Cabot was discoverer of the American mainland not just North America But as the page Americas terminology points out the term American is rather vague and problematic So I left it as North America Also there is a paragraph entirely within parentheses which I added a citation needed tag too Like his contemporary King Francis I of France who would send Giovanni da Verrazzano to reconnoiter even more of the Atlantic coastline Henry VIII was in part motivated by the perceived insolence of the division of the world into two halves by Pope Alexander VI in the Bull Inter Caetera following the success of Columbus s first voyage One half of the globe was for Portugal and the other half for Spain I don t doubt the Inter Caetera but am skeptical that King Francis I of France and King Henry VIII of England were in part motivated by the perceived insolence of this papal bull My understanding is that the Inter Caetera was never intended to be anything other than an arrangement between Spain and Portugal brokered by the Papacy It applied only to Spain and Portugal France England and all other nations were not bound by italthough Spain tried and rapidly failed to persuade other nations to recognize Spanish rights to the New World based on the Inter Caetera I am skeptical that Francis I or Henry VIII found the papal bull insolent They might have and if so it might have played a part in Henry s support of Cabot But well I checked the references listed here and found no such information Thus citation needed