Why are arrays covariant but generics are invariant?

Question

From Effective Java by Joshua Bloch,

1. Arrays differ from generic type in two important ways. First arrays are covariant. Generics are invariant.

2. Cov

Answer 1

I think they made a wrong decision at the first place that made array covariant. It breaks the type safety as it described here and they got stuck with that because of backward compatibility and after that they tried to not make the same mistake for generic. And that's one of the reasons that Joshua Bloch prefers lists to arra ys in Item 25 of book "Effective Java(second edition)"