Quote:
Originally Posted by plaaynde
Yes, but in a sense we can thank his incompetence for that America was found. Would any sensible explorer had miscalculated the circumference of Earth that badly? The guy though he had come to India, even on his death bed.
1. America would almost certainly have been "found" soon after anyway, given the increasing navigational capabilities of Spain and Portugal. The Vikings had already made it as far as Canada centuries earlier. There is now evidence that English sailors may have been fishing off the Newfoundland Coast even before Columbus. I'm finding, at least, that fewer students are coming in with the absurd misconception that Columbus was one of few Europeans who believed the Earth was spherical, or that he somehow
proved that it was.
2. His profound miscalculation was based in part off of his bizarre reading of eschatology in the Bible and popular works in Europe. Few people know that one of Columbus' major objectives was to raise money on his voyages for a new Crusade that he believed would usher in the return of Christ. His journey was, for him, quite literally a voyages to the ends of the Earth.
3. Yes, he continued to believe he had been to Asia on his deathbed (most people are also unaware that he died penniless and disgraced, his barbarous treatment of the Native Americans too much for even the Spanish crown to tolerate). If you read his logs, he made observations of the local flora and fauna based on his theory that he had arrived in China. The first thing that smelled like cinnamon was declared to
be cinnamon. The first plant resembling a description of Chinese rhubarb was proclaimed to
be it.