Picking on Columbus

[fbhjr]

At work today we got into a talk about how we have Patriot’s day off Monday, but don’t have Columbus day off in October.

I am amazed at how little truth is known about that Columbus fellow.
In 1492, no one seriously thought the earth was flat. Everyone knew it was round, it was just a question or how large it was.
He was rejected all over the place because he had the number, very, very wrong and most people knew it.

There was a bunch of the world people didn’t know. So, Columbus just assumed that it wasn’t there.


But, folks had been sailing north and south for a very long time and knew the polar diameter of the Earth. So, almost everyone knew it had to be the same around the other way.

So, Columbus wasn’t trying to prove the Earth was round. He was trying to prove it was lemon shaped. And, he was wrong.


Why should we celebrate that?

Comments

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

I love this. I guess he made lemonade out of a giant lemon ;-)

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

:D

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA! Awesome!

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

Bored, or did you get a new app. for your computer?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I guess number 1...

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

The day is slowly becoming an "Italian-American" celebratory day, although still called Columbus day.

Some others are trying to push it more of an "exploration/discovery" day.

Still some others are claiming it as a "mass genocide of [innocent indigenous peoples] day" which only perplexes and saddens me.

*shrug*

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I'm actually more in the third school myself. After all, from the very first voyage Columbus was taking prisoners and saying "these folks make great slaves".

On the first and second one, they should go with Amerigo Vespucci instead. A better explorer, and still Italian. And, after all, he got his name on the place...

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I'm not as keen about placing all of the blame on Columbus himself as solely responsible for all of the
bad stuff that came of his voyages. I'm not saying he's wholly innocent either, but I don't see him swording hundreds of thousands natives by his own hand, or personally locking them into chains.

Although I did not know about him bringing slaves with him...Well, we are always re-learning and re-discovering things every day.

I do agree that celebrating Vespucci would be a better collective use of the holiday, but good luck getting that changed this century.

One of the past parades Leg III did in Providence, the local news crew came by and ambushed people asking them what they knew about Columbus and where they stood on the controversy, etc. (that same year there were several protests, some violent, ironically, but others where people threw blood onto parade marchers claiming they were forwarding an agenda about mass genocide, etc. 400 years after the fact but I digress)

A number of the interviewees were seniors who were rather vehemently defensive about the old school rhyme of him sailing the blue in 1492 et al and how disgusting it was to denounce the guy, where they felt he was a 'great man' and 'discovered America' and how we should be grateful not demonizing him, et al. It was surprising to see how aggressively some people hold onto the fluff they're programmed to learn from school decades ago. Some of them even went further to push a very clear Religious agenda connected with him. So, just goes to show, brainwashing and agenda furthering never goes out of style, even better to wrap it up into a holiday.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I am not, in any way, trying to place all the blame on Columbus for what
happened in this hemisphere in the 1500’s.

And, the idea he discovered America is very, very wrong.  Even if you
discount, as many do, that the place was full when he got here, there is
still the matter of the Vinland colony well before.  Not to mention
evidence of Chinese ships, Irish ships, African ships, etc.  It was a well
known place for a long time before he got here.  (And, he had been to
Iceland before 1492.  So, there is good reason to believe he had heard that
it was out there from them.  OK, he thought it was China, but that refutes
him “discovering” it even more.  His diameter of the Earth actually isn’t
that far off if you do it at the North Atlantic level.  So, maybe that’s
where he got confused.)

If you read the real stuff about Columbus it is very different from popular
myth.  And, since his log books are still available, the myth is pretty
clearly just that.
He wasn’t a very good sailor.  He was an abysmal navigator.  He was a lousy
captain, governor, manager.  (To the point of being arrested and brought
back to Spain in chains for treason for doing such a bad job.)

He was very, very lucky.
And, he was a tremendous marketing genius.  He sold the idea of “riches by
sailing west” to the Spanish court when he had been rejected by several
other European countries.  (All of whom knew the correct diameter of the
Earth and said “he’ll starve long before he ever reaches China.  Not, he’ll
sail off the edge.)

And, it isfor  that idea of “riches by sailing west” that I hold him
accountable.  That’s the idea that took hold and caused so much damage.  It
was “let’s discover some new lands” or “let’s see what’s out there.”
From the very beginning it was about making money.   That’s what he sold to
Spain, and that’s what Spain insisted on in that investment.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Sorry I wasn't categorizing you as one of those blame-placers - That was a comment to a lot of the snides I hear from people in general.

The whole "make shitloads of money by manipulating the system" is as old as dirt (who knows, maybe that was a scheme itself!) so yeah. But, we modern people can't get upset about it, but shouldn't pass it off either. If anything it should be made into a lesson on "welcome to the real world" and how some people work it for their own upper hand. Makes one wonder if the Spanish throne either felt sorry for the guy or felt they weren't going to be at much of a loss thinking he was likely to fail. I recall reading somewhere that the Queen pawned off some of the crown jewels to fund part of the expedition....So if Columbus royally screwed up (no pun intended), I don't think the pawn shop owner would be able to argue much with imperial soldiers or...um...financiers...about getting the jewels back without interest, et al.

One of those things of history that can bring more questions than answers, but, more questions can sometimes make history a little more interesting to learn about :D