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In reply to the discussion: Movement To Change The Name Of Columbus Day Gaining Momentum [View all]NonMetro
(631 posts)And so did the Greeks 2,500 years ago. As to the size of it, as I recall, Aristotle fairly accurately calculated the circumference, and he even calculated the position of the international date line. This whole business about the sailors fearing they were going to fall off the end of the earth because it was flat was a myth invented later on. But Columbus did not know the circumference, and that's why he thought he was off the coast of India.
Then, let us from our 21st century vantage point, with hundreds of years of historical research and scholarship at our fingertips, pass judgment on this 15th century mariner. Let us apply our own standards retroactively. Let us recount every awful thing we now know and then pretend that the "discovery" in 1492 meant nothing at all, that it wasn't the starting point for the rise of some of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known. is that what we should tell our kids?