Happy Columbus Day, everyone!! !

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As a geography major, and having worked as a cartographic technician for 5 years, I just wanted to celebrate one of the guys who got me to where I am today careerwise.

You mean his navigator, Amerigo Vespucci?

It has been said that Columbus was the ultimate pure researcher - when he left, he didn't really know where he was going; when he got there, he didn't know where he was; when he returned, he didn't know where he'd been; and he did it all with a government grant!

OMG, that's hilarious

The site's clown?

It is said that Columbus sailed around the world in hope to get to his location quicker as if the world was round, he would in theory get there quicker that going around huge land masses

Actually, in 1492, everyone knew the world was round - it'd been proven by the Greeks, who also had a fair figure for its circumference (about 25,000 miles). Even those without a classical education could watch the masts of a ship disappear below the horizon as it sailed away, proving the world was round. Columbus, however, thought he knew better than the Greeks - he thought the world was only about 5000 miles around, which was why he thought sailing west to reach far Cathay was such a great idea (if he were right, after all, the Ocean Sea would only be about 2500 miles across).

Those who opposed his voyage pointed out that he'd never be able to make the trip given the world's actual size - and they were right, he and his men would have died en route had there not been a mucking great continent in their way...

yeah columbus....i still don't know why we celebrate him. he enslaved the people from haiti, and forced them convert to christianity. also let's not forget his hunt for gold and his cruel treatment of the arawaks. woopdeedoo.

celebrating columbus day is just as strange and vague as we celebrate thanksgiving day(the pilgrims did not happily comply with the indians and have a happy dappy feast around a large table as third grade taught me).

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I learned this as an adult. As a child I was taught that Columbus alone knew the world was round and the ignorant people who opposed him thought it was flat and he and the ships would fall off the edge into a void. Columbus was forward thinking and right and everybody else was wrong. Yay Columbus. Happy Columbus Day. I was utterly stunned to learn as an adult that his detractors were actually the ones who were right. They knew the actual size of this orb we call Earth and they knew it was an orb. And they knew it wasn't possible to bring enough supplies to survive a trans-oceanic journey of the length he was considering. He wrongly thought it was going to be much shorter and they opposed him because they knew its actual length. And they were right. If it weren't for the giant continent that none of them knew about, he and his men would have died. It turned my world upside down to discover that he was actually the reckless and ignorant one and those who opposed him were the reasonable and correct ones. Unsurprisingly, he felt (wrongly) vindicated when he landed the ships and met people with dark skin and straight black hair- just as he'd expected to.

So who should get credit for discovering America?

Columbus or Leif Ericson?

Neither of them. I think credit for discovering America should go to the people who got her first, a bunch of Asians who crossed the Bering Strait. Leif Ericson gets credit for being the first European. Columbus gets credit for being the first European to actually tell many other Europeans about it and starting waves of immigration (credit or blame, depending on your POV). But the Asians who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years before either of them were actually the first humans to discover it.

Neither of them. I think credit for discovering America should go to the people who got here first, a bunch of Asians who crossed the Bering Strait. Leif Ericson gets credit for being the first European. Columbus gets credit for being the first European to actually tell many other Europeans about it and starting waves of immigration (credit or blame, depending on your POV). But the Asians who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years before either of them were actually the first humans to discover it.

How would you feel if the country your ancestors lived on all their lives was visited and celebrated as being discovered by someone when someone was already there. The native Americans, or (Indians)
Can we really celebrate the fact someone discovered and forced a religion onto people and into slavery?

I was taught the same thing; Columbus sailed to prove the world was round. So, all we learn at school is wrong? Well, most of it anyway. If all we know now about him to be true; being reckless and idiotic, can we really celebrate him as discovering a country that was already inhabited by natives and had already been discovered by someone else prior. The whole "Asians discovering America" is new to me.

On this basis I feel it's wrong to celebrate today being "Columbus" day

Happy Columbus Day from Canada, but here its Thanksgiving

what i also find sad is that we're not %100 sure what he looked like. adds on to my confusion.

I have often thought about that- Columbus is the true forrunner of all modern
day working scientists ( not galileo, nor newton) because he was the first
person in history to get a research grant.

He got someone powerful to gamble money to test a theory.
His theory actually was proven wrong by his voyate-though he didnt know it.

Astromers discovered pluto because a mathematician said point your
telescope right here at this point in the sky and you will discover a nineth planet.

Sure enuff- thee was a new planet- but it turned out years later
that the mathematicians equation was in error. Thus the discovery of Pluto
like that of America was a lucky accident. Sometimes even a wrong theory gets things things going in an important direction.

The first European (that we know of) to visit America was Leif Erickson who reached Canada around the year 1000.

Columbus was a total dumb ass. He didn't even reach the mainland yet he thought he had landed in India.