Columbus Day
Did Christopher Columbus discover America?
A lot of modern pundits say "no".
1. Although there were people already here, Columbus really did make the discovery.
Suppose the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) succeeds. Did the scientists actually discover the extraterrestrials? After all, the ETs already knew that they (the ETs) existed.
Suppose a couple of investigative reporters uncover a conspiracy within the government. Did they really discover it? The conspirators already knew it existed.
There have been cases where small tribes were discovered in remote areas. Was that really a discovery? The tribe members knew they existed.
Suppose a cyber security analyst finds malware in a computer system. Was that a discovery? The group that planted it obviously knew about it.
Suppose a wife finds out her husband has been cheating on her. Did she discover that? Her husband already knew.
Columbus didn't just discover America: he discovered the Americans. It was common knowledge that Europeans, Africans, and Asians existed, but not Americans.
2. Other pundits complain that other explorers got there first. The main example is Leif Erikson.
Girolamo Cardano is credited with discovering the solution to a form of the cubic equation. He wasn't the first to know it: he was told the method by Niccolo Tartaglia. But Cardano published the technique in his book Ars Magna. This established the principle that the discoverer isn't the first person to find something, it is the first to publish. See "Human Accomplishment" by Charles Murray pg. 242.
Although others arrived in America before Columbus, he was the first to publish. He forced the cartographers to redraw their maps. Before Columbus, the maps only showed Europe, Africa, and Asia. After Columbus, they had to show the American continents.
3. How important was Columbus?
For the year 2000, the A&E program Biography assembled a list of the 100 most important people of the last 1,000 years. Columbus was in sixth place. To see why, imagine what would have happened if Columbus had failed to convince King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to fund his voyages.
Columbus was both very right and very wrong at the same time. He was very right about the way the winds in the Atlantic blew. In the north Atlantic, the winds blow from west to east (the prevailing westerlies). That makes it difficult (though not impossible) to sail from east to west. But Columbus knew that further south it reversed: the winds blew from east to west. So, he sailed south to the Canary Islands, resupplied, then sailed west, using favorable winds. To get back home, he sailed north, caught the prevailing westerlies, and used them to get back to Europe.
Columbus was very wrong about how far Asia was from Europe (going from east to west). He thought the world was only three quarters its actual size. He also thought the Eurasian land mass was much larger than it really was (225 degrees vs 150 degrees). So he calculated the distance he needed to travel at about one quarter the actual value.
It was that unusual combination (being both right and wrong) that allowed for the discovery. Without him, the discovery of America would have happened maybe a hundred years later.
4. Did Columbus actually reach America?
This is a minor point. Columbus never reached what is now the United States of America. But he did reach South America on his third voyage, and Central America on his fourth. If you count Central America as part of North America, then he reached both North and South America.
5. Why does Columbus have such a large place in American history?
The United States of America was formed in two steps: first, the War for Independence (1775 - 1783) and second, the drafting, ratification, and implementation of the Constitution (1787 - 1789). American history consists of the events leading up to those steps and the events that followed from them. The discoveries by Christopher Columbus were essential. Columbus ranks with George Washington in importance for the creation of our country.
Posted 2022/October/07