When in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue What hypothesis was he attempting to prove?

FACT: Columbus (and most everyone else) already knew the Earth was round.

Columbus Day is often an occasion for schoolchildren to repeat the notion that the explorer set out on his renegade voyage to defy the flat-Earth believers who warned he would sail off the face of the planet.

This myth entered popular imagination some 500 years after Columbus’s voyage, thanks mainly to American author Washington Irving’s 1828 chronicle “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.”

In reality, most educated people living at the end of the 15th century knew the Earth was a sphere. In fact, the Flat Earth model began to phase out of popular thinking after Aristotle's studies proved the spherical shape of the Earth during the 3rd century BC. Columbus actually thought the planet was pear-shaped.

What was in question, however, was the Earth's circumference. Upon mapping his route, Columbus underestimated the distance to Asia by thousands of miles because he used obsolete Greek data to make his calculations.

"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

We all know this line from our youth. We were taught that in 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail with three ships, Santa Maria, Pinta, and Nina, to prove that world was round. Instead he ended up in the Caribbean and would return three more times.

Today we celebrate Christopher Columbus in the United States as discovering this land. However, in none of his four voyages did he ever set foot and what would become the United States or even see the coastline. On top of that, for the rest of his life he claimed to have landed on the Asian coast, somewhere near India.

Yet here we are 520 years after his first voyage still celebrating the great discoverer.

I have long questioned how anything in the "new world" could be discovered considering that native Americans had been here since the previous ice age when they came across the land bridge between Russia and what is now Alaska and then spread out through the Americas. But that was the genius (or rather the cockiness) of the Western world. Most of the European countries at that time felt that they were top of the human chain and lands that they had not been on were simply undiscovered.

The Columbus story has changed recently to more reflect what had actually happened because of his journeys, that now the Western world knew of the lands that made up the Americas and it would become a new focal point for them rather than trying to sail to Asian lands.

If we are going to continue to celebrate Columbus Day, should we not also celebrate Viking Day, or even Chinese Day (because there is evidence, though flimsy and sparse at the current time, that they actually preceded the Vikings landing in America)?

Oh well, at least people get a day off.

The recent student and teacher protests in Colorado have a lot of people asking: what is American history? The local school board talked patriotism. The people actually in school demanded higher standards.

But on Columbus Day, it’s worth considering whether the standards of this particular history lesson have been debased by patriotism itself, and whether we’ve turned a false history into an inappropriate holiday.

We asked readers: how did you learn the history of Christopher Columbus? And how should we consider this day going forward? Your responses, from Oklahoma to Harvard, were resounding: it’s time to celebrate differently.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, my teachers were the World War II generation that proclaimed American exceptionalism’. Columbus was the great explorer who found this new land inhabited by ‘savages’, and brought them to civilization. –Paul, Massachusetts

We were taught that Columbus ‘freed the Indians!’, though what they were freed from – that was never said. It started with coloring pages and silly movies and evolved over the years to textbooks and essays. The narrative stayed the same throughout the years: he was a hero, he discovered America, and if you say otherwise, well, you’re just downright unpatriotic.

We ought to look at the ugly sides of colonization and the genocide of the Native Americans, something along the lines of, Yes, we’re here now, but let’s find out how we got here. Why on Earth are we celebrating a murderer? –Kiera, Florida

It was never a day for in-depth teaching about true history. The story was, without fail, always the whitewashed tale of a great explorer coming to America and discovering a lush paradise full of friendly natives. I never heard a single dissenting opinion or contradictory backstory from any educators.

Columbus Day shouldn’t be recognized at all. –Drew, Pennsylvania

All I really remember from was the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria – and, of course: in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. After that, my family moved from New Jersey to a small town in South Dakota. There, it was always Columbus Day/Native American Day. In middle school we celebrated Native American Day one year by eating traditional Native American foods. More recently, the South Dakota state legislature officially changed the name to Native American Day.

I think we should follow South Dakota’s lead and rename it to honor indigenous peoples. –Joan, South Dakota

I was taught like every other elementary student, from a textbook that misrepresented history in favor of the victors. I’m Cherokee, but I did not learn the truth about the Eurocentric leanings of common textbooks until college. My native elders did not speak out – they protested silently by NOT observing Columbus Day. It took me years to figure out why.

It is appalling that we recognize Columbus as anything. It is paramount to celebrating rape, murder and slavery. We should be ashamed for celebrating this mischaracterized, historically sketchy character. –Ken Bridges, Oklahoma

I don’t remember being told anything about Columbus’s crimes until I was in fifth grade, when we had the day off for Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity Day. We should denounce Columbus as a criminal and rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity Day. Columbus enslaved many Native Americans. –Sam, California

Columbus was not the first human being to “find” North America. Integrating the early history of the American Pacific and west coast into school curriculum – instead of focusing on the 13 east coast colonies that eventually rebelled from the British Empire – would help illuminate that for students.

“Hispaniola”, where the Taino people (or Columbus’ “Indians”) lived, is not what would become the contiguous United States, but actually modern-day “Haiti”, the second democratic nation in the Western Hemisphere, after the world’s largest slave revolt. The Taino people have a history – and that should be taught.

When I moved to California, I was surprised to learn that the school district celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day. I hope more school districts adopt this tradition. –Rhae Lynn Barnes, Cambridge, Massachusetts

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