4 ms·
Agreed that his ethnicity is a silly topic to be discussed, but calling Christopher Columbus a "slightly" relevant guy definitely feels like a stretch.
by wpasc 2y ago
Agreed that his ethnicity is a silly topic to be discussed, but calling Christopher Columbus a "slightly" relevant guy definitely feels like a stretch.
- the_gorilla 2y agoApparently discovering new islands isn't what it used to be.
- slightwinder 2y agoHe was a small gear in a long chain of events. If not Columbus, someone else would likely have found the New World. It was the age of (Europeans) Discovery after all, where many people were sailing the world and finding new routes and lands.
- lazyeye 2y agoThis same logic applies to every discovery in all of human history.
- Thiez 2y agoSure. This is just Great Man theory [1] in action. It's a bit absurd, once you know about it you see it everywhere. It's especially distasteful when it's about people who 'discovered' places, because the next step was usually the subjugation or genocide of the people already living in the discovered place. But we still celebrate the explorers as heroes. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory
- cafard 2y agoIndeed. Next thing somebody will be making a fuss about Isaac Newton.
- borski 2y agoSure. But it wasn’t someone else; it was Columbus. If it were someone else, I’m certain we’d be talking about them instead.
- alephxyz 2y agoIIRC Cabot was trying to raise money for an expedition at the same time as Columbus and did reach continental America before him.