Columbus Day
I hope it's still Columbus Day, the Day Christopher Columbus discovered the Indian Islands (sort of).
Almost everything I was taught in school was wrong. The story I learned in school was that everyone (except Columbus) thought the world was flat, but Columbus knew the world was round, and that one could reach India by sailing due west.
As I learned much later, most educated people in the 15th century knew the world was a globe, but sailors knew that most ships could only sail with the wind.
William of Normandy had to wait until the wind was from the east before he could sail to invade England.
Richard, Coeur de Lion, had to wait until the wind was from the west before he could sail to Palestine.
The Vikings used galleys, which meant the hold was full of rowers. Before the 11th century, they could row from Scandinavia to England, where the rowers transformed into soldiers and won battles, but by the 12th century, an army needed matériel, which a galley could not transport, so the Viking attack on Harold (transported by galleys) failed, while the French attack (transported by sailing ships) succeeded.
Before the 15th century, ships could only sail with the wind. If the wind was from the east, a ship could sail any compass point from South by Southwest by South to North by Northwest by North, but not due North or South, or any compass point with an East in it. Then the Italians figured out how to sail against the wind. But the heads of the various Italian states only wanted to dominate the Med.
Columbus approached the Spanish King and Queen, and they funded three ships that could sail against the wind, to celebrate their victory over the Muslims (a victory that moved Spain from the most advanced nation on earth to among the most backward).
Initially, the wind was an east wind, and the sailors were afraid they'd get far from Spain and would never get back, and the sailors were ready to mutiny. Then the went turned into a west wind, and the sailors knew they could get home quickly if food and water ran out. And Columbus managed to sail to the New World. Where he found huge amounts of gold.
The gold, as it turned out, caused hyperinflation in Spain, and Spain, after a brief period dominating the world, collapsed, nevermore to rise.
And, of course, Columbus brought the annihilation of many of the pre-Columbian native American tribes.
Almost everything I was taught in school was wrong. The story I learned in school was that everyone (except Columbus) thought the world was flat, but Columbus knew the world was round, and that one could reach India by sailing due west.
As I learned much later, most educated people in the 15th century knew the world was a globe, but sailors knew that most ships could only sail with the wind.
William of Normandy had to wait until the wind was from the east before he could sail to invade England.
Richard, Coeur de Lion, had to wait until the wind was from the west before he could sail to Palestine.
The Vikings used galleys, which meant the hold was full of rowers. Before the 11th century, they could row from Scandinavia to England, where the rowers transformed into soldiers and won battles, but by the 12th century, an army needed matériel, which a galley could not transport, so the Viking attack on Harold (transported by galleys) failed, while the French attack (transported by sailing ships) succeeded.
Before the 15th century, ships could only sail with the wind. If the wind was from the east, a ship could sail any compass point from South by Southwest by South to North by Northwest by North, but not due North or South, or any compass point with an East in it. Then the Italians figured out how to sail against the wind. But the heads of the various Italian states only wanted to dominate the Med.
Columbus approached the Spanish King and Queen, and they funded three ships that could sail against the wind, to celebrate their victory over the Muslims (a victory that moved Spain from the most advanced nation on earth to among the most backward).
Initially, the wind was an east wind, and the sailors were afraid they'd get far from Spain and would never get back, and the sailors were ready to mutiny. Then the went turned into a west wind, and the sailors knew they could get home quickly if food and water ran out. And Columbus managed to sail to the New World. Where he found huge amounts of gold.
The gold, as it turned out, caused hyperinflation in Spain, and Spain, after a brief period dominating the world, collapsed, nevermore to rise.
And, of course, Columbus brought the annihilation of many of the pre-Columbian native American tribes.
posted by Dubai@Random at 12:08 am
3 Comments:
Actually the biggest problem that he had to overcome was that not only did everyone knew that the world was round, but that everyone knew that the ships of that time could not carry enough supplies to sail that far (the distance from Europe to China). Columbus thought that he could make the trip because he was spectacularly wrong about how far it was.
"Columbus therefore estimated the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan to be about 3,000 Italian miles (3,700 km, or 2,300 statute miles), while the correct figure is 19,600 km (12,200 mi). " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Geographical_considerations)
So not only did Columbus not know more about geography than was generally known at the time, he actually knew less.
In Barcelona, there's a Columbus statue with him pointing - towards Mallorca, not the Americas. Apparently, it was known that he had a bad sense of direction!
wow, this is so informative. I had no idea about any of this.
I have learnt so much history in the last year, having to help my children study. It makes me wonder if I spent my school years asleep, or perhaps the teachers were hopeless.
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