Have you noticed just how WRONG Columbus was? :))
I mean, look where India is situated on the map.
And then look where Cuba is.
He missed China + the whole Pacific Ocean + America in his calculations.
Lucky *beep* :)
EveryOne is the One...
He FU_cked up big time and then got remembered forever for it.
shareI don't get it, your point that is.
Missed China, Pacific Ocean and America in his calculations?
There was no America nor the Paficic Ocean in 15th Century.
http://communication.ucsd.edu/bjones/Books/Book.scans/1492.map.gif
There WAS America and a Pacific Ocean in the 15-th century.
Europeans simply didn't know about it. :)
Columbus thought he was about to find India where is America actually.
A "tiny" miscalculation.
EveryOne is the One...
How could it be a miscalculation if they didn't know about America being there?
Of course he thought he was about to find India where America is because they thought the world was a lot smaller then it is.
Based on Marco Polo, he believed China was on the 28th parallel. He was right - it is. CC did the right thing based on knowledge he had.
- The Truth is Out There, and I found it in Christ!
Columbus kept mentioning China and India... Europeans must have known that China was further east than India? Or no?
shareThere wasn't an "America" before the 15-th (the name "America" was given by the spaniards to that continent in honor to the italian sailor Américo Vespucio (his name in spanish, in italian is Amerigo Vespucci) who traveled for the spanish Crown).
In the 15-th there were the kingdoms of Maya, Quechua, Inca, Nahua, Chorotega, Marayó... but the continent didn't have the name of "America". America was a given name because of Americo Vespucio.
Please, some history knowledge in needed.
It seems that it was a mistake made by a German cartographer. Most probably he thought that Americo was the one who "discovered " the continent and named it after him.
shareThe absolutely majority of the europeans did not know about it although the vikings were there about 500 years before. I think, however, that a very small group of people did know that by sailing west it would be possible to reach land . He was sure, convinced (if not obsessed) that it was possible on the 28th parallel.
shareOf course America and the Pacific Ocean existited in the 15th century. What Columbus was wrong about was the circumference of the Earth - he estimated the Earth to be much smaller than his critics, and ironically, in this respect he was wrong and his critics were right - their estimate was much closer to the number we now know to be correct than Columbus'. That's why they rejected Columbus' proposal - based on the real numbers, the journey to Asia in a westward direction would have been vast, crossing, essentially, the combined distances of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the American continent. They could never have taken sufficient supplies for such a trip, and that's why they rejected the idea. What saved Columbus' expedition was that they hit America not even halfway along the trip to Asia, but Columbus himself had not postulated the existence of America along the way to Asia - he just thought the Earth was so small that Asia would be located where, in reality, there was America.
shareYou're right, but the whole story is far more complex than can be told in a movie, or comprehended by those who simply want to laugh at or vilify Columbus.
shareThis is some really old thread anyway. Those people above are old IMDB users, not users here.
Nevertheless, people today often think that Columbus thought he was in India. But there was no such country as India at that time, and no general term for India specifically.
The term "the Indies" referred to ALL of southern Asia and southeast Asia, all the way east. It did not mean "India" the modern country.
I thing the name was "Cipango"
shareI don't think China or the Pacific Ocean were discovered yet
share