We were taught in elementary school that Christopher Columbus promoted the idea that the world was round when the general notion was that the world was flat. We were given the impression that he proposed the right idea and challenged people that had the wrong idea. In the learned circles that Christopher Columbus traveled in, this was not the case.

Though a great deal of knowledge had been lost in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria some of Ptolemy’s work on the size and shape of the earth survived and it was well accepted in the late 1400s. Also the work done in the second century BC by the Greek Eratosthenes correctly measured the earth’s size to be about 42,000 km which is darn close to the actual 40,000 km that we know it to be today.

So where did Columbus go wrong? The late 1400s in Europe, kingdoms had a growing hunger to expand. They knew of the great riches to the east from the voyages of Marco Polo a century earlier. Maybe the temptation of the riches lured Christopher Columbus down the wrong path. It is in human nature to believe something that is of great advantage to you. Maybe it was that part of human nature that led him to believe the calculations of Marinus of Tyre. Marinus of Tyre computed the landmass of the earth, at that time it consisted of Eurasia and Africa, to cover 225 degrees of the face of the globe leaving only 135 degrees of the 360 degrees to be water. This error was Marinus’, Columbus’ error was to believe it. However Columbus himself made his own error in reading the maps of Alfraganus. He assumed Alfraganus was using Italian miles which would make the earth only a little more than 25,000 km around. Alfraganus was actually using the larger Arabic mile. This error led Columbus to believe that it was only 3,000 Italian miles from the Canary Islands to Japan.

Columbus’ final major blunder was not to believe the writing that indicated there was a landmass between the Canary Islands and Japan. The writing gave information about the Norse people sailing to a landmass off to the west and establishing a settlement in a place called L’Anse aux Meadows. The settlement was established in the period around the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 AD. This information, the Norse colony on Greenland, and the stories about Vinland were disregarded by Columbus. He maintained that it would be an easy 3,000 Italian mile voyage from the Canary Islands to Japan.

History may have been quite different if Christopher Columbus wasn’t so insistant in believing the wrong information. If he knew such a great expanse lay before him he may have never attempted the journey. If he thought he would end up on an unknown shore and there would be no spices from the east, he may have given up on the whole idea. If he wasn’t so talented at convincing King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain of his wrong ideas the voyage would never have happened.

As we approach Columbus Day, we in the New World, can thank Christopher for his blundering.