before the Great Age of Sail, people really believed the earth was Is it flat?Is the

surface flat or round?

If the surface is flat, think about how terrible the end of the Atlantic Oceanis.

"In the Columbus era, people thought the surface of the earth was flat.They believed that there were all kinds of huge ghosts in the Atlantic Ocean,big enough to swallow sailboats into their stomachs. There were terriblewaterfalls on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and ships would be there Falling andbreaking into pieces. Columbus, who wants to take people to sail, must firstovercome these stupid ideas. He firmly believes that the earth is round."This is a chapter on the story of Columbus in a children's book publishedin the United States in 1919 Start. Columbus's extraordinaryness liesabove all in his original ideas. Others thought that the surface of theearth was flat, but he saw that the earth was round, so he suggested sailingwest to Asia in the east.

Unfortunately, this widely spoken and rather beautiful statement has nohistorical basis. In the days of Columbus, Muslims in the Middle East andCatholic priests in Europe knew that the earth was a sphere. This discussionbegan in 500 BC, and it was not a new and original idea at all.

The circular earth originated in ancient Greece.

In ancient times, the earth level in many areas did spread. It is said that thetwo rivers and Egypt have such an example. The universe is roughly divided intothree levels. The upper part is heaven, the middle part is earth, and the lowerpart is hell. Ancient Greece also dominated the horizon theory, but in the6th century BC, the Pythagoras school proposed the circle theory. Later,Aristotle summarized various theories and strongly supported the theory of circles.

Two astronomical observations supporting the theory of the Earth'scircle. One is that the position of the North Star changes with latitude(it was later used to measure latitude during the great voyage); the second isthat the shadow of the earth is seen to be round during the total lunareclipse.

He gave three reasons: first, the sailboat disappeared from the hull first, andfinally disappeared from the mast, which showed that the ocean was curved;second, the North Star was observed in Egypt in the south and Greece in thenorth, and its location was different This shows that the degree of curvatureis not small. Third, it was already proposed at that time that the totalsolar eclipse was caused by the shadow of the earth. During the total solar eclipse,the earth was obviously round. He further proposed that the entireuniverse is spherical, with a fixed earth at the center and other celestialbodies orbiting the earth. Refers to the center of the ball. Heavyelements (water, soil) fall to the center of the ball, while light elements(air, fire) rise from the center of the ball. In other words, Aristotle'sconcept of "up and down" is based on the center of the sphere,centripetal and centrifugal. The definition of "up and down"with an airplane has surpassed ordinary people. These theories laterdeveloped into geocentric theories and were regarded as authoritative by thechurch. Only Copernicus and Galileo were questioned.

After the Crusades of Alexandria, the center of Hellenistic culture moved to Egypt,which became richer with the Nile. The famous Alexandria Library once hada curator named Eradosses (276-194 BC). He read in the book that at noonof the summer solstice in the southern Egyptian city of Sain, the pillars hadno shadow in the sun. After measuring, he found that his city ofAlexandria had a shadow in the sun at noon in the summer solstice. Fromgeometry, he deduced the latitude difference between the two places. From thedistance between the two places, he could further calculate the circumferenceof the earth. Compared with modern measurements, the error is only about 2%.

Elladose estimated the circumference of the earth. Mount Yani is justnorth of Sain. The difference in latitude between these two places can beobtained from the sunlight projection at noon in the summer solstice, and thecircumference of the earth can be estimated by calculating the distance betweenthe two places.

Therefore, both in terms of quality and quantity, the Greeks have aconsiderable understanding of the Earth's circle theory. Later RomanEmpire accepted these ideas. Muslims in the Middle East even respect Greekclassics and pass them on to European pastors. Columbus' proposal totravel west to Asia did not lie in the novel idea that the earth is round, butin his miscalculations of the perimeter of the earth and the span of Eurasia,and his erroneous conclusion that Japan is not far from Europe.

Little-known Columbus

As far as modern prestige is concerned, Columbus is the most famous explorer inhistory and the discoverer of the New World. But

before entering modern times, the famous adventure heroes were Cortez andPizarro, two Spanish conquerors roaming the American continent. Cortez isnearly 30 years behind Columbus. Just 1515 years ago, Cortez led more than500 people to the Mexican Plateau. He lived in Aztec, an indigenous tribalempire with millions of people. They were small in number but sparked acivil war among indigenous tribes. In 1522, they followed the indigenousrebels into the Aztec capital and seized a large amount of gold and silver.

Since then, Spanish talents have realized that there are a large number ofdeveloped regions in the New World, and they have a worthwhile goal to attractmore conquerors to land and search. Ten years later, another bumperharvest: the Inca Empire, located on the west coast of South America androughly in modern Peru, has a population of tens of millions. In 1533,Pizarro brought only more than 100 soldiers, just in time for the Inca CivilWar. Pizarro also intervened in the struggle through Lianheng, who wasallied with the indigenous tribe, and stole a large amount of gold andsilver. Cortes and Pizarro became super touching legendaryheroes. European students will inevitably encounter outstanding figureswhen reading history, reflecting the superiority of whites. Compared tothem, Columbus' achievements were limited and largely forgotten.

In the Spanish hometown of Cortez, there is a bronze statue of him. He wasdamaged by spray paint in 2010.

The United States needs "national hero"

Columbus to attract people's attention again. Until the 18th century, more than200 years later, people's favored eyes no longer came from Spain, but from thenewly formed United States. After eight years of unrest before and afterthe War of Independence, North American colonies not only cut off politicalties with Britain, but also caused cultural errors. New America has littlehistory and no heroes of its own. How did the concept of"American" come about? There are many famous European navigatorsexploring the North American continent, but they are either English orSpanish. Washington, Jefferson, and other key members of the IndependenceMovement were involved in a variety of political disputes. It would take 100years after their death to slowly enter the temple of the "Father of theSun"

. Columbus emerged from the crowd. He is not famous, and Spain does notconsider him a nautical hero. After all, he was a foreigner from Italy andcould only occupy one footnote in the history of the SpanishEmpire. However, just because people don't know much about him, a piece ofwhite paper can have a more casual color: Columbus not only discovered the newcontinent, but also found a way to escape the tyranny of the old continent; asa lone hero, he Dare to challenge the unknown world, bring courage withuncertain scenery, be afraid of difficulties and dangers in the wildernessfrontiers, take unlimited opportunities to the vast new continent, get rid ofthe oppression of the king, and create a new beginning. In other words,through Columbus, Americans can project their unique self-awareness on ahistorical figure.

A bronze Columbus statue in Central Park in New York is flanked by a sphericalsphere.

After the War of Independence, praise for Columbus began to spread throughoutthe United States: praises for his poetry and articles appeared in newspapersand magazines. Many streets and towns are named after Columbus, orslightly feminine, after Columbia's rivers, plateaus, lakes, and islands. Thearea where the new capital, Washington, is called the District ofColumbia. The name of King's College in New York City was clearly againstthe Republic, and it was renamed Columbia College after the war, and laterbecame Columbia University. Many organizations, clubs, newspapers andmagazines have Colombian names. He has become the "nationalhero" of the United States, and even the father of the country.

History served politics.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the worship of Columbus was furthersupported by historical research. Known as the "Father of AmericanLiterature", Washington Irving was the first American writer to make aliving from writing, and especially liked writing historical figures. Inthe early 20th century, Chinese scholar Lin Shu spoke highly of Irving andtranslated his works. However, Irving's historical writing was in thestyle of a novel, to which many creations were added. In 1828, hepublished a biography of Columbus entitled "History of Columbus' Life andNavigation". The book mentions that the King of Spain convened a teamof experts to inspect Columbus's expedition. Its members were allknowledgeable Catholic priests (because European scholars at that time werebasically clergy). Columbus argued with mathematical proof, but thepriests cited Genesis, hymns, gospels, and elders from 300 BC to explain that

there is not much historical data about Columbus, and the story is notparticularly attractive. In fact, he and the reviewers knew that the earthwas round. The difference lies in the estimation of the distance from theWest to Asia. Later facts proved that the experts' estimates werecorrect. The stubborn Columbus made mistakes again and again, insisted onwrong calculations, obtained financial aid in the mistakes, discovered the NewWorld in the mistakes, and mistakenly believed that he had reached Asia when hedied. These things are linked and cannot be used as the material of a herostory. However, Irving was clever, and he turned this argument into a confrontationbetween Columbus's round earth and the church's flat earth. As a result,his stubbornness became his insistence on truth and his challenge toauthority. The purpose of his westward exploration also changed fromimporting spices to proving that the earth is round.

Owen's biography shaped Columbus's heroic image. It is popular not only inthe United States, but also in Europe. By 1900, 175 editions had beenpublished. In public libraries in urban and rural areas in the UnitedStates, at least one book, large or small, is placed on a bookshelf. Theso-called medieval church has forgotten the geosphere theory of the classicalperiod, and the story of holding the Bible and adhering to the geosphere theoryhas also spread. Not only ordinary readers believe that many historianswho don't search the data carefully are readily available. As a result,the Catholic Church was severely wronged and blamed for insisting that theearth be flat.

In our current impression, Western liberals often disguise themselves as protectorsof religion. In fact, this phenomenon only occurred in the second half ofthe 20th century. The church lost its dominance in Westernsociety. The United States, which held high the banner of freedom duringthe Cold War, needed to win the support of its followers. In the 19thcentury, the world was a different situation. At that time, the church wasvery strong. It is responsible for marriage, school and education. Itis often hostile to rational thinking and scientific theories advocated by theEnlightenment. Liberals often quarrel with the church. In particular,the debate over evolution has brought both sides into conflict. Thepublication of Irving's book coincided with the trend of liberalanti-Christianism, which provided ammunition for criticizing the church'signorance and superstition, and became another reason for the church's falseassertion that the earth was flat.

The cover of the Scientific American in October 1890 was an iconic buildingdesigned for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893: a giant globe with a model ofthe Columbus sailing ship to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discoveryof the Americas. This design was not adopted because the cost was toohigh.

By the end of the 19th century, Columbus had ascended the throne of the mostfamous explorer. In elementary and middle school textbooks or children'sbooks, he will meet this great hero with unique ideas, breaking the horizonmyth, and boldly exploring the new world. The World Expo held in Chicagoin 1893 was specially named the "Columbus Memorial Expo", whichcoincided with the 400th anniversary of Columbus's first WesternExpedition. The United States, which has made great progress inindustrialization, should see Columbus as a symbol of its success. His ideaof