#4: The Christopher Columbus Myth
The general opinion about Christopher Columbus has changed in recent years. However, before the history of colonialism was reevaluated, Columbus was hailed as a world-changing explorer. One discovery that many gave him credit for was “discovering” that the world was round. Columbus was indeed an explorer, but we might be giving him way too much credit.
Christopher Columbus did not discover that the world was round. The idea of a spherical Earth was already floating around by the time Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Aristotle is credited as one of the earliest thinkers to hypothesize that the Earth was round. Aristotle was alive between 384 and 322 BCE. Columbus was born in 1451 CE.