by Votanic on Mon Oct 14, 2024 12:39 am
Actually, Columbus' Greatness stems not from being the first on the American continents. Of course, Amerindians, Norsemen, maybe a few Polynesians had all arrived there earlier.
Nor did he really add much to the already widely known or suspected idea that the Earth is a near-sphere. Many astronomers and navigators already had much evidence and observation in that regard.
But what really makes him great, is that more than any other single man or woman, Columbus got Modern Globalism off to a running start. The great interchange of foodstuffs and other biological and non-biological resources between the continents really took off at that point. International Trade expanded immensely in range, diversity, and distance. The New World to Old World arrival of tomatoes, potatoes, chili peppers, maize, avocados, chocolate, tobacco, etc is often mentioned, but an even larger variety of new resources were introduced from the Old World to New World. The discovery of immense continent-sized tracts of land also gave needed space and distance for a vast array of social, religious, cultural, commercial, (and later industrial) experimentation that would bring about new forms of government, business, and technology.
Did massive (and ultimately inevitable) change ruffle a few feathers along the way. Of course, but that old metaphor of omelets and broken eggshells explains all in the end...
For in the long run, progress and innovation are unstoppable forces, and overall, the benefits have far outweighed the drawbacks, at least for the spritely and forward-thinking who were and still are capable of following along to with the complex andever-varying steps of the dance known as human history.
Indeed, anyone who has ever boarded a jet, ordered from a foreign vendor on ebay, or enjoyed a spicy Thai curry, is by act, even if not by word, a robust supporter of Columbus and all that he brought about. So let's have no more brainless, racist-luddite, ignorantly-romanticized, leftist-woke-snowflake hypocritical delusions.
Three Cheers for Columbus and the Modern World We All Live In!