The top 5 misconceptions about Christopher Columbus.
1. Columbus set out to prove the world was round.
If he did, he was about 2,000 years too late.
2. Columbus discovered America.
Fact, millions of humans already inhabited this land now called the Americas, having discovered it millennia before.
Also he claimed until his death, to have landed in Asia, even though most navigators knew he didn't.
3. Columbus introduced syphilis to Europe.
Good job Christopher!
4. Columbus died unknown in poverty.
Columbus way arrested years prior for tyranny and brutality toward native peoples of the Americas.
He died in severe pain.
So did Alexander the Great.
So did Adolf Hitler.
So did most of the brutally forceful conquers of the past.
5. Columbus did nothing significant.
While Columbus was wrong about most things, he was responsible for the subsequent genocide of native cultures and the rise of modernism, exploitation and annihilation of native cultures, and so on.
However, by far the best thing was helping big business get into our pockets on Columbus Day, time to buy appliances on sale and other things that have nothing to do with Christopher Columbus.
So much of what we say about Columbus is either wholly untrue or greatly exaggerated.
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