Unit 4:: Worlds Entangled

The popular imagination that has Christopher Columbus setting out westward into the Atlantic to prove that the world was spherical rather than flat is simply historical legend. In fact, contemporary scholars knew very well that the world was round; the main point of contention between Columbus and his detractors was that Columbus thought the world was quite a bit smaller than the majority of European scholars held it to be. Columbus believed that with just a quick sail to the west, the coast of China would be reached, and all the riches of what Europeans knew of “Cathay” would be available to Spain. Columbus was correct, of course, in the belief that by sailing west one can reach “the East”; he was incorrect, however, as to the size of the globe. As if to mock his underestimation, Columbus ran not into China or Japan but rather into a “Novus Mundi,” a New World that would disrupt early-modern Europe’s economy far more than a shorter route to China.