Posted on 12/12/2019 10:58:25 AM PST by Perseverando
A case of misplaced blame.
All those blaming Columbus for sailing west must turn one chapter back in the history books to find that it was actually Islamic jihad disrupting the land routes from Europe to India and China that resulted in Columbus looking for a sea route.
Nearly two centuries before Columbus, the 17-years-old Marco Polo left Venice for India and China with his father, Niccolo Polo, and uncle, Matteo Polo, in 1271.
Together they traveled 5,600 miles to the east to meet Kublai Khan, the grandson of Ghengis Khan.
Kublai Khan was Emperor of China, Korea, North India, Persia, Russia and Hungary.
Marco Polo's father and uncle had met the Kublai Khan on a previous journey.
Kublai Khan had requested that the Polos bring back 100 teachers of the Holy Christian Faith and a flask of oil from Christ's empty tomb in Jerusalem.
Because of wars in Europe and the death of Pope Clement IV, only two preaching Dominican friars were sent by the new Pope, Gregory X.
These friars became afraid and turned back after crossing an area being attacked by Turkish Muslims.
What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur'an-A History of Islam and the United States
Nevertheless, the Polos returned to China where Marco Polo was employed by Kublai Khan as an envoy for over 20 years.
Marco Polo finally returned to Italy, but was captured during the Battle of Curzola in 1298.
While imprisoned in Genoa, Marco Polo dictated his stories of Persia, China, Mongolia, the Far East and India to a fellow prisoner, Rustichello da Pisa, who wrote them down into what became Medieval Europe's best-seller, The Travels of Marco Polo.
Marco Polo's book was nicknamed "Il Milione" or One
(Excerpt) Read more at myemail.constantcontact.com ...
They also knew there was a large land mass in the north and that’s why he took the southern route to try to go “under” that to the east.
ABSOLUTELY! GREAT post. Thanks. HOORAY Bill Federer! BUMP!
Yes, they knew the latitude of the places they wanted to get to so it was inevitable they would do that.
Columbus had no idea how big the Earth was. But a Greek mathematician a millenia earlier had come pretty close to the actual circumference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes
There is some evidence that Basque fishermen following the cod runs, went to Newfoundland & Labrador. They also could have introduced disease.
I’m sure they are still teaching this in public schools../s?
They knew the earth was round because they could observe ships leaving port and see less and less of the mast until it finally disappeared into the horizon. They could also observe that the moon and sun are round. I don’t believe that there was a widespread belief that the earth was flat.
Only among uneducated landlubbers, and religious extremists. The reason there was a lookout in the 'crows nest' was so they could see a ship's mast coming over the horizon sooner than someone on the deck......................
The Journeyer by Gary Jennings is an excellent read about the travels of Marco Polo.
bkmk
The battle of Curzola in 1298 was the largest naval battle ever fought between Venice and Genoa. Curzola is the Italian name for the island of Korcula off the Dalmatian coast (modern Croatia). The city of Korcula claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo but that is incorrect—he was born in Venice. There is a local family named DePolo in Korcula but they did not settle in Korcula until many years later.
The ancient Greeks (and others) knew that the earth is round. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, about 200 B.C., calculated the circumference of the earth fairly accurately (far closer to the right figure than Columbus was).
It wasn't Eric the red, but the rest of that is a nice summation of Hjalmar Holand's take on the Kensington Rune Stone.
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