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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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Christopher Columbus hypothesized that he could reach Asia by heading west, landed on an entirely different land mass, and was so thoroughly convinced he was in Asia to the point of convincing the people who sponsored his first trip to sponsor 3 more trips. This was accepted as fact to the point that when someone else made the trip and acknowledged it as a new land mass, that new guy wound up having entire continents named after him.
This is also why First Nations/Natives are known as Indians, and grow peppers.
Yup! This is one of many reasons why I'm thinking it's right up at the top in terms of someone being so confident about something false.
Towards the end of his expeditions there was growing suspicion that it wasn't Asia at all, and if Columbus only entertained that notion and used the resources readily at his disposal (cartographers, people familiar with the flora and fauna of Asia), we'd probably wind up with North and South Columbia as continents. But instead we wound up with stuff like misindentifying and then misnaming the indigenous population, and it somehow stuck for half a millenia.
It's almost like buying a winning billion dollar Powerball ticket, glancing at the numbers on the TV, glancing at the ticket, seeing a couple matching numbers and thinking "it's only a couple bucks, not even worth my time to redeem", crumpling it up and tossing it on the ground only for the next person walking by to pick it up and realize what they're holding. He had it right in his hands lol
Dude not only thought he was in Asia, he took so long that he thought that he had overshot and made it to India, not China or Japan, India! When in truth he wasn't even halfway there.