LogFAQs > #885222075

Capn Circus posted...

Dash_Harber posted...

It's not exactly a person. It's Imperialism. Columbus was the first to sail in his day. Prior to that, the Scandinavians had already established colonies in present day Canada. There was knowledge of at least islands in between the west and China. However, it was the idea of imperialism that started the rush. It's the same idea that breathed life into the Scramble for Africa.

So.. If Columbus didn't sail and didn't lead later colonization efforts---would Scandinavians have eventually reached out to broader Europe and said, "Hey guys, come on over!" and we would honor some random Scandinavian that may or may not have reached out to Europe? There are important people in history whether you want to believe so or not.

The "idea" or "drive" for a people doesn't supersede one's actual accomplishments or work. Do we stop recognizing people who created technologies such as electricity or aviation simply because they were operating from previous knowledge? Should we not honor MLK because someone would have eventually led the Civil rights marches?

First, I didn't say he wasn't important, I was answering who paved the way. Stop putting words in my mouth.

Second, we can go through all the 'X couldn't have happened without Y, but Y couldn't have happened without Z", but it's not going to change the fact that Columbus didn't make any personal contributions to it beyond leading the initial voyage (along with three ships of crew, might I add) and had any other explorer done it, it wouldn't have effected the trajectory of colonization at all.