LogFAQs > #964409948

Notschmendrake posted...

I feel like you're probably trolling, but I'd say CGP grey did a good job of explaining it.

https://youtu.be/kh88fVP2FWQ

Generally this.



Notschmendrake posted...

Oh wait, you are straight up trolling. Nevermind.

And also this.

Either that, or you're phenomenally naive.



Metalsonic66 posted...

It's because Columbus thought he found India or some shit

Ehh. There's some debate about this. Some people assume he believed that (or more precisely, believed that he'd found new islands not that far from the coast of Japan), and that it was essentially an outgrowth of his initial mistake (namely, miscalculating the size of the Earth and steadfastly refusing to accept the truth when pretty much everyone else he ever met told him he was wrong - he basically blundered into the "New World" by total accident). So he used terminology that reflected his belief that the Americas were basically just islands not that far off from India and China.

Others assume that insistent about the terminology because he'd realized he'd fucked up at some point - and was desperately trying to cover his own ass by pretending he hadn't. Which would also explain why he kept calling the odd little spicy plants he found "peppers", in spite of the fact that they neither looked nor tasted like actual pepper did. Basically, pepper was a spice that came from the Indies, therefore, he needed to explain why none of the plants he found looked anything that was actually found in Asia. His answer being that things like pepper looked different in the wild and when harvested fresh than they did after being processed and shipped over vast differences (which is kind of obvious bullshit in this case).

Basically, it depends on whether or not you think Columbus was a delusional weirdo or a deliberately manipulative liar. There's evidence for both opinions.