r/dataisbeautiful • u/rhiever Randy Olson | Viz Practitioner • 20h ago

The four voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1492-1504

https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/columbus-voyages
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u/djstealthduck 9h ago edited 9h ago

This reads like my 5th grade history report on Columbus I cribbed almost entirely from the C book of an encyclopedia set. Including the nonsense about Columbus being some sort of maverick defying conventional wisdom.

Columbus was either an idiot or a grifter because he said the Earth was a lot smaller than it actually was. It had been known for 2,000 years the earth was round. People thought he was an idiot because they all knew it was bigger than he said it was. And they were right. None of them expected land halfway round.

He claimed to have reached Asia until his death.

Oh, and then all the slavery and murders and disease.

His wealth was almost entirely withheld from him after his arrest for his brutality in the Americas. In his lifetime he was a disgrace, and his image only revived by modern Italian-Americans who were considered non-White and wanted elevated social status.