There’s been a frequent statement about Columbus that the biggest reason he had difficulty finding sponsors was that almost every other geographer had a more accurate estimate of the size of the earth which made a go west to get east route seem impractically long.
Is this true?
Poll:
How isolated was Columbus in his belief that a westward path to the orient was optimal?
a) very isolated, most thought getting to the east via the west was silly
b) in line with a majority of 1400s and 1500s explorers
c) in line with half the explorers and and geographers, disbelieved by the other half
d) very isolated, nonetheless explorers sought a northwest passage to Asia because a water route could be valuable, even if very long
Vespucci is given credit for recognizing America as a separate continent, unrelated to Eurasia, while Columbus believed and claimed he had reached Asia to his dying day, thinking Cuba was Cipangu and Honduras was Indochina.
Fair enough. But how can we square the idea that Columbus was uniquely in error about the size of the earth with the beliefs of other explorers that China could be found via America, or at least would not be far beyond a “northwest passage” which sailors kept searching for into the 17th century, 150 years after Columbus’s death, Magellan’s circumnavigation and Portuguese eastbound voyages to China, the Moluccas and Japan?
Examples:
I think Cabot believed he reached “northern Tartary” when he got to Newfoundland and Labrador, indicating he did not perceive the earth as much larger than Columbus did.
As late as a generation after Columbus, the Spanish decided to call their rule over the Americas “The Law of the Indies”, and of course, the Indio name stuck to natives forever.
Cartier in the mid-1500s believed China was right around the corner, and accessible by going up the St. Lawrence. He named a place along the St. Lawrence river, “Le Chine”, feeling China lay not far beyond.
Corte-real might have had a northwest passage in mind when exploring Greenland and Labrador.
Hudson kept looking for a northwest passage and thought he might have reached it when he first entered the bay bearing his name in the 1600s.