[wpasc]

Agreed that his ethnicity is a silly topic to be discussed, but calling Christopher Columbus a "slightly" relevant guy definitely feels like a stretch.

[the_gorilla]

Apparently discovering new islands isn't what it used to be.

[slightwinder]

He was a small gear in a long chain of events. If not Columbus, someone else would likely have found the New World. It was the age of (Europeans) Discovery after all, where many people were sailing the world and finding new routes and lands.

[cafard]

Indeed. Next thing somebody will be making a fuss about Isaac Newton.

[lazyeye]

This same logic applies to every discovery in all of human history.

[alephxyz]

IIRC Cabot was trying to raise money for an expedition at the same time as Columbus and did reach continental America before him.

[borski]

Sure. But it wasn’t someone else; it was Columbus.

If it were someone else, I’m certain we’d be talking about them instead.