[Marxism] [CubaNews] Fidel Castro - The Chinese Victory

[Néstor Gorojovsky]

As a geographer, I think I can correct some of Shane's mistakes.

2008/4/5, Shane Mage <shmage en pipeline.com>:
>
>  On Apr 5, 2008, at 1:48 PM, Walter Lippmann wrote:
>
>  > Reflections by Comrade Fidel - March 2008
>  > THE CHINESE VICTORY
>  >
>  > Without some basic historical knowledge, the subject I am dealing
>  > with would
>  > not be understood.
>  >
>  > ...Columbus, an intelligent and intrepid sailor, was aware of the
>  > Greeks' knowledge about the roundness of the Earth. His own
>  > observations led him to coincide with
>  > those theories. He came up with the plan of reaching the Far East
>  > sailing
>  > westward from Europe. But, he calculated the distance with far too
>  > much
>  > optimism, for it was several times greater...
>
>  One should not claim "basic historical knowledge" when one is
>  basically ignorant.  The "roundness of the Earth" was not a "Greek
>  theory"--it was a well known fact, known to every educated person and,
>  of course, to every seafarer educated or not (and the Church had long
>  ago rebuked the ignoramuses within its ranks who tried to cite
>  Biblical phrases to support Flat Earth idiocies).  But of crucial
>  importance are the facts (1) that the Alexandrian scientist
>  Eratosthenes had *measured* the circumference of the Earth with
>  accuracy only surpassed by modern instruments, and

In fact, there were TWO measurements. One of them by Eratostenes, the
other one by Ptolemy if I am not wrong. That by Eratostenes was the
correct one, and the other one (to which Columbus felt inclined, for
obvious reasons, namely and firstly greed) gave a smaller radius for
the planet. By the end of the 15th Century there was no conclusive way
to discern who was right. And, BTW, Eratostenes simply hit the pot out
of luck. He made lots of mistakes, the most important one being that
the meridians at Syene and Alexandria were quite apart, but all those
mistakes, just by chance, compensated each other. And some of these
mistakes were known by the late 1400s.


(2) that Plato (in
>  the Timaios) had specified that a "true continent" enclosed the
>  Atlantic Ocean,

This was just speculation. Plato had no idea of the existence of such
MATERIAL continent. And, to be sure, he did not care a shit for it. If
his own ideologic positions had been best served by the NON existence
of such Continent, then he would have argued against it.

and (3) that Scandinavian and Irish Christian seamen
>  had travelled to the Western continent.

This is most probably true, and there are hints that even some African
pilots knew that there was "something out there". But nobody knew if
it was China or whatever else. In fact, the greatest fear by Columbus
was that he might stumble upon a church when he reached East.

Queen Isabella La Catolica
>  was assured (on the basis of the Eratosthenes measurements) by the
>  Jesuit astronomers at her court that Columbus could not possibly reach
>  the Indies, but she hocked her jewelry to finance his impossible
>  project anyway.  The "Indies" bit was nothing but a cover story to
>  hide Spanish plans from their Portuguese rivals.  The notion that
>  Columbus didn't
>  have any idea where he was going is nothing but a long-lived fable.

No, he didn't. The competition between the Castilian and Portuguese
had Columbus himself as a middleman. He offered his services to
Portugal as well as to Elizabeth.

>  No lie in history, except for the story that Judas Iscariot betrayed
>  Jesus, has been more widely accepted.

There was no _lie_ because there was no _established truth_. That simple.