Difference between revisions of "Essay:Greatest Myths of World History"
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==="Let them eat cake!"=== | ==="Let them eat cake!"=== | ||
| − | [[Marie Antoinette]]'s "Let them eat cake" was almost certainly never uttered. The phrase was likely invented by anti-monarchist revolutionaries seeking to have Marie and Louis XVI executed. | + | [[Marie Antoinette]]'s "Let them eat cake" was almost certainly never uttered. The phrase was likely invented by anti-monarchist revolutionaries seeking to have Marie and Louis XVI executed. Moreover, even if it was uttered, it would have made sense because there was a shortage of bread and cake was a rational substitute. |
===Columbus sets out to discover America=== | ===Columbus sets out to discover America=== | ||
Revision as of 22:59, March 19, 2009
Here is a growing list of the greatest myths of world history:
"Let them eat cake!"
Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" was almost certainly never uttered. The phrase was likely invented by anti-monarchist revolutionaries seeking to have Marie and Louis XVI executed. Moreover, even if it was uttered, it would have made sense because there was a shortage of bread and cake was a rational substitute.
Columbus sets out to discover America
When Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, what he was really doing was looking for a sea route to Asia. It didn't turn out quite the way he expected; he made landfall on the island of Hispanola. A related myth is that Columbus discovered or proved that the Earth was round. Unlike many others, these myths are widely known to be false.
A pox on you!
Anti-Christians teach that the Christian Europeans deliberately spread smallpox among the American Indians, as in handing out blankets with the germs. In fact, the germ theory of disease was not even discovered until the 19th century.
