Talk:Misnomer/Archives/2013/December

Indians

Indians are not so named because someone thought they reached India. This is wrong. Stop perpetuating this myth. He did not think he landed in India, he knew the world was round, and he knew he wasn't anywhere remotely close to where he wanted to be. I am removing the affected section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.169.70.126 (talk) 13:50, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

If by "he" you refer to Columbus, your statements are not compatible with any source I know of. In particular, while Columbus (and many others) knew that the world was round, he was under the misimpression that the circumference was far shorter than it actually is. 94.220.254.157 (talk) 03:20, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Columbus thought he had reached the Indies, or somewhere thereabouts, possibly Japan. (I think he changed his mind a few times about the exact location.) The Indies were the islands between Australia and the Malay Peninsula. Today it's mostly Indonesia, but also part of Malaysia, plus Brunei, East Timor, etc. At the times there were lots of people from India living there. They had arrived recently, maybe starting the time of the Romans. Originally they were communities of merchants. Their business involved spices and the Indian Ocean Trade Route. To this day, the Indonesian island of Bali is predominantly Hindu. I don't think Columbus ever gave up on the idea that he had discovered the Indies, but to his successors it was pretty obvious. Thus, the original Indies were renamed the East Indies while the ones Columbus discovered were called the West Indies. The difference between India and the (East) Indies is like the difference between England and New England. Two different places. Zyxwv99 (talk) 17:32, 22 December 2013 (UTC)