1. Document Overview: World Exploration, ca. 1492
Mr. Fahler, DHS
Content collected by Bill Strickland and Robert Bain.
PowerPoint made by Joshua Fahler.

2. Think About These Questions:
What do you know about “Columbus Sailing the Ocean Blue in 1492?”
What do you know about the people of Europe on the eve of Columbus’ voyages?
What were they like?
What did they believe and think?
Discuss your thoughts/answers to these questions with a partner.

3. Did They Think the Earth was Flat?
How do you know that Europeans once believed the earth was flat?
Where did you learn about it?
What evidence do you have?

4. Documents 1-7 Look for places where these documents…
…support…
…extend…
…contest…
…the story you learned about Columbus and the Europeans before 1492.
What are your reactions to the documents?

5. Did 15th Century Europeans believe the earth was flat?
What evidence do you have?
What evidence do other accounts provide?

6. Documents 8-9
In groups of 3, discuss how these sources support, extend, and/or contest your thinking about Columbus and the “flat-earth era.”

7. Questions to Consider
If, as you and other historians have explained, people prior to generally believed that the earth was flat, then how do we explain:
The classical story of Atlas holding up a round earth?
Eratosthenes figuring out the earth’s circumference 2,000 years ago?
Was it possible that people during the Classical era had such knowledge, only to forget it later?
Why might the flat-earth story emerge? What purpose would it serve?
Does it make a difference which version of the story people would believe?