What is the truth of the matter regarding the claim that people in the Middle Ages thought the earth was flat? The myth that medieval people thought that the Earth was flat and believed that going to far out at sea would result in falling off of the edge of the world is false. While Columbus was preparing to make his voyage across the world, you may have heard that he faced opposition because of people believing that the earth was flat and that he would fall of the edge. This is only partly true. Yes, he did face opposition, but not because people thought that the earth was flat (people knew that the earth was round), but rather that people thought that the earth was very large and Columbus would run out of supplies before he could make it around to Asia.

What do you think is the central point of the essay you read by Mario Vargas Llosa? In this essay, he recounts the events that lead to conquering of natives of the ‘New World’. The natives were actually an amazing people. They were captured by ridiculously small armies. How? Well, the natives have never seen firearms or bullets before. And they also have never seen horses before, so they must have thought that the gods were attacking them. But still, this was not the reason for their capture. Once the guys in charge on the native’s side were captured, the natives just stopped fighting. The native population decreased because of because of war, diseases, and slavery, from 25 million in 1492 to 730,000 in 1620.