According to most history textbooks in the United States, Christopher Columbus was a brave explorer who, in spite of egregious odds, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and proved that the earth was round. He was also a tireless, courageous hero who discovered the New World. These are the ideas that comprise Columbus’s legacy. They should be removed, or rather, edited within modern American textbooks and here’s why; way back in 1491, no one even thought that the earth was flat, Columbus did not actually discover a new world and he wasn't the first to say he did either and he also was no hero, in fact, he was more so a cruel dictator and liar than godly. Yes, one could argue that Columbus’ achievements were unheard of at the time and that the strenuous voyage itself is worthy of note, but the problem with the notion that hard work equals recognition is that if someone were to commit extreme villainous cruelties, as Columbus did; the crimes that they committed, big or small, should far outweigh what little good he did, and in fact, they do. The thought that in pre-Columbian times everyone thought that the earth was flat is a myth that was conjured up in the 18th century. Many ill-informed historians began sharing the same false information to other misguided historians which then trickled down to schoolteachers, and finally the idea stuck. This is an issue because Columbus actually already knew that the earth was round before his expedition, so did the Queen of Spain. Literally, “no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat” and the Earth’s spherical shape was common knowledge amongst most of the civilization (Russell). This was proven by the Ancient Greeks 2,000 years before Columbus was even born. Columbus also did not discover a new world because the natives of the land were living there 14,000 years before Columbus “discovered” it in 1492.