History of Flat Earth Vs Globe Earth

by wiggiebob

A common misconception that is often debunked is that before Columbus everyone thought the world was flat.

But at this time how many people knew/suspected the earth was spherical?

What about other civilisations such as the Romans, Greek, Egyptians, Babylonians, Europe during the dark ages?

At these times would most people have thought it or only that natural scientists/upper class members of society?

Was there any defining discovery that tipped in favour Globe earth that many people become aware of?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

jschooltiger

The concept of a spherical earth dates back to classical antiquity. While it’s impossible to quantify “how many” people knew this, we have plenty of evidence that common people in medieval Europe knew the earth was round. Here are some previous answers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/a1me78/did_a_significant_amount_of_people_actually_think/

And

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/4n981p/how_common_was_the_knowledge_that_the_earth_was/