"It was usually Europeans who did this"
Good point. I don't have a quarrel with who won what. Western civilization has been influenced mainly by great thinkers who lived north of or around the Mediterranean sea. I don't know what my life would have been if history takes another route, but I am grateful for the ancient Greeks and Romans and those who came after and picked up where they left off. My opinion is not to demonize the winners. It's only my opinion about a man who dared cross the Atlantic at a time when nobody dared. He deserves more credit than Charles Lindbergh for doing the same thing, but not much more.