The Image of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus is honored as the man who opened the doors to an Age of Discovery and exploration. Although he may not have been the first European to set foot onto the Americas, he did begin a wave of exploration in a new hemisphere. The time period of the age of discovery follows the end of the Middle Ages, which Columbus himself is a product. If it were not Columbus that brought European settlement to the New World, then it would have been some other explorer who probably started out with the same goals and ideas. However, there are many individuals who would disagree with the above statement. They would say that Columbus destroyed all that was beautiful in the New World with his thirst for greed and fame, that he raped the lands and the women, and disrupted a civilization that lived for hundreds of years. The question then becomes “Who is Christopher Columbus?” Is he really the man that some Americans describe as a hero, whose “journey was the first step in a long process that eventually produced the United States of America” (Royal 1) and to the “North American Revolutionaries, he was the Founding Fathers’ father” (Gates 29). Or is Columbus’ character flawed as other Americans might suggest. Some describe him as a ruthless slave trader who raped the virgin islands of the Caribbean and started the slave trade between the Old and New Worlds. So which image is right? That question is one that has been debated for years and will continue to be for years to come. It is one in which an individual alone can answer because it not only deals with historical facts but also ethics. This paper will present two opposing sides with enough facts concerning the controversy of the myth of Col... ... middle of paper ... ...n, John. “Columbus: For Gold, God, and Glory.” 12/91, vol. 6 no. 12: 357-321. Gates, David. “Who was Columbus?” Newsweek Magazine. Fall/Winter 1991: 29-31. McNeil, William H. “How Columbus Remade the World.” NEH Humanities. Vol. 1 no.6: Dec 1985. (CIRS McNeil1.ART) Royal, Robert. “Columbus on Trial: 1492 v 1992” (CIRS Royal02.ART) Sale, Kirkpatrick. Conquest of Paradise. A Plume Book. New York, NY 1990. Sanoff, Alvin P. “The Myths of Columbus.” U.S. News and World Report. 8 Oct. 1990. (CIRS Sanoff01.ART) Schroeder, Richard C. “Should We Scuttle the Admiral of the Ocean Sea?” The Times of the Americas. 29 May 1991: 20+. (CIRS Schroed1.ART) Sokolov, Raymond. “Stop Knocking Columbus.” Newsweek Magazine. Vol. 1 no. 6, Dec. 1985. (CIRS Sokolov2.ART) Todorov, Tzvetan. The Conquest of America. Harper Perennial Publishers. New York, NY 1982.
Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: from Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. New York, NY: Sentinel, 2007. Print.
Ransby believes “Columbus 's image has been scrubbed clean and sanitized by many generations of American historians so that he can now be offered up as a sterling example of the glorious era of discovery.” (Ransby, 1992/2015, p.14). Objective evidence is also a major component in this article. Columbus’s journal proved he wanted to exploit, and enslave the Indians. A population of 300,000 dwindled to a mere one by 1540. (Ransby, 1992/2015, p.12). Many scene of rape, murder and beating were also described in journals of sailors that travelled with
Who is Christopher Columbus? You may already have prior knowledge of him, but if you do not, Christopher Columbus was a Spanish explorer who made four voyages to the Americas. His voyages led to the Columbian Exchange and colonization. Many cultures, ideas, technology, and foods were spread between the Americas, the “New World,” and Europe, Africa, and Asia, the “Old World”. Even though many great things were exchanged between the Old World and the New World, many diseases from Europe were introduced to the Natives. Does this make Christopher Columbus a hero, or a villain? The answer is not that debatable. A closer look must be taken at Christopher Columbus 's life to be able to judge such things. This essay will take a look at his life,
The Mbuti are one of the most fascinating of all the "uncivilized" peoples of the world. This tribe inhabits equatorial Africa near the city of Kisangani in Zaire in the Ituri rainforest. The Mbuti, being the smallest people on earth, live in the most inaccessible place on earth. An Mbuti tribe is almost impossible to find in such a dense forest. The tribe's men and women are only about four and a half foot tall yet they navigate though rich and dense forestry daily in the search for meat and fruit.
Despite being one of the most renowned explorers in history, Christopher Columbus’ legacy remains controversial. The debate on whether Columbus should be celebrated has captured news headlines for decades. While many view him simply as a gifted Italian navigator who laid the seeds for the colonization of the New World, history paints a much more complicated picture. His journal entries and eye-witness testimony reveal Columbus to be a man of intolerance and indifference towards those deemed inferior to himself. Christopher Columbus’ treatment of Indigenous’ people, in addition to his ethnocentric worldview, allows for the conclusion that he should not be idolized as a hero in the modern age.
Along the Columbus journey bits of gold were found amongst the Native Indians which led to Columbus concluding that there was more (Zinn, 2009, p.481). The Native’s were turned into servants looking for a certain amount of gold for Columbus. If they had not met the daily quota their arms were to be cut off (Zinn, 2009, p.481). This is just part of the brutality that Columbus had put upon the Natives. More cruelty can be seen when Columbus sent five hundred Natives as slaves to the King and Queen in Spain. Also stabbing of Indians was done as a sport and those that resisted against the Spaniards were hunted down as animals (Zinn, 2009, p.482). Zinn shows that the Columbus story is one of the many myths of Western civilization. All the stories about Columbus especially in the USA since, it is a celebration are seen as a heroic adventure. However, many teachers argue that children should not be told such a violent story filled with horrific history (Zinn, 2009, p.485). It is important to teach children at a young age the truth about the Columbus story, so that they know what a monster he
In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized. However, people tend to forget the other side of Columbus, the side that lusted after gold and resources that often belonged to the native inhabitants he came across in his exploration. In his insatiable greed, he and his crew committed countless atrocities, such as torture and killing of defenseless natives. Columbus’s discovery of these new lands contributes profound and negative effects as future colonists arrived. “Zinn estimates that perhaps 3 million people perished in the Caribbean alone from raids, forced labor and disease” (Zinn, 1980). Columbus was seen as a cruel man, who saw the peaceful inhabitants as right for the conquering and lead to the devastation of the native population, yet is celebrated every October.
2. Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. New York: Sentinel, 2004. Print
A People’s History of the United States, written in 1980 by Howard Zinn, approaches history from a new perspective. Aware that the conquerors write the history books, Zinn wants to show history from the point of view of the victims, those who did not come out as winners. Chapter one covers Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress. He writes about the native people on the Bahama Islands saying, “[they] were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing” (Zinn 1). He quotes Columbus saying, “‘[the Indians] are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary,
The present study identified social loafing is less likely in collective conditions than coactive conditions although results were non-significant. This study supports the research of Worchel, Rothgerber & Day (2011) as participants who worked in newly formed groups worked harder in the group setting than alone. This was shown to occur due to a number of reasons including group goal setting and group level comparison between participants. Future studies should consider the influences of group tasks for group development. In conclusion, social loafing in collective groups are not significantly less than the coactive condition however results may vary in future experiments due to having new variables, different participants and a change methodology in future experiments.
Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: from Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror. New York, NY: Sentinel, 2007. Print.
Todorov argues that Columbus’s self (and, consequently, the other, which he created in the image of that self) is defined by three spheres: the divine, nature, and humans. Each of these spheres is integral to Columbus’s worldview and colors his perception of that which is outside his world. Within these spheres of perspective, Columbus’s identity is shaped by Catholicism, a reverence for nature, and European society and culture – particularly that of Portu...
Welte, K., & Kunishima, J. (2004). Effects of Punishment Threats on Social Loafing. Journal of Young Investigators .
Despite the rapidly shrinking budgets for arts programs and the growing de-emphasization of English as a relevant field of study, the lessons learned and taught in English classrooms still forms the foundation of learning throughout a student’s academic career. For most American students the English language will serve as the lens through which they view other subjects, and reading comprehension will be the tool that lets them learn from those subjects. Without an adequate foundation in such a core subject, students are simply thrown into the water and “even if they manage to swim, we cannot reasonably expect them to enjoy being in the water” (Brown & Broemmel, 2011). Effective instruction in English and Language Arts, then, should be centered around giving students the tools to become better readers and better learners.
Ecotourism seems to have developed "in the womb" of the environmental movement in the 1970s and 1980s (Blamey R., 2001). Increasing environmental interest coupled with an emerging disavow for mass tourism has led to an increased demand for experiences based on the nature of alternative tourism. At the same time, countries have begun to realize that nature-based tourism is a means of accumulating foreign exchange and providing less destructive use of resources than alternative resources such as carpentry and agriculture (Blamey R., 2001). By the middle of the 1980s, a number of such countries had identified ecotourism as a way to achieve and maintain development.