Christopher Columbus wrote a letter that explains his voyage from the Canary Island to the Indies. He states that Our Lord had given him great victory over all the islands that he had visited in the 33 days of sailing. Columbus believed that he was living in the an important moment of history, which was the period between which God would reveal his great design of the world and the second coming of the messiah. Just like other renaissance theorists, Columbus emphasized that all the contemporary events were merely an episode that would contribute to the redemption of mankind. This progressive history would help in declension of the future generations. Columbus perceptions were that the prerogative of dominion was transferred from one group of people to another. In essence, God chose one group of people over others during any historical period as the main agents that will help the world to reunite under Jesus Christ. Columbus considered himself as one of the chosen people that would perform this task on behalf of God.
In addition, Columbus view of human history was quite different. He viewed America with its riches and exuberant landscapes as the original Garden of Eden and he even went ahead to locate it on the Orinoco River. Apart from the obvious commercial interests that the English and Castilians monarchs had in America, there were also spiritual and political reasons associated with colonization of the country, as one can adduce from Columbus writings. In his letter he state, “And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable, and of them all I have taken possession for their highnesses, by proclamation made and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me” (35). In this statem...
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...mes hungry. One thing that stands out in De Vacas narratives is that he lived in the same manner as the people he found during his explorations. If they ate a certain food or stayed hungry, he emulated their practice and mannerism. Indeed, he says that with the Arbadaos, he is naked, sunburned and often cut and bloodied by thorns. He says that in this state, he takes solace in the sufferings of Christ.
Throughout his expedition, De Vaca embodies humility and appreciates the people that he meets and coexists with them peacefully. There is no instance in the writings where he used force to convert the people, but rather uses actions and practice. In the end, Cabeza de Vaca convinces the Native Americans to go back to their homes and get back to their normal lives but “only with the greatest effort…ordered them to fear no more, reestablish their towns, and farm” (50).
Although Columbus was increasing the wealth and strength of Spain, he was “a catastrophe for the indigenous inhabitants of the lands” (Belasco 67). He had no remorse for the natives as he proceeded to establish plantations, enslave them, slaughter them, and create a new colony called Espanola on their lands. According to Schuman, Howard, Barry Schwartz, and Hannah d’Arcy, Christopher Columbus “deserves condemnation for having brought slavery, disease, and death...
De Vaca’s experience is a humbling one. His account of Indian life is written in a thoughtful manner, and he describes the Indians kindly. While he describes his captivity as “melancholy and wretched” (De Vaca 34), it’s clear that he harbors no ill feelings towards the Indians. He states that he and his men were treated well, that they lived as “free agents” (De Vaca 32) and tried to accustom themselves to Indian life. He’s highly observant of the Indian life. He records the Indian lifestyles in detail; his account reads more like a cultural anthropology study. His account of Indian life ends on a sympathetic note towards the Indians especially after he realizes his misjudgment of the Christians. “We often misjudge the motives of men,” de Vaca writes, “We thought we had effected the Indians’ liberty, when the Christians were but poising to pounce (De Vaca 36).”
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.
Much of Christopher Columbus’s early life is of a mystery. Even his nationality was a point of debate for many years. He has been claimed by the Spanish, Portuguese, French, Norwegians, and Jews (Hurst 1) but many historians have now agreed that he was born of Italian origin. Columbus was born in 1451, in Genoa Italy, to a family of weavers. Genoa was a major mercantile center like its counterpart, Venice. Going by the motto “In the name of God and Profit”, Genoa hosted profitable trade lines to the Near East that were cutoff when the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 (Hurst 2)”. Columbus would have been exposed to the religious calamity firsthand at an early age leading to him leaving his place of birth.
Christopher Columbus was a famous navigator and explorer who was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy. Columbus wanted to claim land for Spain so he could be rich and spread religion. He originally set out to find the East Indies for many reasons. One was that he hoped to establish trade routes and colonies in order to gain wealth. Another was that there were now bigger guns that could be strapped on ships so he felt that his voyage had more of a chance of being successful. The main reasons for his exploration was that he wanted to find a western route to Asia to find the riches that Marco Polo talked about in his book. So basically he was not courageous, he was just greedy. He intended on arriving in Japan on his first voyage, but instead, he arrived at the Bahamas archipelago. He ended up making numerous voyages and claiming the lands he visited for the Spanish Empire. Columbus continued voyages creating the first lasting European conta...
Columbus’ goal in his mission to America was somewhat heroic: “Christian missionary and anti-Islamic fervour, the power of Castile and Aragon, the fear of Portugal, the lust for gold, the desire for adventure, the hope of conquests, and Europe’s genuine need for a reliable supply of herbs and spices for cooking, preserving, and medicine all combined to produce an explosion of energy that launched the first voyage” (Flint). Although Columbus’ mission may have been heroic, what really matters is what Columbus did when he got to America, which was kidnap, enslave, and kill Native
Although this essay is historically accurate it lacks important details, which might paint a different view of Columbus. Boorstin writes favorable of Columbus and depicts him as a heroic and determined figure who helped shape history, but he neglects to include Columbus’ unethical acts committed in the world that was not supposed to exist, the Americas. When Columbus first discovered the New World, he took care that the royal standard had been brought ashore and he claimed the land for Spain in front of all, including the indigenous population who had been sighted even before Columbus made landfall. According to the medieval concepts of natural law, only those territories that are uninhabited can become the property of the first person to discover them. Clearly this was an unethical act. Thus, the first contact between European and non-European worlds was carried out through a decidedly European prism, which ensured Spanish claim to the islands of the Americas. Faced with a colony in an inhospitable area, the Spanish soon inaugurated the practice of sending regular military parties inland to subdue the increasingly hostile natives. Members of the indigenous population were captured and enslaved to support the fledgling colony. The object of Columbus’ desire changed from exploration and trade to conquest and subjugation.
In Cortés’s first letter to King Charles I of Spain, Cortes talks about how the Native Americans had tried to attack the...
...s others whether it is one of their own or someone completely different. This variance shows that instead of being vastly different as de Vaca often describes, the two groups were in reality equals. The best insight is de Vaca’s own words on the matter. At various times he describes the Indians as “savages”. However, at the end of his journey, he states that “Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way” (123). Cabeza de Vaca’s transformation from a condescending invader to a man declaring the need for kindness towards natives proves that his ideas towards Indians had transformed from superiority towards equality. If Cabeza de Vaca’s advice to governmental power on expansion had been heeded it is possible that the horrors of future imperialism would have been averted.
In Pageant Christopher Columbus is one of the first people named as relevant to our history. He is built up as a hero, with words such as "a man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage" used to describe him (Pageant p.4). We are told that he knows the world is round, but that nobody will believe him. Finally he convinces Spain's monarchs to fund him, and is given "three tiny but seaworthy ships manned...
Las Casas emphasizes on three main issues throughout his account. First, in almost each chapter, Las Casas writes about the luscious qualities of the land and the different indigenous peoples that inhabit them. Second, he explains and describes in detail how the natives were rapidly being massacred by the invading Christian Europeans. Finally, Las Casas discusses how God had brought justice to the Europeans for their diabolical acts upon the natives. Las Casas, a former slave owner himself, realized that those whom he previously enslaved were just as much human and capable of learning and practicing the Christian faith as he was. As a bishop, he realized he could do little for the Natives except document his experiences (in as much detail as possible) and hope that the royal administration would have sympathy for the Natives and establish laws to protect them from the Europeans.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
Columbus’s invasion of the Caribbean in 1492 brought Native American and European cultures together for the first time in a startling encounter that reshaped the worldviews of both groups. In The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other, Tzvetan Todorov seeks to understand the ways in which the Spanish worldview shaped Columbus’s perception of the natives of Hispaniola, as he fashioned an other from his own sense of self. In Todorov’s model, the other is defined in terms of its correspondence, or lack thereof, to different facets of the self, including culture, language, physiognomy, religion, and knowledge; furthermore, the other is valued, distanced, and understood in relation to the presumed supremacy of the self. In this way, the other can only be seen as an “imperfect state of oneself” and never as a distinct entity judged according to its own values and defined on its own terms (Todorov 42). Todorov explores Columbus’s letters and journals, various first-hand accounts of the discovery, and the writings of Las Casas in order to understand the ways in which the distinct self of the native population was transformed into an other, whose identity depended on European values to define it.
Cabeza de Vaca, like many other Spaniards, wanted to seek fortune in the new world, but things did not go as planned, and he eventually lost everything. Although he came to conquer in the name of Spain, he ended up living amongst the Native Americans in need for survival and became very close to them. Although originally the Spaniards were very narrow minded and believed the Indians were uncivilized and barbaric, Cabeza de Vaca shortly found out that they were not uncivilized, but quite the opposite. He saw that they were just as human as the Spaniards were and were no less than they were. His perception of humanity altered as a result of living with “the others.”
This is an analysis of Christopher Columbus’s Letter on His First Voyage on page 381. Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to his King and Queen of Spain, while he was in the West Indies. He wrote this letter in February 1493 reflecting on his voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. After reading this letter, I can tell that Columbus felt like he was better than the native people of the different islands he journeyed and that a lot of things they did were very strange to him. I can also tell that the world was a lot different to him and to people in 1492, than it is to people in 2014 because he referred to the native people of the various islands he traveled to as Indians, whereas most people in 2014 know that India and Latin American are not the