The discovery of America was the best thing to happen to mankind during the year of 1492. Let’s face it, the political landscape has changed over the past centuries in an astronomical way. How we view the world today, may have not been how they viewed the world in the late 1400s. The greatest question to ask is if history was wrong in the past. Perhaps the founding fathers would have surrendered to the British Empire; if we lived in a world of that, would we consider history on our side today? What if Nazi Germany had won World War II and Adolf Hitler’s ideology was placed worldwide, would we agree with it today? Understanding the perspective of Christopher Columbus and his role in history is vital to understanding the age of exploration …show more content…
It’s important to know “that ‘the Columbian Exchange’ was not one-sided” (Crosby, Alfred, 1989). While history will say that Christopher Columbus and his pirates brought disease and ecological devastation to the new world, it also shows a different story. “The New World influenced the Europeans too, especially in their cultivation of crops and preparation of foods” (Crosby, Alfred, 1989). The argument is stated that Christopher Columbus ended an established culture, one filled with religion, food, and a way of life. The counter argument is that Christopher Columbus also taught the Native American tribes ideas, plants, and foods and many other resources out …show more content…
However, to fully pinpoint the curse on the ‘Discovery of America’ on Christopher Columbus or anyone else, it’s important to understand the history behind the disease. As noted in the CDC Government website, the smallpox “vaccination began in 1796 when an English doctor named Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox did not show any symptoms of smallpox after variolation.” This also includes that while smallpox was the most notable disease to destroy the Native Americans, it was also reintroduced by European colonization imports in the 17th Century in America (North America) and introduced into Australia by Great Britain. Understanding this is vital because given the evidence, the vaccination for smallpox was over two centuries away from happening. It’s unfortunate to not know that had Cristopher Columbus not arrived in 1492, what disease could have been brought up by the Native Americans to potentially destroy the world for a later exploration
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, is the rhyme embedded in children’s heads in the first lesson of US history. However, beyond the discovery of the New World, Christopher Columbus receives no other mentions. Especially no one acknowledges that he was the reason Native Americans were mistreated and kept as slaves. Although Christopher Columbus’ actions are not all honorable he should still be celebrated during Columbus Day as a brave explorer who risked his and his crew’s lives to find a new way of travel and land. His efforts bridged a gap between the New and Old World and helped feed Europe, which immensely impacts our society. Because of his dedication and bravery to be an explorer Christopher Columbus Day should be celebrated.
As we all know from the memorable song, in 1492 Columbus sailed to find the New World, commonly known as the Americas. Many idolize Columbus for his accomplishment in colonizing the Americas and starting the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is the sharing of plants, animals, diseases, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres as a direct result of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. However, we often oversee the downfalls of the Columbian Exchange. Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life.
The controversy of whether or not Christopher Columbus should continue to be acknowledged by a federal holiday proves that his legacy has not escaped the scrutiny of history. Arguments born of both sides of the controversy stem from issues such as genocide, racism, multiculturalism, geographical land rights, and the superiority of certain cultures over others. In The Christopher Columbus Controversy: Western Civilization vs. Primitivism, Michael Berliner, Ph.D. declares that recognition of Columbus Day is well-deserved, claiming that Western civilization is superior to all other cultures and Columbus personifies this truth. On the contrary, Jack Weatherford's Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus equates Columbus' so-called discovery with brutal genocide and the destruction of ancient sophisticated civilizations. These articles demonstrate two extreme points of view in a manner that makes clear each authors' goals, leading the reader to consider issues of author bias, motivation, and information validity.
Columbus does not deserve to be praised for the discovery of America. In short, if he didn't do it, someone else would have within 10 years. He was not the only one who believed that the earth was round, and the ideas of similar voyages had been previously proposed.
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
The Columbian exchange was one of the largest transfer of goods, human population, and etc between the New and Old world. These goods and other things changed the course of both world as we know it. In the Old World, new crops such as corn and potatoes were brought. These crops are able to stand harsh environment and able to grow in short amount of time. To the New World goods such as wheat, onions, and rice were brought. Also, ideas and technology were introduced to New World. However, The things coming from the Old World were contaminated with diseases that nearly wiped out the natives of New World. The people in from the Old World took advantage of the defenseless natives and enslaved them. The natives were forced into cheap and unfair labor.
Without intention, in 1492 Christopher Columbus initiated an event that is perhaps the most important historical turning point in modern times to the American Continents. . “For thousands of years before 1492, human societies in America had developed in isolation from the rest of the world. ”(P. 4) Christopher Columbus and other European voyagers ended all this beginning in 1492 as they searched for treasure and attempted to spread Christianity. For the first time, people from Europe, Africa, and the Americas were in regular contact. Columbus was searching for one thing and discovered something entirely different.
On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus departed from Palos, Spain to begin his journey across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the first of many voyages that allowed him to explore a New World where he was able to discover plants, animals, cultures and resources that Europeans had never seen before. The sharing of these resources and combination of the Old and New World has come to be known as the Columbian Exchange. During these explorations, the Europeans brought diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, typhoid and bubonic plague to the New World, wiping out entire Indian populations. There were also many other populations wiped out due to complications that came from this exchange. Were these explorations and the wiping out of entire populations worth the benefits gained by the exchange?
...us brought America to the attention of the civilized world, to the growing, scientific civilizations of Western Europe. The result, ultimately, was the United States of America. It was Columbus’ discovery for Western Europe that led to the arrival of ideas and people on which this nation was founded on. The voyages of Christopher Columbus contain one of the great adventure stories of all time. His first journey across thousands of miles of unknown ocean, in the middle of the rebellious grievances and tensions of his crew, was not only one of the most significant achievements of recorded human history, but was also a demonstration of Columbus's dominance as mariner and navigator. For a while he had faults and defects, which brought turmoil to his personal life, but there was no flaw, no dark side to the most significant of all his qualities, of course his seamanship.
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
Meanwhile, they make up all kinds of details to tell a better story and to humanize Columbus so that readers will identify with him” (1). On American textbooks, Christopher Columbus was portray as the first person who discovered America, but it is actually a lie that Columbus is the first America’s “great” hero. In my opinion, American textbooks put more emphasis on making significant heroic character rather than giving a true detail of history. Also, it provides a mythical hero and covers up anything that shows in the history of the America in a negative light and made them look bad. Explorers who reached America before Columbus are well underplayed. They should stick to the facts of what Columbus really did and should focus on as many accurate details of Columbus’ life, without overcompensating for his
Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the 1450-1750 time period, it also had a dark side. One detrimental result of the Columbian Exchange would be the spread of smallpox from Europe to the New World. The great explorations and subsequent migrations of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th-18th centuries opened up those entire continents to the fatal impact of the infectious diseases of Europe. European conquests owed a good deal of their success to the effects of disease on the indigenous peoples, especially smallpox in the Americas. Before the Spanish conquest of the New World, there were no sickness or health related issues that Natives were forced to face.
Some of the problems when studying history are the texts and documents that have been discovered are only from perspective. Furthermore, on occasion that one perspective is all there may be for historians to study. A good example of this textual imbalance can be found from the texts about the discovery of the New World; more specifically, the letters of Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha during their voyages to the New World. Plenty of the text from this time is written from the perspective of the Europeans, as the Indigenous population did not have any written text. What this means is that it provided only one perspective, which can drastically hinder how history is interpreted. Columbus’s letter of his first voyage to the Caribbean
Before the most famous historic voyage to the Americas Christopher Columbus had no support to go on his expedition. Christopher Columbus tried to get support from the King of Portugal John II, but he was turned down. Spain finally agreed to sponsor his voyage in 1492 across the Atlantic Ocean. By agreeing to sponsor Christopher Columbus voyage they believed they would have gained leverage in what they were trying to do in Spain. The Reconquista made the Spaniards very powerful. By Christopher Columbus finding new land with people and gold it convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to continue to support his voyages. Even though the king and queen believed that allowing him to go on the voyages benefited them it actually allowed Christopher
The Columbian exchange was the exchange of slaves, animals, crops, and resources. The Columbian exchange was not as serene and hygienic as explorers and Native American would have liked it. The first reason the Columbian exchange is a significant impact to the European exploration is crops. The east part of the word was growing wheat, barely, rice, and fruit (1). The west of the world was growing potatoes, tomatoes, and fruits (1). The two worlds would trade crops which each other giving the other something they didn’t have. This was not the only things they trade, livestock was also traded. The west part of the world didn’t have a lot of animals and the animals they had weren’t agriculture animals. The animals that Europe sent were horses, cattle, pigs, and sheep (1).The lifestyle of the Native American change when the horses were introduced into their life. The European didn’t send crops and livestock to the new world, they also sent disease. The Europeans sent disease that were nasty, harmful, and very contagious. The European sent disease such as smallpox, Malaria, Diphtheria, and others (1). These diseases were sent to the new world by the ships, people, and especially the pigs. These diseases killed lots of Native American in the New World and was devastating. The Columbian exchange was a great lift for the Europeans because of trade, but not so good for the Native Americans.