Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson
alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson
alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson
Themes in U.S and World History The purpose for which government has been instituted, according to Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, is “because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.” In an effort to constrain men’s passions, nations and revolutionary groups have tried many forms of government. But the institution of a new government necessitates some form of revolution, either violent or peaceful. In many cases, the onset of this revolution begins with the subjugation of a people, often through the process of colonizing a land which is already inhabited. The Rise of Colonialism in the Americas Christopher Columbus’ only real claim to fame (other than, perhaps, one of the earliest perpetrators of genocide) is that he began a period of conquest and colonization in the Americas. Columbus made no secret of his plans for the first native peoples he encountered, the Arawak. He wrote to his patrons, “With fifty men all can be kept in subjection, and made to do whatever you desire” (Colbert, 1997, p.6). During the following 250 years, European nations divided up the Americas among themselves, snatching up land for its gold and other resources, and establishing colonies to lay claim to those resources and establish religious and political freedoms. Both early explorers and colonists killed, enslaved, and forced Native peoples onto reservations. By 1517 anti-colonial Pedro de Cordoba warned the king of Spain that, under the tyranny of Columbus and his son, Arawaks were committing mass suicide and killing their own newborn children (Loewen, p. 53). Perhaps inevitably, the Native Americans began rebelling. One of the most significant of these rebellions took place in 1675, ... ... middle of paper ... ...xtent Gandhi achieved a moral victory as well as a political one. For adherents of faiths that encourage peace, it is also a religious one. Works Cited Blaisdell, B. (Eds.). (2000). Great speeches by Native Americans. Mineola: Dover Thrift Editions. Colbert, D. (1998). Eyewitness to America. (1st vintage edition ed.). New York: Vintage Books. Dictionary.com. (2013). Random house dictionary. Retrieved from www.dictionary.com. Francis, L. (1998). Native time, a historical time line of native America. New York: St Martins Press. Loewen, J. W. (1995). Lies my teacher told me, everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York: New Press, The. The West Film Project. (2001). Chief Joseph speaks, selected statements and speeches by the Nez Percé chief. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/ archives/six/jospeak.htm.
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
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 185,193. Print.
Christopher Columbus was a man who much credit was given to for a very small deed. In fact he discovered a new world, but that world was only new to him and the men of his previous generations. What about the many Native Americans whose fathers and father’s fathers shed their blood for the land in which they had lived for so many years. How could one such as Christopher Columbus who was looking for freedom and hope cause so much bondage and destruction? One man’s victory turned out to be devastation for millions.
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.
Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 1996.
The prevailing opinion is that European explorers came to the America’s to peacefully colonize and gradually begin mutually beneficial relationships with the native people. However, Howard Zinn proves that the majority of explorers could not coexist with the native tribes, as the conquerors slowly stole their land, and did not return the initial hospitality most of the natives had showed to them. Therefore, the European colonizers blatantly ignored the rights of the Native Americans and acted with violence towards them. In order to conquer the natives, the colonizers “set fire to the wigwams of the village” and “ [destroyed] their crops” (Zinn).
The colonists who first arrived in America came to this land because they saw an opportunity to regenerate their religion and to live according to it without subjugation. The immense size of the land sugge...
LaDuke, Winona. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. Print.
Perdue, Theda, and Michael Green. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Print.
From the unhealthy obsession for affluence by European explorers came the inevitable defeat and subjugation of America’s original people, the Native Americans. In Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, he begins with the first meeting between the Arawaks and Christopher Columbus. Columbus’s following log describes the peaceful nature of the Arawak people, and that they could be easily conquered given if Columbus had enough manpower (Zinn 1). Zinn furthers his point of capitalist-fueled exploration by saying, “These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messengers to the Americas, Christopher Columbus” (Zinn 1). The Europeans didn’t understand the giving nature of the Indians and took advantage of them and their land, driven by their need for wealth. Johnson, on the other hand, doesn’t openly deny that gold had a hand in the exploration of the Americas; he instead glazes over the topic of the New World’s evident riches,
The idea that their way of life should be the model for other societies to follow is strongly prevalent in Columbus’ 1493 report. Columbus writes, “I forcibly seized some Indians from the first island, so that they might learn from us,” (Norton 81). His forced seizure reveals not only a willingness to exploit the natives for whatever need he has, but also a sense of entitlement enabling him to do whatever he wants because he is more civilized. The names he gives the islands he discovers have catholic connotation and he gave them “pretty and acceptable objects” so he can “win them over to me, and that they might become Christians, and be inclined to love our King and Queen and Prince and all the peoples of Spain,” (Norton 80). The report reflects how believed they would have a positive influence on native people by forcing European ideals into native lifestyle, a product of
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 2007.