1492 Reflection

Dinesh D'Souza wrote a well-written article over “ The Crimes of Christopher Columbus.” He represents the idea that it is more important for students to learn about many cultures rather than focus on only the western culture. He used many quotes throughout his essay, as well as using Christopher Columbus as his prime example.

For the longest time, Americans have celebrated Columbus day, commemorating the admiral’s supposed discovery of America. But, in “The Inconvenient Indian”, Thomas King shatters this idea and develops a new thought in the mind of the reader about natives. By using excellent rhetoric and syntax, King is able to use logos, ethos and pathos in his chapter “Forget Columbus”, where he develops the argument that the stories told in history aren’t always a true representation of how it actually happened.

Columbus has always been portrayed as an enlightened, peaceful explorer who “discovered” a new world, and became friends with the native people. Howard Zinn’s view on Columbus’s encounter with the natives is an entirely different perspective. Zinn describes Columbus as a man who is willing to torture and kill others to be able to accomplish what he wants; in this case he wanted to obtain gold and other resources to take back with him to Spain.

Throughout recorded human history, authors, leaders, and researchers, have documented the past from many different perspectives, and viewpoints. Not every historian has the same stance on a certain issue, therefore, differences in point of view occur in almost every writing. In the textbook The American Pageant, A People’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart, and Michael Allen, and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the reader can see many different perspectives throughout each reading. The infamous explorer known as Christopher Columbus, has been documented in many different ways. Depending on the reading, Columbus has be called everything from a “[...]symbol of the new age of hope”, to an inhuman tyrant who captured Indians and turned them into slaves.

Jack Weatherford in his essay “Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus” proposes the idea that Columbus was not the person who people believe to have accomplished all the things we were told about him at a young age. Weatherford's determination and his persuasiveness can be seen with his use of emotional diction, fluid tone, and the logos juxtaposition of Columbus’s events with others.

For this essay I will be talking about the book “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. Whom wrote this to the King of Spain, Prince Philip II, in 1542 to protest what was happening in the New World to the native people. I will be explaining many things during this essay. The first thing I will go over is what the books tells us about the relationship between Christianity and the colonialism. The second thing I will talk about is if it was enough to denounce the atrocities against indigenous people. Next, if it is possible to

The dominant portion of the excerpt is Bergreen's exposition of various historical arguments against Columbus, his foremost example being the works of Bartolomé de Las Casas. He integrates much of de Las Casas' work through the use of direct quotations, which helps to maintain a rigorous and analytical tone. This serves to improve Bergreen's credibility and reinforce the reader's initial impression of him as a rigorous and learned historian—an appeal to ethos. Through the use of direct quotations such as "Las Casas championed the nearly extinct victims of this outrage—'the simplest people of the world,'" (Par. 3) he is able to provide the reader with historical knowledge without directly taking a stance on the underlying divisive issue of the moral qualities and actions of Columbus. This extremely objective tone pervades the rest of the essay, and ultimately makes any moral judgement difficult to discern which would detract from the focus of the Bergreen's ultimate

Columbus? the author asks, “Why admire a man who was searching for gold and tolerant

The Dogs of Paradise, which has similar characteristics as The Harp and the Shadow, is a novel that focuses on the discovery of the New World. Within his novel, Posse shines light, and hyperbolizes, Christopher Columbus as a character. Although this characterization is truly unknown to all, Posse is able to give a fictional argument of how one could portray Columbus. This paper will examine how Christopher Columbus begins as a dynamic, growing character but eventually falls into a static, and nearly childish, state. Abel Posse uses the new historical novel characteristics to demythologize Christopher Columbus.

Even in small matters, the historical Columbus had a way of demonstrating his true character, which was quite different from that portrayed in this film or in popular culture in general. In the movie, Columbus did offer a bounty to the first sailor who sighted land, but in reality when he returned to Spain he claimed it for himself. Indeed, he wrote an entire book asserting that he was not

Isabella worries about replacing Columbus because of his avowed connection to God. Cisneros calls Columbus a fraud. Fonseca cites Columbus' megalomania, tyranny and deception. Ferdinand argues reliance on Columbus to find a ‘westward passage to Asia’ is too important to be left to one man. Blockades by their enemies, the Ottomans and the French, make the Westward Passage vital to the fate of the Kingdom.

For many centuries, Christopher Columbus has been portrayed as a hero who founded America. As many may discover, later in life, Christopher Columbus can be considered to be the head of a mass genocide. Alejo Carpentier’s novel, The Harp and the Shadow, shines light on the evils of Christopher Columbus with a fictional twist. Victoria Chase states, “Carpentier combines an Old World perspective, formed by tradition, expectation and necessity, with a decidedly New World sense of its origin and history” (Chase 28). This paper will examine despite what Christopher Columbus was famed to be, he is demythologized by Alejo Carpentier’s novel when the true side of Columbus is exposed.

Almost everyone has heard of Christopher Columbus, but close to no one has used Columbus and the colonization of America to make connections to other topics. Christopher Columbus had “a series of four voyages to the Americas between 1492 and 1502” (Waters). The facts about history and some fictional stories seem to go hand in hand. “Dark They Were And Golden Eyed” is a science fiction story by the author Ray Bradbury. “Dark They Were And Golden Eyed” is a social commentary on the colonization of the Americas.

“And so,” Professor Brad Brock pushed a button on his wireless remote, advancing his Power Point presentation and causing a famous portrait of Christopher Columbus to appear on the huge screen behind him. He continued, “we see that errors in decision making can often be the result of simple mistakes. For example, Columbus’ math error in converting the Muslim scholars’ Hashemite mile into the much shorter European mile. This mistake, as well as his greatly overestimating the size of Europe caused him to believe that Asia could be found in a few short weeks after sailing west.”

Most people, especially educated ones, know that Columbus sailed in 1492 towards what he thought was the way to India. Subsequently, he reached the Caribbean and the “New” World was “found.” Regardless of the specifics, everyone knows Christopher Columbus and his voyage as one of the many events that lye on the timeline of world historical events. The misunderstanding that Fernand Braudel tries to address in his book, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, is that history is not just a timeline, but more of a collection of timelines that intertwine with each other in different and distinct ways.