Charles Mann’s 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created is a very informative book that is the sequel to Mann’s, 1941: New Revolutions of the Americas before Columbus. The purpose of the book is to educate the reader on globalization, the effects after Columbus discovered the Americas, as well as to persuade the reader to interpret history a bit differently than they had previously. Through educating his audience, Mann argues about many important issues such as: global economy, trade, agriculture, environment, as well as a large section of his book is dedicated to the African slave trade. In my opinion, Mann’s argument is unbiased and he interweaves research in order to back up his claims with great detail. The book is very engaging, …show more content…
Without the Columbian Exchange, the potato never would have gotten to China, and they ultimately had devastating consequences for the ecosystems in China. This third section of the book also emphasises how the Industrial revolution was made possible by rubber and Mann goes into great detail to inform the reader about the process of the rubber industry. Rubber was extremely valuable and supply and demand never seemed to even out. The price of rubber continued to soar even as the supply increased, which usually did not …show more content…
Mann demonstrates to the reader the important role that slave trade had in developing the current United States. He explains that before the 1800s, the large majority of people who were crossing the Atlantic were in fact, African slaves. He claims, “Roughly speaking, for every European who came to the Americas, three Africans made the trip” (367). Mann also points out that slavery’s development was helped by the fact that many Africans are immune to malaria, which allowed them to successfully survive the outbreaks. This fact added plantations that were fielded by African slaves opposed to the plantations that didn’t use African slaves but local servants as the African slaves were not as likely to become sick from the diseases. Charles Mann’s 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created is an interesting, fact-filled book that is very persuasive and leaves the reader with a fresh view of history. This book has several main themes and all are argued with information to back up the claim in a non-biased manner. Charles Mann separated his ideas by chapters, within four larger sections that allowed the readers to follow his flow and understand that the chapters in each section were connected. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created is an educational and informative book that is definitely worth the
Charles C Mann, the author of 1493 provides an extensive analysis of the age of exploration through a series of best-selling books. He illustrated both pre-columbian and post Columbian era and established the significance of globalization across the world through the books 1491 and 1493.The book was first published on 2011 as a continuation of 1491 that recorded America before the arrival of Columbus.Charles C Mann provided an astonishing interpretation of columbian exchange through examining several aspects of global trade.He integrated social economical and cultural components of globalization to inform readers on how it shaped the modern world.The author’s main purpose was to engage readers in critical thinking and evaluate both advantages and disadvantages of globalization that united the world.Globalization blended many cultures and tradition and increased the survival of humankind.Moreover, the Columbian exchange ranked Europe among the greatest powers of the world; thus, Charles C Mann also discussed significant European pressures that lead to the everlasting transformation of the world.
The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.
Columbus’s big plan for Hispaniola since the beginning was to take advantage of the natives and take their land, and the gold he believed was located there. He built the first fort in the Western Hemisphere, and left some of his men to find and store gold there. Columbus had to ask for a little more help from their majesties, he convinced them by saying he would take them “as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask” (Zinn,6 ) Columbus’s plans affected the natives, in many ways; first of all they were going to lose their land, and also they were going to be taken captive for slave labor.
All across the United States, students learn that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and “discovered” North America. This common misconception creates a false narrative for Americans learning about Christopher Columbus’ legacy - and indeed about the country’s early post-European history. When Christopher Columbus came ashore, North America was already inhabited by hundreds of thousands of native peoples so the concept of Christopher Columbus somehow “discovering” what is now the United States of America is inaccurate. He did, however, set off a process of conquering the land and its people for the Western World. He did so through brutal tactics including forced labor, enslavement, violence, and widespread killing.
Written by Jack Weatherford, professor of anthropology, “Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus” describes the misconceptions of Christopher Columbus, and who he was as a person. Through his writing, Weatherford is able to show readers that Columbus was not the hero he was made out to be. Weatherford uses tools such as diction, juxtaposition, and facts in the form of evidence to support his claim.
The full measure of Columbus's failure as a colonizer was not yet apparent when he returned to Castile in 1496. Yet by the end of six or seven years of his governorship, with his own, the monarchs', and the settlers' objectives all still unachieved, and Hispaniola suffering an apparently interminable series of rebellions not only by the Indians but by the colonists too, Columbus was to be superseded and disgraced, and shipped home to Spain in chains.1 Overall, Fernandez-Armesto depicted Columbus as an annoyingly eccentric person incapable of succeeding. Although, he discovered the Americas, he failed to be a leader to his crew and the natives. Instead, he was on the lookout for ways of manipulating the motives for profit.
In the book The Conquest of America by Tzvetan Todorov, Todorov brings about an interesting look into the expeditions of Columbus, based on Columbus’ own writings. Initially, one can see Columbus nearly overwhelmed by the beauty of these lands that he has encountered. He creates vivid pictures that stand out in the imagination, colored by a "marvelous" descriptive style. Todorov gives us an interpretation of Columbus’ discovery of America, and the Spaniards’ subsequent conquest, colonization, and destruction of pre-Columbian cultures in Mexico and the Caribbean. Tzvetan Todorov examines the beliefs and behavior of the Spanish conquistadors and of the Aztecs.
1) The book, 1491, by Charles C. Mann gives readers a deeper insight into the Americas before the age of Columbus, explaining the development and significance of the peoples who came before us. Moreover, Mann’s thesis is such; the civilizations and tribes that developed the Americas prior to the discovery by Europeans arrived much earlier than first presumed, were far greater in number, and were vastly more sophisticated than we had earlier believed. For instance, Mann writes, regarding the loss of Native American culture:
During the 1400’s, a physical connection was made between Europe and the Native Americans by Christopher Columbus. Today, he is looked upon as a hero for discovering the land that the United States of America currently occupies. Beneath the glorified image of Columbus, there lies something much darker that people often overlook. Although Columbus began the migration of Europeans to America, he did not discover it first. In addition, the new formed connection between the Europeans and the Americas paved way for the genocide of many of the indigenous people.
It should no longer come as any great surprise that Columbus was not the first to discover the Americas--Carthaginians, Vikings, and even St. Brendan may have set foot on the Western Hemisphere long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic. But none of these incidental contacts made the impact that Columbus did. Columbus and company were bound to bring more than the benefits of Christianity and double entry bookkeeping to America. His voyages started the Columbian Exchange, a hemispherical swap of peoples, plants, animals and diseases that transformed not only the world he had discovered but also the one he had left.
“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the
The New World was surrounded in mystery. The hope of prosperity, a new start, or a chance to solidify a legacy drove thousands to shed the “Old World” they knew. This action of embarking beyond the familiar boundaries and happening upon a land untouched by the rest of the known word was pure chance. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of Guanahauni and the world would never be the same. The effects of the Columbian Exchange are still evident in today’s geographic landscape.
Charles C. Mann is an American journalist and author. Along with being a three-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, Mann has also received many writing awards from the American Bar Association, the American Institute of Physics, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. He is also the author of national bestseller 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, which won the National Academies Communication Award for "Best Book of the Year." Mann's purpose for writing this book is to educate and inform people about the real situation of people before and after Columbus.
The book 1493, Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, written by Charles C. Mann, discusses the affects the Columbian Exchange had throughout the globe, from tobacco and other cash crops, to future revolutions occurring in the eighteenth century and beyond, Published in 2011 by Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc, this 557 page book gives a thorough overview about how globalization caused by Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World in 1492 affected the diet, society, and economics of the world. One unique feature about this nonfiction book is how it's written, with a personal story given by the author, and then going in depth about the evidence of events and statistics. The countless pictures and maps help support the author’s written work by providing a basis of understanding for the reader. Benefits and consequences of global interaction are the focus in this book. Instead of referring back to ideas that form many people’s view of the first event of globalization, Mann uses evidence from around the globe to give a well rounded argument in each section of the book. With the previous knowledge I gained from AP World History, I believe that this book ties many important
The “new world” that Columbus boasted of to the Spanish monarchs in 1500 was neither an expanse of empty space nor a replica of European culture, tools, textiles, and religion, but a combination of Native, European, and African people living in complex relation to one another. »full text