According to Howard Zinn, his main purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States was to give a detailed and more accurate account of the history of America. He wanted to give the history from the victim/native’s point of view. Instead of covering up the stories of the different people that weren’t included in our history lessons, he wants them to be able to be recognized as more than just the people that were eliminated by foreigners.
Zinn’s thesis for pages 1-11 was that Christopher Columbus was not the storybook hero that many textbooks portray him as. Instead, he is more of a dishonest explorer who wasn’t truthful with those who supported him. Columbus wasn’t correct in his explorations either. He didn’t discover what he
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But, he still goes on to say that Columbus is a good man despite his flaws. Zinn doesn’t agree that one can be a good man and still commit such vicious crimes on native people.
Bartolome de las Casas brings up the issue of how the natives are treated. He discussed how the Spaniards had no problem cutting up the Indians simply to test the sharpness of their blade.
Columbus felt the need to oppress indigenous peoples because they were going to ultimately lead him to the wealth. He believed that the natives were the only people that knew where the gold was. The gold was considered a sign of wealth. Columbus also wanted to find a shorter route to India. Much like finding the gold, Columbus assumed that the indigenous people could show him the way.
When Columbus found the Arawak Indians, he kept them as prisoners on a ship. He believed that they were going to lead him to gold. The majority of Arawak’s died on the ship because of the cold, but two Indians were stabbed on the ship because they didn’t trade as many swords as Columbus had wanted them to. Many of the Indians were given impossible jobs and later killed when they couldn’t complete them. While others were killed when Columbus promised the king gold and slaves. Eventually the entire population died out.
What was significant about Quetzalcoatl was that the Aztecs thought that Cortes may have been Quetzalcoatl
In the first source, the author, Howard Zinn discusses how Europeans were aware of their mistreatment towards the Native Americans and how Native Americans were innocent. As well as how Christopher Columbus is portrayed, how he is not a hero, and how he shouldn't be celebrated. Zinn uses direct sources and evidence to support his argument by using journals and logs. Zinn says that the mistreatment of Native Americans is first seen to begin with Columbus. Zinn shows evidence to support this statement by using a direct source from Columbus. "They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword,
3. According to Zinn, Columbus is portrayed as a holy character that was brave enough to sail into the unknown in traditional history books.
Columbus never even walked on what we now call the United States of America. Where ever he did land, he was motivated only by his own greed. Columbus came for the gold, spices, and slaves. In his diary, he mentioned gold 75 times just in the first two weeks, alone (Katz 13). Indians who weren’t able to find gold, were punished by having their hands cut off. Most slaves died en route to Spain. Many Indian females were taken as sex slaves, some as young as nine and ten years old. Columbus forced cooperation from the Indians by disfiguring them and using them as examples. Even worse, he used hunting dogs to tear the Indians apart. Many natives committed suicide, and murdered their own children to save them from such a horrible life. Those who survived the voyage were worked to death. Still, another huge portion of these Indians died from disease brought over by Columbus and his
While trying to adapt Native Americans to European customs, Columbus and his followers took advantage of the Indians. The Spanish burned the Natives sacred objects and would not allow them to practice their own religions. They also abused the Natives, enslaving them, taking land from them, and raping their women. Because of the conquistadors quest for gold and other riches,
Howard Zinn not only introduced a new perspective on Christopher Columbus, but he changed the way I viewed things. I never knew how much killings, and torture was put upon the natives in the searching of the “New World”. I learned how the hero I thought Columbus was, in reality was more like a villain. He didn’t
Zinn first refers to the author Morrison and how he deals with who Columbus really was. Instead of “[lying] outright about the past” or “[omitting] facts, which might lead to unacceptable conclusions,” Morrison tells the
When Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean, Native Americans were scared, but still friendly toward him. So he took advantage of this people being nice to him, to force them to convert in his religion and also take them as slaves. Columbus also saw that this people had no weapons, they have no way to defend themselves. So as you can see it was very easy for Columbus to take them over and treat them badly because they had no protection. That is a good example to show how cruel Columbus could act toward this people that could not fight back.
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.
2. Zinn's thesis for pages 1 to 11 is to tell the arrival of Columbus as it really happened from the point of view of the Indians. He doesn't try to hide the things that Columbus and other Europeans did to the Indians and talks about how the Indians were not inferior as the Europeans had thought they were.
The Europeans main goal revolved around the stability of power of the Spanish Crown. The Spanish Crown was focused on expanding their military so they needed resources such as gold to pay for the constantly increasing military budget. Columbus used this idea to help get resources such as, boats, men, food and weapons from the Spanish Crown. This is important because it describes the desperate need of gold that the Spaniards had which ultimately led to the gruesome acts they committed.
To better understand the conflict between the Europeans and the Native Americans, one must closely examine the state of Europe’s economy at the time. Europe struggled with difficult conditions. This included poverty, violence and diseases like typhus, smallpox, influenza and measles. There were widespread famines which caused the prices of products to vary and made life very difficult in Europe. Street crimes and violence were prevalent in cities: “Other eruption of bizarre torture, murder, and ritual cannibalism were not uncommon”.2 Europeans
b.) Zinn’s thesis for this chapter was that Christopher Columbus wasn’t the great hero he was written to be. Zinn portrays him as an evil man who harshly abused the foreign people he came in contact with around the world.
Regarding the article, “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, Dr. Howard Zinn argues that there is another perspective to consider as to Christopher Columbus’ adventures. Dr. Howard Zinn’s position is that history books have omissions of slavery, death and innocent bloodshed that accompanied the adventures of Christopher Columbus. In the following statements Dr. Howard Zinn describes his perspective; “The writer began the history, five hundred years ago, of the European invasion of the Indian Settlement in the Americas. That beginning, when you read Las Casas- even if his figures are exaggerations (were there 3 million Indians to begin with, as he says or 250,000, as modern historians calculate) is conquest, slavery, and death. When
The people on the island had no clue what a sword was so they would cut themselves when they would touch the blade. Christopher Columbus thought it was going to be easy if needed to fight with them. They had no way of protecting themselves. He and his men ended up killing these poor people little by little. Even when they tried to help them out by directing them to find gold or help them when they got hurt. On his trip when he arrived in Hispaniola the Taino people living on the island welcomed and were gentle with him and his men. When Columbus left the island he left forty of his men and those men raped and fought the Tainos after they helped them out.2 On his second trip Columbus set up a permanent colony and again his men raped, stole gold ornaments and food that provoked war with the Tainos. The Spanish killed tens of thousands out of population and the ones who did survive the Spanish ended up chopping off their hands if they did not provide their allotment.3 At the end the Spanish wiped out the islands either by killing the people or they left to surrounding countries.
Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas, which he mistook for Asia, and was warmly welcomed by the Arawak indians. At first sight, Columbus remarked how good of servants they could be, and as it turned out, would be. Like most explorers at the time, Columbus was looking for gold and capturing slaves on the behalf of his patron country, Spain. Columbus exaggerated to Spain the wealth of the land, telling them that there was an abundance of gold when all he really had to show were a few thousand slaves that very quickly fell sick and died. Not even capturing and forcing the indians to collect gold could bring forth the wealth of gold Columbus dreamed of.