Summary: America Before Columbus

Samuel Eliot Morison- A Harvard historian, most distinguished writer on Columbus, the author of a multivolume biography Christopher Columbus, Mariner, and was himself a sailor, retraced Columbus 's route across the Atlantic and tells about the enslavement and the mass genocide of the natives

This week for our essay we had to watch a video titled America before Columbus. I enjoyed this video as it concentrated on the food aspect of the particular time from and before 1491. The introduction itself made it clear that the search for a short cut to India and the accidental 'run in' with the Americas was spearheaded and funded by the Queen of Spain. I believe this is an important fact to remember and to note that Columbus was not simply conquering inhabited lands willy-nilly but rather followed orders and working for the Queen of Spain. The area of the America's that Columbus landed on, and all of the America's, was inhabited by Natives that had infrastructures. In the North America's there was an entire civilization that stretched the

Furthermore, Columbus began enslaving the natives for more reasons than free labor. He needed something profitable to show the King and Queen of Spain, and Columbus decided that Europe could use slaves too. Columbus was planning a return trip home to Spain. His idea was to bring some Arawaks with him and show them to the King and Queen of Spain. Queen Isabella would see how valuable a slave market could be, and she would give Columbus more money and the title that he was promised. Ever since day one, Columbus made his thoughts and intentions extremely well-known through the bindings of his journal. In one excerpt from his journal, Columbus wrote, “They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want” (Columbus qtd. in Zinn 1). Christopher Columbus did not think about how his actions would impact others. Columbus thought about what would turn a profit for himself. Columbus packed up and left for his voyage back to Spain with Arawak peoples on board his ships. Unfortunately, many Arawaks did not make it to Spain because they died on the voyage. Still desperate for

Zinn argues that the perspective of indigenous people should not be omitted and argues that their perspectives are as significant as any other. He provides insight and perspectives of the Indians to describe how the heinous acts of the Europeans were unjustified. He also discusses that the Europeans had a continual motive of exploring during that time which was to increase the power/authority of the Spanish Crown by whatever means necessary, usually leading to violent wars.

In the article Hello Columbus: America was No Paradise in 1492, by Robert Royal, Royal argued that Native Americans, along with Columbus, are portrayed wrongly in society today, from schools to media.

Christopher Columbus account on the meeting of the Arawak for the first time consists of many tragic events in history. However, there are two different points of view that should be considered upon the opinion of Christopher himself, and Bartolome de Las Casas. Comparing and contrasting the two documents one can truly see that the truth would always come to light. In Christopher Columbus voyage, he had mentioned that the Native Americans were nothing more than loving as they were willing to give as much as they could without any resentment. As they were always lavish with everything in their possession. In the second passage, Bartolome de Las Casas has also indicated that the Indians were rational and wise individuals. They never had any desire or feeling of hate toward another

• had a formal language to write, a type of counting system, an correct calendar, and a agri system that was ahead of the time

It is disheartening that the Arawak tribe which received Columbus and his crew with open hearts could be subjugated to mere slaves. Also evident in his writing, “the Indians are so naïve…” This further exposed who he really was, a tyrant who capitalized on the warmth and affection shown upon his arrival for monetary want.

Despite popular belief, the contact between Native Americans and Europeans did not just pertain to a casual encounter of the two groups but a more in depth experience. James Axtell in chapter 4 of his book titled Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America states that the purpose of his essay was to reveal the numerous ways Natives reacted and responded to the newcomers of Europe of the Columbus era. The reactions of the Natives consist of inviting the Europeans in to their lives and customs, learning the ways of the settlers, war and conflict towards them, beating them at their own game and purely avoiding them as a whole.

In the text Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years by Bigelow and Pearson the authors of the book try to offer an alternative narrative of the story of Columbus. Many schools describe Columbus’s story as the “Discovery of America” and that this critical work make a profound impact in schools. The authors mention how in typical children’s book on Columbus see: Christopher talk, grow up, have ideas, feelings, see Chris plant the flag, but in the books native peoples of the Caribbean, the “discovered,” are portrayed without thoughts or feelings. I feel that this book fits in with a couple of our 5 dimensions that Banks brings up and that we discussed in class according to the books introduction of the text. This text shows why we must implement these Dimensions into our classroom. Using the first topic I discussed about how our text and schools discuss Columbus and the “Discover of America”, the book goes on to explain that their goal “is not to idealize native people, demonize Europeans, or present a depressing litany of victimization, but to encourage deeper thinking and understanding of the European Invasion’s consequences, to honor the rich legacy of resistance to the injustices it created, to convey some appreciation for the diverse indigenous cultures of the hemisphere, and to reflect on what this all means for us today.

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.

In the book 1491 “New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus” by American author and science writer Charles C. Mann about the pre-Columbian Americas. Consists of a groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. The book presents recent research findings in different fields that suggest human populations in the Western Hemisphere were more numerous, had arrived earlier, were more sophisticated culturally, and controlled and shaped the natural landscape to a greater extent than scholars had previously thought. The book itself is a very readable account of the history of the American people before the lands were 'discovered' by Europeans in 1492 and gives a lot to think about as you are reading it. In the book Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came up with new unheard set of conclusions never heard before. The book does a great job explaining everything with great details but it also raises many questions.

The Cahokia was one group of Native Americans greatly affected by the Europeans expansion. I have personally never heard of the Cahokia before. Something that was quite surprising was the fact that the Cahokia were actually very advanced in agriculture and technology.

I had never heard of the ancient Cahokia before reading the “America Before Columbus” article. What I found most surprising is that the Cahokia had been a civilization in America that flourished and perished before Columbus even discovered the New World. Europeans had the misconception that the land discovered by Columbus was not settled and that no civilizations had existed before Columbus arrived. They believed the only inhabitants were tribes that continually wandered and made no attempt to stay in one place, farm, or build communities. The European believes were not accurate considering the Cahokia had built ceremonial grounds, cultivated and farmed crops, and used wood from forests to make stockade walls.

In modern America, we often take for granted the natural world that surrounds us and the American culture which is built upon it. For many of us, we give little thought to the food sources that sustain and natural habitats that surround us because when viewed for what they are, most people assume that they have “simply existed” since the country was founded. However, the documentary ‘America Before Columbus’ provided this writer an extremely interesting record of how the America we know came to exist. In the documentary, one of the most interesting discussions centered on the fact that it was not merely the arrival of conquistadors and colonists that irrevocably changed the landscape of the Americas, but that it was also the coined term known as the “Columbian Exchange” that afforded these travelers the ability to proliferate so successfully. The basic definition of the Columbian exchange is one that defines the importation of European flora and fauna. It could also loosely represent other imports, both intended and unintended, such as tools, implements, and even disease. Armed with this definition, it takes little imagination to envision how differently the Americas might have developed had any significant amount of the native European flora, fauna, or other unintended import not been conveyed to the Americas through the Columbian Exchange. Beyond the arrival of explorers, settlers, and colonists to the New World, the breadth of what the Columbian Exchange represented to