To Europeans, the New World was either thought of as a kind of paradise or a place that was unfit to live and where horrible things took place. Two ways the New World was described was that it was comparable to “the Biblical Garden of Eden” and, in a more negative description, the New World was thought to be a “dangerous and forbidden wilderness” that contained “cannibalism and human misery”. During this time, there were hardly any forms of communication, and the ones in place were sometimes unreliable. People relied on letters and the words of others for news of what was going on in the outside world. Therefore, many people did not know what was in the New World except for what was heard from others. Without actual knowledge of what was going …show more content…
New, more accurate maps were made to let explorers more easily make journeys, tools such as the astrolabe and quadrant were refined to help improve marking exact locations, and sailors learned winds and currents allowing easier sailing with less navigation problems. Christopher Columbus, born in 1451, was pushed into trade by his father, an Italian wool weaver. Columbus wanted to find a way to the Far East and at age 41 he made his first trip of discovery. When he arrived in the new world, Columbus saw the native people as an opportunity for a labor force to extract the riches from the new land. In his journal, Columbus explains, “…for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them....” When explorers first met the native people of the lands they thought the natives to be easy to control. Columbus also states in another journal entry, “So that they are good to be ordered about, to work and sow, and do all that may be necessary, and to build towns, and they should be taught to go about clothed and to adopt our customs.” When Columbus arrived, he took over the Native American’s land and tried to force them to follow the customs of the
When the Europeans traveled to the New World, they expected the wilderness to resemble the Garden of Eden. The reality was a rude awakening. They found the vast lands of the new world to be full of uncultivated
Christopher Columbus was a European explorer who a more fitting title would be a conqueror. He didn't discover anything as the common believe would say, rather he conquered already inhabited land. Christopher Columbus "exploration" had a bunch of direct and indirect effects. The exploration sponsored by the King and Queen of Spain had direct effects such as giving Spain control over new land and giving Christopher Columbus the fame he so desired, furthermore the so-called exploration also had some indirect effects such as allowing other nations to sail West and it also affected the Natives and increased the slave trade.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory voyage from King John II of Portugal, but he was refused. In 1485, Columbus took his son Diego and went to Spain to get some help.
To understand the prompt first you have to understand Cristoforo Colombo, known today as Christopher Columbus. You have to to understand the decisions and steps he took also why Spain chose him to represent them and the voyages he led.
Before Columbus and the Europeans, there was a time where there were many struggles and many ideas not even thought yet. All of this changed when the ancient civilizations started to live in the Americas. This was a time when ancient civilizations expanded brought the Americas and had a unique way of living. The ancient civilizations in the Americans and in Europe were different from cultures, adaptations, and foods.
In this chapter Howard Zinn gives countless events on the different encounters from Columbus to Corte’s, Pizarro and the Puritans against the Indians such as the Arawaks, Aztecs, Powhatans and the Pequots. Zinn goes into great details on the horrific attacks and raids by Columbus and his crew sailing from island to island in the Caribbean taking the Indians captive in search for land, gold and slaves. Some of the Indians fled when they heard what Columbus and his men were doing. But when they were caught they were hunted down with dogs, burned to death or they were hung and killed. Because of the inhumane treatment some of the Arawaks began a mass suicide with cassava poison they also killed their infants just to keep them from the hands of the Spaniards. This chapter gives historical events due to the raids by Columbus that in a two year span about half of the 250,000 Indians in Haiti were dead because they were murdered, mutilated or committed suicide. The Indians were demoralized and treated so crudely over the claim to their land and the search for gold. When there was no gold...
They say things like they didn’t get enough things done. But they got a ton of things done. If they didn’t move to the new world then they would have never got the new ships and go out and discover the new land. That was a big part for Columbus when he moved out to the new world. Also they got a ton of things that they needed. They gathered and searched for quite a long time and when they did find them the Asians didn’t ask for anything in return. That helped them do so many things that I can’t even name all of them. When the king and queen made the decision to send Christopher Columbus and a crew to try and discover some place that they could conquer they made a great gamble. If you look at the overall point of view and the things that went good for Columbus it would greatly outnumber the things that Columbus didn’t do good or didn’t like. Lastly when Columbus found this land he looked around and discovered things about the new land he didn’t just see a big piece of land and say okay we are going to conquer this. That was also helpful because when the king and queen came over to the new world Columbus had the idea on what he wanted to do with this
First, Christopher Columbus took control over the natives in the New World. Columbus came to the New World and saw the people there more as rather than people, and made them do whatever he wanted. In a sense, Christopher Columbus took the natives as slaves. Columbus forced the natives to work for him and sometimes risk their lives doing so. Some he took and made them hunt for gold for him to take back to Spain. Some natives would also have to fight for Spain in battles that killed many. Others were left to work in the poor conditions of mines or do odd jobs like carrying Spaniards. All that Columbus made the natives do ended with them being injured, sick or dead. The population of natives in North America dropped from three to eight million natives to around six hundred thousand.
For one thing, Columbus was pretty set on claiming land and bringing gold back to Spain. He was greedy, careless, and took no time to get to know the natives. For example, from document B, Columbus writes, “I was attentive, and took trouble to ascertain if there was gold”. This shows, that his first instinct was to find items of value. Instead of getting to know the natives, their language, their way of life, etc… he took it upon himself to look for
Some explorers were not looking for land to claim, but faster routes. Columbus went exploring trying to find a faster way to Asia/India for spice trading. The reason for this was because his country was receiving Asian Spices from Muslims(Document 3). In order to get the spices from the Muslims, high prices had to be paid since it was exchanged from person to person. Columbus went sailing and found an area that had inhabitants who looked like people he has never seen before which he assumed were Indians. Columbus saw they had foods he never had before and he started trading with them. He brought over foods such as the Irish Potato, Florida Oranges, Colombian Coffee, and French Vanilla Ice cream, for trading purposes(Document 6). All of those
I believe Christopher Columbus was not not a terrific sailor and explore. He explored but he didn't really know what he was exploring. He thought he was in India but he was really in the Dominican Republic.
Through her he gained access to the work of the georgical Toscana who believed in fact the Atlantic is the quick way to China.” (Beal). He fetched his believes to many of the richest and powerful people of the land. Most question this strange man who is challenging everything geographical knew. Giving this questionable sane man ships for a chance to explore would cost a fortune and it was a gamble one wasn’t willing to take. He was in Spain for over a year before he was heard by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1486 (History). Queen Isabella was found of his personality and knowledge of great travels. He promised to convert other lands to Christians and many valuable riches to his queen and there country if in return they granted him three ships and 10% of the income. His salesman like brashness earned his place in court. “August 3, 1492 Christopher Columbus and 90 men on three 80 foot ships: Santa Marie Pinta, and Nina, set sail the Spanish port Polos to begin his expedition west through the sea of unknown darkness and violence. (Mann
Columbus started his life in Genoa Italy 1451, with his dad Domenico Colombo being a middle class wool weaver , and his mum was Susanna Fontanarossa. He grew up in a Christian household, but it was thought that he may have converted to Jewish later in life. As well, it was thought that he definitely thought he was well educated and knew several languages as an adult and had a good amount of knowledge about classical literature. Continuing on, his career as a seaman began in the Portuguese merchant marine and was on his first voyage when he was just 14. While working there in 1470, he went on trading trips to the Aegean Sea, northern Europe and even possibly Iceland. Plus, already he had survived his first shipwreck of the cape of St Vincent (in southwest Portugal). Nine years later, he met Felipa perestrello e moniz had had a son one year later, who would become the leader of Hispanola, in Haiti. After that he was trading along gold coasts in west Africa, but sadly Felipa died in 1485. Following the death of Felipa, he then moved to spain and immediately embarked on his journey to explore a way to move west to get to the gold and treasures lying in the east. He was first turned down by king john ii, but only in 1492 did he finally get support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The deciding factor for this, was Juan Perez of La Rabida, since he had been the queens confessor and helped entice the audience Columbus needed . The lust for ...