Walter Mignolo explored the ways America had emerged as the forth continental division in the European understanding of the world. Mignolo did this through: examining the continental triad of Christian cosmology, explaining how the mercantile economy was transformed into a capitalist because of the “discovery” of America, and explaining the consequences of the West becoming the place from where categories of dominant knowledge and classifications of the rest of the world were created. Those three topics defined how America was invented rather than discovered.
Mignolo explained how America was incorporated into the continental triad cosmology created by the Christians. America was incorporated as a forth arm because the world was originally divided into three continents; Asia, Africa, and Europe (Mignolo, 2002, p. 23). The original map was called the “T-in-O” map compiled in the early seventh century (Mignolo, 2002, p. 24). America was not included in this map because the existence was still not heard of. This “T-in-O” map was created by Western Christians. The Western Christians drew their map as a circle and decided to divide the world in three parts. Only two parts of the circle were drawn equally. Asia covered the top half on the circle, which created a semi-circle. Europe then consisted of the bottom left quadrant in the circle, and then followed by Africa at the bottom right quadrant.
Mignolo (2002) found that these sections were then given bible names. The biblical names were the three sons of Noah—Shem, Japheth, and Ham (p. 27). It was strange how perfect those names connected to the descriptions of these countries. Little was known about the three countries at the time, but they were given names that matched their...
... middle of paper ...
...ncorrectly because they are ‘wrong’ (Mignolo, 2002, p. 36) since they are not like the US and Europe. The dominance of the West has caused another market to become in a sense imperial to others.
Through all these changes America was able to emerge as their own. America now has been divided into many countries, but two continents (North and South America). The Americas have been divided culturally too (Anglo-Saxon America and Latin America). These formations of continents can be seen through the Christian cosmology. Then the “discovery” of America caused many things to change; such as the map and the transformation of the global economy. Finally the consequences of the West holding so much power created change in the rest of the world to occur.
Works Cited
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
This paper will be exploring the book The Vanguard of the Atlantic World by James Sanders. This book focuses upon the early 1800 to the 1900 and explores the development of South American political system as well expresses some issues that some Latino counties had with Europe and North America. Thus, Sanders focus is on how Latin America political system changes throughout this certain time and how does the surrounding countries have an effect as well on Latin political system. Therefore, the previous statement leads into some insight on what the thesis of the book is. Sanders thesis is, “Latin American’s believed they represented the future because they had adopted Republicanism and democracy while Europe was in the past dealing with monarchs
In “Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776”, Jon Butler argues that there was massive economic and a political transformation occurred in the era of 1680 and 1770 which had been less examined to the American colonial history. In this book, Butler makes a strong argument for the early modernism of American society which helps to define the growth of American identity. The transformation improved the American socioeconomic character and demonstrated itself almost in every aspect of colonial life. I totally agree with the Jon Butler’s argument that the victories and defeats of the revolutionary war would not define America; it was the middle years of the colonial period that would. And his arguments in this book also challenge the existing history. Butler supports his argument from his own note which he collected from by researching huge amount of specialized history books.
During colonial times, European nations quickly colonized the New World years after Columbus’ so called discovery. England in particular sent out a number of groups to the east coast of the New World to two regions. These areas were the New England and the Chesapeake regions. Later in the late 1700s, these two regions would go though many conflicts to come together as one nation. Yet, way before that would occur; these two areas developed into two distinct societies. These differences affected the colonies socially, economically, and politically.
Benitez, Gerardo, Latin American Perspectives: The Maquiladora Program Its Challenges Ahead, THE WHARTON JOURNAL, December 11, 1995.
America grew into an independent government, discarding many ideals present in that of England. But was the Doctrine of Discovery ...
Burns, E. B., & Charlip, J. A. (2007). Latin America: an interpretive history (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
It should be said that Christopher Columbus was responsible for the discovery of what he thought the new lands could provide rather than the discovery of the ‘New World’. Since most of his ventures landed him and his followers to lands that were inhabited by people, who were favorable to trade, where culture, politics, and religion had been established, his discoveries were really a way of supporting his model for self-good. I will analyze the paper by Beatriz Bodmer “Christopher Columbus and the Definition of America as Booty”, to argue that despite Columbus’s quest for discovery, he did so with preconceived ideas that he would use to his benefit of convincing others of what he discovered and how these discoveries would benefit him.
Throughout all of our years that we are taught about world history, we are led to believe that Columbus was one of the greatest explorers of all time. In my mind there is no question about whether Christopher Columbus discovered America; of course he did, its Columbus! However, this is a highly debated issue and through writings by authors Jeffery Hart and James W. Loewen we will investigate the true importance of Columbus.
The religious significance of the Crusades, the humanism of the Renaissance, and the economic benefits of absolutism and the Commercial Revolution all came together to refine exploration. European influence played a large role in American history, and shaped the direction of American society today.
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Translated by Cedric Belfrage. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997.
Mignolo, W. D. (2005). The Idea of Latin America (pp. 1-94). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Burns, Bradford E. Latin America: A Concise Interpretive History. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2002.
the discovery of the new lands which later became known to be America. In his First
Have you ever wondered where the name America came from? Or maybe how the people got here? The answer is Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo Vespucci is a famous Italian explorer born around 1451. His exact birth year isn’t known for sure. He was born in Florence, Italy. Before he went on his world changing adventure of finding the Americas, he was a regular boy. In his youth, Vespucci spent a lot of time studying navigation and maps. When he was a teenager, he worked in the “banking firm of Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de’ Medici.” (worldbook online.) In 1491, Vespucci moved to Seville, Spain. When he moved there, he got connected to a company that worked on equipping ships for long trips.
With the conquest and colonization of the Americas and the European expansion, it created a model that extended to Africa and beyond.