CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.   Term Paper ID:29969 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Argues that Columbus did not "discover" America since it was already inhabited by non-European human beings.... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words 5 sources, 9 Citations, MLA Format $28.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Argues tht Columus did not "discover" America since it was already inhabited by non-European human beings. Discusses Columbus' achievement as the first European to sail the Atlantic & bring European culture, religion & values to the land he discovered. His passion for discovery. His point of view that he and his men owned all they "discovered," & the existing inhabitants having no value as human beings. Contends that Columbus' discovery of America was a major element in the mythical, not actual, past of the nation. Paper Introduction: This study will argue that Christopher Columbus did not "discover" America, and that only by twisting reality can it be said that he or any European "discovered" a land which was already inhabited by other human beings. The basis of this twisting of reality is that the inhabitants of the "New World" were less than human beings, and therefore it cannot be said that the land was inhabited at all, but was instead populated by semi-humans, by near-animals, by non-Christian savages with no civilized qualities. In reality, however, the "Indians" Columbus "discovered" were indeed human beings with a subtle civilization and a fully developed religious belief system. Therefore, Columbus did not "discover America" because it had already been discovered and populated by human beings long before his arrival. He and his fellow arrogant and ethnocentric Europeans imagined Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The Amerindians [were] creatures fit for captivity and serfdom . It can be arguedfrom that perspective that he was a brave leader and hero who broughtEuropean culture, civilization, religion and values to the land hediscovered. "Columbus and the Indians." The Curriculum, Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. . . . . History is "the propaganda of thewinners" (Bigelow 256). for the Europeans' profit (Jara and Spadaccini 11-12). . Whether or not Leif Erikson or some other explorer firstlanded in the "New World," Columbus (or Erikson) did not "discoverAmerica." To claim that the Europeans "discovered" such a land is clearlypreposterous and denies the reality of the circumstances of the time.Columbus did finally find land which was populated by people whom theynamed Indians because they believed the land was India. And others: he invaded it; he conquered it. This study will argue that Christopher Columbus did not "discover"America, and that only by twisting reality can it be said that he or anyEuropean "discovered" a land which was already inhabited by other humanbeings. . Their beautiful nakedness unleashed in his mind a chain of configurations: technological backwardness, hence docility; absence of weapons, hence no defence; lack of religion, hence suspicion of bestiality. . Columbus himself wrote that "All the inhabitants couldbe taken away to [Spain], or made slaves on the island. In any case,that is the essence of the argument that Columbus "discovered America"--namely, that the inhabitants were not truly human beings, and thereforeColumbus and his men were the first such human beings to set foot on theland, and therefore they discovered it. . The question of whether Columbus "discovered America" is thequestion of the meaning of history itself, insofar as history is the recordof human action and experience as individuals and groups. Amerindian Images and the Legacyof Columbus. Davidson and Henry Noble Sherwood argue in separatearticles that Columbus was indeed a great man who discovered America.Davidson calls Columbus "The Great Navigator" and says that in Columbus"passion for discovery rose to the dignity of an inspiration" (Davidson248). Perhaps the central axis . Sherwood writes that Columbus and his men found "naked savages" inthe new land and that Columbus treated them well (Sherwood 253). . [I]n his quest for gold Columbus had the hands cut off any Indian who did not return with his or her quota. History, and the language of history, arewritten by the conquerors, not the conquered, buy the "discoverers" and notthe "discovered." A history textbook written by an "Indian" who wasenslaved by Columbus or had his hands cut off would tell a very differentstory than Columbus and his men told. He and his men gavethe "Indians" "little trinkets and returned to Spain with a few of theIndians to show King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella" (Bigelow 254). William M. Columbus challenged him to his claim to having been the first, asserting that he had anticipated him by several hours in seeing signs of land. . They believed that they were superior to the "Indians," that theirreligion was superior, that their civilization was superior, and so theyhad the God-given right to do whatever they wanted with the people, withthe land, and with the resources. . [O]n one island alone, Hispaniola, an entire race of people was wiped off the face of the earth in a mere forty years of Spanish administration (Bigelow 255). Works CitedBigelow, Bill. Clearly, from the perspective of a European who sees power as a majorcomponent of civilization, a people which can be so easily conquered is notcivilized and is therefore not worthy of being considered truly human. "Columbus and the Discovery of America." The Curriculum, Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. Columbus did complete a remarkable achievement insailing across the Atlantic Ocean in the late 15th Century. was a favorite discursive strategy. . Therefore, Columbus did not "discover America"because it had already been discovered and populated by human beings longbefore his arrival. In reality, however, the "Indians" Columbus "discovered" wereindeed human beings with a subtle civilization and a fully developedreligious belief system. New York: HarperCollins, N.D., 252- 53.----------------------- 1 . Columbus took the point of view that he and his men owned all they"discovered" in the name of Spain and Europe and Christianity. . With fifty men wecould subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want" (Bigelow 256). "Columbus in the Classroom." The Curriculum, Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rosen. If the "discovery" of a land is assigned to the one who actually seesthat land first, Columbus again cannot be said to have "discovered" thatland. Those who wrote and continue to write that Columbus "discoveredAmerica" were and are Europeans or descendants of Europeans, and certainlynot the natives or descendants of the natives who were thus "discovered,'not to mention exploited, enslaved and slaughtered by those "morecivilized" Christian Europeans. Accordingly, whether the Europeans brutalized the natives of the"New World" or treated them well though condescendingly, in their own mindsand to one another the Europeans in general sought to portray the nativesas less than human. One would think that the leading the ships which"discovered" the "New World" would be enough for Columbus and that he wouldgrant to Rodrigo the honors of sighting land, but that was not the case: Rodrigo de Triana never got a single maravedi for his discovery. The more one sees the natives as animals, as savages with no conceptof God, the more one can argue that Columbus discovered the land on whichthey live. is that of savagery versus nobility. Can it be said, from the same viewpoint, thatanimals in Africa "discovered" the land on which they live? The students quickly pointedout how wrong he was to make such a claim, but they did not immediatelyconsider that Columbus had done the same thing with an entire country andits people and resources: We talk about phrases other than "discovery" that textbooks could use to describe what Columbus did. . . . New York: HarperCollins, N.D., 248-252.Granzotto, Gianni. All ofthese facts are true, but none of them support the argument that Columbus"discovered America." For those who might argue that Columbus' civilizing influence inAmerica is evidence that he and his fellow Europeans did "discover" a landpopulated by beings who were in great need of such civilizing, Bigelowwrites, . . Again, the only way that Columbus can be said to have "discoveredAmerica" is if one accepts the ethnocentric European claim that theinhabitants of the land were not human (or at least not fully human), thatthey were beasts (or not much better than beasts), and that thereforeColumbus and his fellow Europeans were the first truly human beings to haveset foot there. . Jara and Spadaccini write, The projection onto Amerindian reality of the images that the Europeans had . Such a claim is truly preposterous. The historical record inthe United States of America, or the bulk of it, reads that Columbus didindeed "discover America." Such a claim is a major element of not theactual past of the nation, but rather its mythical past, a past connectednot to the people who lived on the land when Columbus came, but to thepeople whom Columbus left behind in Europe, people who would soon followhim to the "New World" to "develop" and "civilize" and "Christianize" theland and its people just as Columbus had earlier "discovered" it and them. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1992.Sherwood, Henry Noble. No Europeanbefore him did what he did in leading that voyage and finding land as hedid, although it was not the land he believed it to be. Whether or not the natives were as advanced in terms of religion,culture and civilization, they most certainly were fully human and hadevolved a way of life which had brought together a spirituality, a worldview, a culture, and especially a healthy relationship with the land andits ecology. It was a rather cruel abuse of power on Columbus' part, since the sovereigns naturally believed Columbus' version, and the [reward of] ten thousand maravedis per year went to him. The more that dehumanization process canbe carried out, the more easily Columbus and his fellow Europeans anddescendants can argue that there were no truly human beings when Columbusarrived and therefore it has to be said that he did indeed "discover" thatland. . The reader ofhistory, in this respect, must be active and not passive in determining thehonesty, accuracy and truthfulness of the record. [Columbus'] first presupposition was the inferiority of the natives. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,1985.Jara, Rene, and Nicholas Spadaccini. He and his fellow arrogant and ethnocentric Europeansimagined that he had "discovered" the "New World" so that they couldexploit it and its inhabitants in every imaginable way for their ownselfish and inhumane ends. It is crucial to the argument that Columbus "discovered America" thatthe context be established first in which the beings which inhabited thatland are thoroughly dehumanized. Bigelow (a high school teacher) used a demonstration to demonstratehow absurd is the argument that Columbus "discovered America." He stole astudent's purse and claimed it for his own. . In recent years there have been a number of books which havequestioned the traditional view of Columbus as a wonderful hero from Europewho discovered America and began to civilize it in the name of Christianityand progress. Columbus and his fellow Europeans "discovered" the land and acted asif they owned what they discovered and could do whatever they wanted to dowith it. New York: HarperCollins,N.D., 254-263.Davidson, William M. Students start with the phrases they used to describe what I did to [the girl's] purse: he stole it; he took it; he ripped it off. The argument that Columbus did indeed "discover America" is weak butcan be made, if one considers the issue from the ethnocentric perspectiveof a Christian European. eds. Christopher Columbus. . [In Columbus' view] only he, commander and leader of the entire venture, should be considered the discoverer of the land they had reached (Granzotto 139). Columbus' self-centeredness is reflected in the smallest details ofhis "discovery." For example, Gianni Granzotto writes that a sailor namedRodrigo de Triana was the man who first sighted land on the first ofColumbus' voyages. Fromthat ethnocentric European perspective, then, the question is how can thosecreatures be said to own the land, any more than animals can be said to ownthe land on which they live. I want students to see that the word "discovery" is loaded (Bigelow 255). Columbus took hundreds of Indians slaves and sent them back to Spain, where most of them were sold and subsequently died. The basis of this twisting of reality is that the inhabitants ofthe "New World" were less than human beings, and therefore it cannot besaid that the land was inhabited at all, but was instead populated by semi-humans, by near-animals, by non-Christian savages with no civilizedqualities. He and hismen did not want to learn about or value anything having to do with thepeople in the land, but instead thought only about how they could conquerthem and use them. . If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

Many of our Papers can be Downloaded From This Site!

PLEASE READ THIS, IT IS IMPORTANT!

Office hours are Monday through Friday, from 9 am to 5 pm (PST). You may place orders for custom research over the phone during office hours. E-mail requests can be made to our graduate and undergraduate department any time, and will be reviewed during office hours. You may also contact customer service any time through e-mail, and we will review your message during business hours. A great many papers can be downloaded right from this site, but not all of them. If you would like to know if a particular paper is downloadable, just look in the description for: "Available for Internet Download: Y" or "Available for Internet Download: N" If you wish to purchase a paper which is NOT available for immediate download, you will need to make other shipping arrangements. Also, please be aware that these orders are processed Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm (PST). If you place your order after 4:45pm on Friday, it will not be processed until the following Monday morning. We charge $8 per page for all of our pre-written reports, plus shipping (and tax for California residents). However, the highest cost of any ONE report is $136, or 17 pages. Please, take a moment. Make sure you have chosen the report you want or need BEFORE you complete your order. If you are not sure, allow us to help you. We do not offer refunds or exchanges, so it is important for you to let us answer your questions during office hours. Reports which are e-mailed or downloaded are in Microsoft Word format. We are making more reports available for e-mail delivery faster than we can update our listings. Please call to check on the status of particular reports. There are many other shipping options which are listed on the Checkout page.