Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) is often regarded as the European who discovered North America, though this is misleading. Columbus actually never set foot on the North American continent in his four voyages to The New World, nor was he the first European to explore the Western Hemisphere, as we’ve seen in The Vinland Sagas. In reality, Columbus’s explorations were restricted to the Caribbean, specifically the modern islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti, as well as southern Mexico.
In recent decades, a closer examination of his journals reveal Columbus’s motives and actions toward the natives he encounters to be less than desirable, and he has been recast as a somewhat villainous figure by some modern historians.
Attached, you will find various excerpts from journals he kept during his first voyage to the West in 1492. Once you read them, consider the following questions:
– How does Columbus perceive the natives he encounters in the first paragraph? What claim does he make concerning their disposition?
– Why do you think Columbus chooses to bring back seven natives to Spain with him?
– Consider the final lines of the passage. Do you think Columbus would have believed the natives’ claims concerning cannibals & enemies? Why or why not?
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) is often regarded as the European who discovere
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