Columbus in History Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Columbus in History - Research Paper Example The paper tells that the first contact that Columbus had with the Arawak’s was when he first landed at their beach on that Friday morning. He with his men observed that the ‘natives’, as he had yet to establish their cultural affiliation were, were Godless and very friendly people. From Columbus’ perspective, he was more intent on discovering new territories and gold for his king. He constantly talks of how he sights ‘new lands’ and keeps his thoughts on exploring these lands for purposes of conquering them for his kings occupation and his interest in these people is geared towards actualising this mission. He states that: â€Å"When we stepped ashore we saw fine green trees, streams everywhere and different kinds of fruit. I called to the two captains to jump ashore with the rest, who included Rodrigo de Escobedo, secretary of the fleet, and Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia, asking them to bear solemn witness that in the presence of them all I was taking possession of this island for their Lord and Lady the King and Queen, and I made the necessary declarations which are set down at greater length in the written testimonies†. He observed that they were poor people in all respects based on their appearance and wore no form of clothing. Columbus being a Christian was quick to observe that these people could be easily converted to Christianity as they seemed bright and intelligent. He formed a bias against them based on the misconception that they thought he and his men were from ‘heaven’ and due to their obvious rudimentary social organisation and technological endowment; he thought he was better than them. He alludes to this by recording in his log that they would make good servants. 2 Explain why contact with Columbus is often cited as the beginning of history in the "New World" despite evidence of contact with other peoples and cultures in periods that predated Columbus. Columbus’ contact with the ne w world is often described as the beginning of the history of the new world because he was the first European documented explorer to set foot on the new world. His was a sanctioned exploration and he managed to keep records of the entire expedition through his log. Ideally, he is not the first ‘outsider’ to interact with the new world because recent anthropological and archaeological discoveries have unearthed the fact that there were human interactions with the new world from outsiders earlier than Columbus’ expedition. Traces of the great Vikings have been in areas of the new world that indicate they might have come here earlier than Columbus did. The only difference with Columbus is that he provided a detailed log and took back samples from the new world that spurred the interests of other explorers and this might even be said sparked off the scramble for the new world in a way. 3 Please explain how the histories and lives of very different indigenous communit ies are often subsumed by their identities as "Indians?" Please include a discussion of what is not included and if the differences between indigenous peoples are overshadowed by the historic "Indian" identity. When Columbus set out to discover a better route to the East Indies, he completely missed the mark and landed on another part of the world that was new to him. However he believed that he probably had landed in another part of the East Indies and he thus named all these people he found there as Indians. Due to the nature of his expedition he could not spend enough time with these indigenous people to distinguish who was who and what was the relation between these people and most importantly whether there were any significant differences between these people to warrant their classification as different peoples. It is only much later that missionaries and dedicated anthropologists