My impression, before reading these two pieces, of Columbus was very good and I admired his feats. Now I see that he was cruel and ignoble in his dealing with the native people of the “New World”. Throughout the Journal he speaks of ways to trick the N…
Posted in Blogs, Week 2 | Tagged with Meeting of Two Worlds
My impression, before reading these two pieces, of Columbus was very good and I admired his feats. Now I see that he was cruel and ignoble in his dealing with the native people of the “New World”. Throughout the Journal he speaks of ways to trick the Natives in order to be welcomed in the Future in order to gain from their fortunes.
One of the things that stood out from his Journal is how he could not properly describe the beauty of this world that he found and he tries to explain that he never will be able to explain it with words and that it can only be understood if seen by eye. Also, the fact that he kept on lying to his crew at the beginning of his journal was a bit bizarre. Was he trying to trick them to think that they haven’t traveled far? This might make sense in the view that it will stop his crew from giving up and reaching a conclusion that they will never reach their destination of Asia.
Throughout the Journal you can also sense the tone of superiority Columbus felt he had over these Native people. He seemed to think they were weak and pushovers compared to a Spaniard. He also seemed to be quite confident that converting everyone into Christianity was a simple task and that the Native People did not have a good. He also was confident that the native people saw him and his men as descendants from heaven. For one, the communication between the two parties were limited to hand gestures and I think that this was more of misinterpretation of his liking.
The second reading noted the cruelty of conquistadors and Christianity. All this greed led to the murder of many innocent Indians in order to gain from their fortunes! I might say that 1842 was the brought the beginning of Latin America but it also brought the destruction of all religions and cultures in these regions.
Posted in Blogs, Week 2 | Tagged with Meeting of Two Worlds