Assignment 2
Growing up, I was taught in elementary school that Christopher Columbus was a great and noble explorer who was the first to discover the Americas. Latter on in middle school, I was taught that he was the second to reach the Americas after the Vikings; however, he was still a noble pioneer who set sail for India for goods. My whole conception of who Columbus and his crew was altered after reading this chapter. Not only was he and his crew inhuman to the Native Americans, but he was also far from the first to reach the new world. There were dozens of groups of people to come to the Americas before him including Afro – Phoenicians and the Chinese; yet we still celebrate his voyage. We do this because we were taught at a young age that Columbus was a great man who worked hard to accomplish his goals, and it is hard to refute what we were taught when we were so young. Even though people were already here, Columbus “discovered” it for the Old World.
From the two readings, I found a number of things interesting. Firstly, I thought it was odd that in Columbus’ time 2% of the population in Spain owned about 95% of the land. This suggests that Spain had a large problem with…show more content… Firstly, I found it interesting that Squanto was taken prisoner as a boy and taken to the new world, then after he returned he found out he was the last of his tribe. I also though tit was interesting that the new world lacked many types of cattle that are common today such as pigs, chickens, and cows. I found it disturbing that the pilgrims robbed the graves of the Natives. I also though it was strange that King James was thankful for the plague, since it killed many of the Natives. Lastly, I thought it was interesting how some of the disease of the were taken from the eastern to the western hemisphere, and since the natives weren’t used to those diseases, many of them