Monday, May 12, 2008

I personally can't imagine travelling any distance beyond a short cruise on a ship like the Santa Maria, pictured at left. I can imagine even less a world in which there were no tomatoes, potatoes, chocolate, turkeys, or any of a million other things we take for granted today, which was the case in Europe prior to 1492. The encounter between Europe and the Western Hemisphere led to a mingling of organisms, particularly microorganisms, with devastating effects to the native American population, which had no resistance to European diseases. People often mistakenly believe that the native American population was destroyed through the superior weapons of the conquistadors, but the truth is that the vast majority lost their lives to diseases. There were New World diseases that the Europeans brought home with them as well, most notably syphilis, which the French dubbed the Neapolitan Disease, while the Italians called it the French Disease. War gives people such opportunities for cultural exchange.

First-time European visitors to the Americas had no idea what they were seeing; they first of all thought they'd reached the eastern trading partners in China, but of course were nowhere close. The nakedness of the native Americans suggested to some that these strange beings were humans in a prelapsarian state, before the eating of the apple in the garden which had allowed Adam and Eve to notice that they were naked and to feel shame. More negative valuations were that these people were savages, unlike their civilized European counterparts. They were certainly not Christians. Some people wanted to make slaves of them immediately, and treated them with extreme harshness. Others, like Bartolome de las Casas, attested to the natives' innocence, gentleness, and willingness to accept Christianity with the appropriate approach through missionary work.

Even the more enlightened de las Casas was unable to make such claims of Africans, however. The slave trade began in earnest at this point in time. During the medieval and Renaissance periods there were slaves; in fact, you've read about Maria the Slave in the story of a woman who stole from her mistress and was subsequently jilted by her lover. But mass-scale, chattel slavery came about with the nexus between contacts with slave traders in Africa on the one hand and a demand for labor in the mines and plantations of the New World on the other. Racism as we understand it today was a product of this period.

I'd like you to focus on the following in your textbook reading:

Homework and Presenter Questions:

  1. One of the most intriguing aspects of the Journals is the glimpse it gives of the first encounter between the European explorers and the Native Americans they met.  What impression do you get of Columbus's response to this encounter?  Look closely at specific passages.  What impression do you get of the Native American response?  Try to discern what their reaction and motives might have been from what Columbus says, even though he is recording his own impression of their response. 
  2. Give your frank evaluation of the character of Columbus as revealed in these Journals, not just as a person, but as a representative of the Europeans' attitude in their encounter with the people, animals, plants, and resources of the New World.  What is Columbus's primary purpose in making the trip?  What does he hope to find, and how does he react to what he does find? Finally, what issues does a reading of these Journals raise for us today?

Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 25, 2008

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