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.
Piero, I also found Columbus' lying to the crew about their distance traveled to be quite bizarre, and perhaps your theory on why he did this is correct. Also, I really like your conclusion sentence, it captures the great complexity of 1492 and its consequences.
ReplyDeleteI also experienced a transition in my opinion of Christopher Columbus. I agree with your description of his tone towards the Native people. He seemed to be confident in his position as a superior being.
ReplyDeletePiero,
ReplyDeleteLike you said, I think Columbus lied to his crew in a way to motivate them. If their objective was incapable, I don't think he and his crew would have been as successful. When I use the word successful, I am referring to success in the perspective of Columbus and his voyagers, not a modern perspective. On another note, I also like your concluding sentence! Nice job
Adan Barclay
I agree that Columbus was looking down on Indians and he thinks that he is superior to them. Moreover, he encouraged people in Europe to come to Latin America, which destroyed their culture.
ReplyDeleteWe do have also to think of Columbus's audience... he has to present himself as being in control, and portray his mission as a success, to the people who have funded him. But we can see how often in fact he was quite flummoxed by many aspects of the experience.
ReplyDelete