English 4371: Cultural Encounters

Householder, fall 2005

8/30/05: Columbus and the Discovery of the “New World”

 

For more information on the history of Columbus, see William D. Phillips, Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. 

 

 

 

  1. Historical context: European expansion in the fifteenth century

 

    1. Crisis and opportunity: the contest between conquest, conversion, and commerce.

 

                                                              i.      The reconquista as response to the failure of the Crusades and the Muslim presence in Europe. 

 

                                                            ii.      Religious conversion. 

 

 

 

                                                          iii.      The burgeoning Asiatic trade and the impact of The Travels of Marco Polo. 

 

 

 

                                                           iv.      The Black Death and “the inheritance effect”

 

 

 

 

    1. The Portuguese, Africa, and the dream of a sea route to Asia

 

                                                              i.      Prince Henry “the Navigator” (1394-1460). 

 

 

 

                                                            ii.      By the 1470s and 80s, the Portuguese were establishing trading outposts and laying claim to territory all along the west coast of Africa,

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. The lesson of the Canary Islands.  “In the mode of its conquest, colonization, and economic organization, the experience of the Canaries set many precedents that would later be repeated in the Americas” (Phillips and Phillips 57).

 

 

 

 

 

    1. In 1492, with their defeat of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, and the expulsion of all Jews from the country, Fernando and Isabel made Spain into an autocratic, theocratic, and homogeneous nation-state.

 

 

  1. Summary of Columbus’ four voyages [link map]

 

 

 

    1. First voyage, August 1492-February 1493. 

 

 

 

 

    1. Second voyage, September 1493-spring 1496. 

 

 

 

 

    1. Third voyage, May 1498-November 1500. 

 

 

 

 

    1. Fourth voyage, May 1502-November 1504. 

 

 

 

 

    1. The Post-Columbian World. 

 

                                                              i.      The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

 

 

 

                                                            ii.      The decimation of native populations. 

 

 

 

                                                          iii.      The impact on Europe. 

 

 

 

                                                           iv.      Long distance trade and globalization. 

 

 

 

 

  1. The Carta (Letter).  [Link to image]

 

 

 

1.  Illustration from Latin edition of Columbus' Carta.

 

 

 

    1. What parts of the Carta indicate that he is shaping his narrative for a royal audience?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. What material are you surprised to see included?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Columbus’ log-book (a good edition of which is The Log of Christopher Columbus, trans. Robert H. Fuson). 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. Skipping the journey itself, what do you notice about Columbus’/Las Casas’ description of first contact?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. What can we learn from the log-book?  The log book raises a couple of questions: 1) How much can we trust Columbus’ reporting?  Obviously, his observations about his location, the presence of gold, and the language of the natives appears to be nothing more than hype and wishful thinking.  2) But if we dismiss these claims, what can we conclude about the other ethnographic data?  How much can we valuably read between the lines?  Is the native running into the woods to hide from Columbus a sign of the Arawaks primitive silliness, or is it the mark of an astute people who recognize the true dangers presented by these invaders?

 

 

 

  1. “Dr. Chanca’s letter.”  Full text available at http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cgi-bin/docviewer.exe?CISOROOT=/aj&CISOPTR=4408. 

 

 

 

    1. Chanca spends some time on ethnography, but almost half of it is devoted to a description of cannibalistic practices (135-6).

 

 

 

 

    1. Two incidents demonstrate a kind of split between Spanish perceptions of native peoples: absolute innocence vs. absolute treachery.

 

                                                              i.       

 

 

 

 

                                                            ii.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. The Spaniards’ troubling discovery of native agency. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1. Consequently, the natives no longer appear to be the innocents depicted by the accounts of the first voyage. 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time: Read Thomas More, Utopia (pp. 1-129 in Three Early Modern Utopias)