After reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States Chapter 1, post your thoughts on the following questions:
1. What are the TWO most important things Zinn says about Colombus and why?
2. What is the most important thing he says abou the writing of history?
Be sure you are thoughtful in your posts, provide evidence that backs up your claims and provide page numbers to reference the text! (Also be sure you sign your posts!)
1. The first important thing Zinn said about Columbus was his disregard for the Native's ("Indians') feelings. He treated them with disrespect and immediately showed an attitude of arrogancy. For example, he captured natives in his search for gold because he thought they could be able to help him in his own selfish pursuits.
ReplyDeleteAnother important thing Zinn pointed out about Columbus was that he was basically full of empty promises. He promised his financial backers in Spain that he would be successful in the new world- finding gold and slaves. When he wasn't as successful as he had hoped, he fabricated the report he sent back to Spain.
2. Zinn says the most important thing about the writing of history is it's lack of total objectivity. He says that it is impossible for historians to be completely unbiased and that they will inevitably favor one side of every argument.
1) Zinn said that Columbus essentially exploited the Native's to the highest extent. He used the Natives to gain riches for himself. He put them to work looking for gold and if they didn't meet their quota he would cut their hands off. Columbus disregarded the fact that the native were as equal of human beings as he was and he treated them like animals.
ReplyDeleteAlso Columbus made promises that he knew he could not deliver, he basically promised a new person something that would help them but failed to come through with most.
2) Zinn says that history can never be totally true because someone is always going to get the story mixed up or have a bias opinion.
-Anthony Brown
1.) Although Columbus is viewed in many people's eyes today as being a hero, Howard Zinn thought otherwise. One reason Zinn believed this is because of how harshly Columbus exploited the Indians. Zinn describes how when Columbus arrived in the Bahamas his "total control led to total cruelty." Columbus began his cruel tactics by taking the indigenous Indian's land and forcing the Indians to work in mines for him and killing them if they tried to run or avoid work. Zinn also questions Columbus's heroism because of his constant lies. He lied to the Spanish when he insisted he was in Asia when he obviously wasn't. He also claimed the Indians were easy to boss around, that they had all the gold in the world and all the slaves in the world to give which was also not true.
ReplyDelete2.) Zinn believes that history is often told only from one point of view and usually not the minorities point of view. People today generally learn about Columbus and all of his accomplishments but never learn about the bloodshed he caused.
Andy Smithline
1. Out of all that Howard Zinn says about Columbus, the two most important points that he makes are that Columbus should not be portrayed as the hero he is usually depicted as, and that he played a part in the beginning of slavery in the new world. Zinn describes Columbus as a greedy man bent on returning to Spain with a ton of gold, no matter how many natives he has to kill or enslave for it. An example of Columbus' mercilessness is given when Zinn writes about how Columbus demanded the Indians find gold for him. If any native returned to him empty-handed, he would cut their hands off and let them bleed to death. This is a torturous method, and no hero would act so sickeningly. Columbus' role in the future of slavery is also extremely important, as he utilized the Indians for labor almost at once, paving the road to an extremely frightening path for the new world.
ReplyDelete2. What's most important about Zinn's perspective on writing history is that he stresses above all that history-writing should be creative, and "emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes of the past when, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win." (page 11). This idea about the writing of history aims to use history to improve the future, and this justifies the need to record history at all.
-Maddie Pollack
1. One important thing that Howard Zinn says about Columbus is that Spain believed that Columbus could do anything he wanted to do, however they later learned this was not true. As stated in the text, Columbus was given "Seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men" for his second expedition. Columbus set out to find both gold and slaves. In the end Columbus did not find the gold that he set out for, so he did not fulfill the mission that Spain wanted him to.
ReplyDeleteAnother important thing thing Zinn says about Columbus is that he should not be considered a hero, which people today know him as. Zinn explains that a hero would not treat people poorly, yet Columbus treated the natives or Indians harshly and with disrespect.
2. The most important thing that Zinn says about writing history is that is can be seen from many different perspectives. He says that historians incorporate their point of view into their writing, which can sometimes lead to bias.
Cassidy Cohen
1. The two most important things that Zinn says about Columbus are that he
ReplyDeletea: Should not be depicted as a hero and
b: He exploited the natives and was a key component in the beginning of slavery.
Zinn's argument for Columbus' non-heroism was that he had mercilessly taken advantage of the natives which ended ended up causing almost the whole population to get wiped out later in history. When he first got to the New World he thought that the Natives would be easy to boss around and just thought of them as his property right away because they weren't "proper". He would do things like force the Natives to dig for gold, and if they didn't get the amount of nuggets required in time, he would have their hands cut off. He was a cruel man, who took advantage of others, and he opened the floodgates to slavery, which is why he shouldn't be depicted as a hero.
2. The most important thing about Zinn's perspective on writing history is that he believes that it should be told from different points of view, instead of just the point of view of the officials of the time. He also believes that writing better and clearer history will lead to a more improved future.
-Juuli Huttunen
1)One important thing that Zinn says about Columbus was how badly he treated the Native Americans. He did not give them the respect that they deserved and they still gave him the respect back like he was treating them well. He ended up killing the Native Americans if they did not come back with the gold that he had wanted them to collect.
ReplyDeleteAnother important thing that Zinn says about Columbus is that he says alot of things and alot of the things that he says are not exactly true. He stated that the indians were easy to dominate over, and that they had tons of slaves to give but that was not true at all.
2) Zinn stated that history can never be 100 percent true because the historian that is writing is always going to be opinionated in some way which makes the facts a little bit off.
Doug Shulman
1. When describing Christopher Columbus, Zinn makes it a point to not glorify him for "all he has done for this country" like so many do today. He acknowledges the facts: Columbus was power hungry and unethical, to say the least. His main goal was to get rich from gold and he would take as many native Americans' (and slaves) lives as he needed to. The second important thing Zinn says about Columbus relates to Columbus' direct role in the development of slavery. After going through the population of native Americans, Columbus needed a new work force. He turned to Africa. Columbus exported millions of slaves, starting a vicious habit that continued for hundreds of years.
ReplyDelete2. Zinn stresses that history must be recorded from many different view points. Often times in history, people such as Christopher Columbus can be glorified due to the lack of different points of view. For example, Americans learn to call Columbus a hero because we mostly disregard the view point of Native Americans. That of course being that Columbus was a ruthless, greedy man who caused a great deal of suffering.
1. The first important thing Zinn says about Columbus is that his immediate response to the Arawak Indians was that they were naive: they shared their possessions freely and never said no to a Spaniard's request. (page 2) This response is what convinced Columbus that it would be easy to enslave and take advantage of these Indians in order to benefit Spain. Columbus forces these Indians to find a certain amount of gold every three months and murders them if they don't meet this goal. The fact that Columbus considered his actions just, proves the superiority and power he felt over Arawaks.
ReplyDeleteThe second important thing Zinn says about Columbus is that he exaggerated his promises to Spanish Royalty about the gold and slaves he would bring back to Spain. (page 3) The reason why his promises were exaggerated was first because he wrongly believed he was in Asia where gold was plentiful. Instead, Columbus was in the Bahamas, where gold was in short supply. Secondly, Columbus completely mistreated Indian slaves, and so many were dying in his captivity. Columbus was so focused on the personal benefit he would recieve from the King of Spain, that it dominated his common sense. Arawaks were dying and being murdered by millions, which left Columbus struggling to meet the expectations he had set for himself.
2. The most important thing Zinn says about the writing of history is that many times historians try to avoid certain events by emphasizing others, in order to reach an "ideological interest." (page 6) Zinn's point is that historians can't ignore that a certain price has to be paid for success. All of the economic and cultural prosperity and progress the Spanish and British made in North America occured along with the mass murder of Indians. Trying to bury this fact in stories of Columbus' excellency is not necessary, but a choice most historians make for history to sound most appealing.
Cayla Pettinato
1. The most important thing that Zinn said about Columbus was that he was in no way fit to be a hero who is celebrated each year on Columbus Day. Zinn said that Columbus was a liar; a selfish man who was incredibly oppressive and unfair to other human beings, to which he treated like animals. Zinn even made a point of saying that Columbus was not the true founder of the Bahamas (the first island beginning the expedition of the New World), but instead a sailor named Rodrigo was the founder, even though Columbus took credit for it.
ReplyDeleteZinn also explained how Columbus imprisoned the Arawak Indians so that they would be forced to help him find gold and silver to bring back to Spain. Columbus was extremely oppressive and would cut the hands off of any Arawak who was unable to meet his demands of gold at the time that Columbus wanted it. This shows how Columbus was incapable of treating other people with respect and friendship, backing up Zinn’s statements about Columbus’ personality.
2. The most important thing that Zinn says about the writing of history is that you can not believe everything that you read about, because a lot of the time there are many biases created by people with different opinions based on their different roles in society. Zinn believes that various points of view are mandatory in writing about history in order to prevent biases and to create a more accurate interpretation of what has actually occurred in history.
-Izzy Sheck
1) Zinn mentioned many flaws Columbus has done to the Native Americans. One was the promises he exaggerated on which he never fulfilled. Due to this, as it was said, slaves and gold was the way he aimed for. As a result thousands were kept captives and more which were killed. Secondly,Zinn depicted the 'hero' Columbus never portrayed. The genocide he has caused is an example of his behavior.
ReplyDelete2)Writing history is more challenging than what is expected. He mentioned that everyone has a different perspective. Therefore, history is never told the same way.
Erick Hernandez
1. The most important point that Zinn makes about Columbus is that he took advantage of the natives. Columbus was selfish and only wanted personal wealth. He did not respect the natives in any way shape or form. Because of Columbus' selfish actions, many Europeans died as well as natives.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that Zinn made about Columbus is that he should not be considered a great hero for the reasons stated above. Columbus took advantage of a relatively helpless race (compared to the Europeans) and killed them. Killing people does not make someone a hero; it makes them a villain, which is exactly what Columbus was.
2. Zinn says that history is told by humans and can never be completely unbiased. Human nature makes that impossible. It is the job of the historian to try to make it with as little bias as possible.
1. Howard Zinn had in mind that Columbus was in fact not the "Admiral of the Sea" , the hero that the general public believes him to be, but a conniving thief. Zinn had stated in his work that Columbus brought not only immoral European ideology, he also proliferated the beginnings of this new epoch in history, one where the strong "progressed" while devastating the weak, leaving behind thousands dead. Not only was Zinn a filthy man filled with avarice, he was also very deceiving. He lied to the kings stating he saw rivers imbedded with gold and lands with lush fields ready for settlements.
ReplyDeleteHoward Zinn also wanted the public to realize that Columbus was responsible for the offenses that were wrought upon the Indians and the offenses wrought upon the slavery and savagery shown upon the naive indigenous. Zinn makes a clear statement that Columbus had no good intention in discovering America and should be treated as such.
2. Howard Zinn wants the readers to perceive history in a different light. He wants the readers to understand that there is always two sides to a coin and that there is always another side to the story. Just because you were taught history from the viewpoint of a king, it doesn't mean that that viewpoint is correct. Often times it's not. Zinn just wants us to broaden our perspective on history and not to believe everything we see.
Michael Chen
1.There are two things Howard Zinn says of Columbus. One is the idea that Columbus was both a cruel and terrifying explorer and the other is that Columbus's discovery is what caused the start of slavery and therefore should not only be praised for his discoveries. For example he starts off the chapter with a brief log of Columbus’s that shows the cruel intentions of Columbus’s voyage after his acquaintance with the Arawaks. Columbus states in his log “They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want” (pg1). This shows how brutal the purpose of Columbus was. Howard Zinn also talks of Columbus’s forged reward that was credited to him falsely and unfairly on the first paragraph of pg.3 of the chapter. But through many other examples, Zinn’s view of Columbus is seen through Columbus’s forceful search of gold, the killing of hundreds of Indians and the start of the slave trade. As Columbus destroyed the native's home and people, he began to exploit the Indians and bring other laborers into America; one of them being the African slaves. As more and more Europeans began settling into the New World, the trade of African slaves increased as the population of the Indians decreased.
ReplyDelete2) Howard Zinn points out that in writing history "we must not accept the memory of states as our own" (pg 10); meaning, people should not stand on one point of view but should approach history in other perspectives. Like Howard Zinn is writing himself, he feels that writing in other perspectives other than the winner’s side is critically important because it would be productive to “see history from the standpoints of others” (pg10).
Jiin Kwon