In this essay I will be discussing how the European encounters viewed the Americas in 1492, also explaining and comparing the prejudice within Christopher Columbus’s journal with the perceptions the local people held on the Europeans.
On the 12th of October 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew arrived on the shores of Guanahani an island within the Bahamas he was convinced that he had discovered the new world, with the first encounter experience before the arrival of Columbus, Europeans influenced their perceptions of the new lands and the people they were encountering. The European worldviews and belief system were issues of language barrier which further were magnified by the cultural strangeness, such as the Taino.
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Asia’s commercial network gave the Europeans access to a region they called the New World, although Christopher Columbus did not intend to discover America when he went looking for Asia, his voyages convinced the Europeans that there were still new territories to be exploited. Opposed to Taino worldviews the European narrative of subservient worshippers was a very different belief system in which it did not always result in amicable and peaceful relations.
The perceptions the local people had of Europeans was that they came out as friendly people, bringing them parrots, balls of cotton, threat, javelins, and lots of different things that they exchanged articles for, they also seemed to be poor people in the eyes of Christopher Columbus. According to Christopher Columbus, he presented the local people with some red caps, with strings of beads that they could wear upon their necks and many trifles of small worth. They were all undressed, even the women themselves although he saw one girl, all the women were young with fine shapes and faces with their hair short. Some of the people painted their faces with black and, a few entire bodies which made them seem like canaries. Even though they had no iron and some had fish-bones, they all were of good size and stature, also handsomely formed, with some having scares of wounds upon their bodies they ventured to make them prisoners but they defended themselves. Also, they were unable to make productive use of the land through cities farms, and technology.
In Columbus’s read the Taino’s had no faith, however, they did have a minimum of some gold and even though he had his views about indigenous people, they also had their views about the Europeans. They saw an opportunity to forge a friendship through trade and alliance, the Tainos approached the European ships and they thought that they were big monsters and others thought they were floating islands. They viewed the strangely dressed white men as godlike, Europeans were hairy with bad breath and did not smell good, also they appeared to have bad manners, they were viewed completely differently from how Columbus had his views about indigenous people.
In conclusion, it is necessary to ascertain Columbus as a person of his time, like other expansion-minded Europeans who aimed to Christianize the world, while enriching himself and his backers. The new world has undoubtedly seen its share of atrocities from racism and slavery; however we tend to get pleasure from privileged life after many years of the discovery of the Americas even though Columbus was convinced that he had discovered the new world and all the perceptions and views of the indigenous people and also how they viewed the Europeans, it is noteworthy that Columbus’s voyages aims was not to create something new but to generate revenues to cover the conquest of the holy land.
Referencing List
Secondary Sources:
- Rogers, C., Christopher Who? History Today 67(8), August 2017, pp. 38-49.
- Tignor, R. et al., Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World from the Beginning of Humankind to the Present, 5th ed (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017), pp. 447-481. (Chapter 12: Contact, Commerce, and Colonization, 1450–1600).
Primary Source:
- Columbus, C., Journal (1492-1493), http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3892, viewed 30-07-2019.
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