Amerindian Images And The Legacy Of Columbus

Few tales in the history of the world are more familiar than the story of Columbus, the fabled Admiral of the Ocean Sea, the prisoner of his dreams, who sailed West in search of the fabulous riches of Cathay or Cipangu, only to stumble upon America, a mass of then "unknown" land. Hailed for centuries as a "hero" who brought "progress" to humankind, this image has recently been stripped of its lustre. The legacy of Columbus' discovery of the New World and its subsequent colonization is a current focus of much historical investigation. Columbus himself continues to be a cipher, like the signature he crafted for himself, a signature no one has been able to decode. What is certain, however, is that this signature symbolized the construction of a colonial imagery that is still operative and that the consequences of the violent encounter and contact of different civilizations (European and Amerindian) are currently being reinterpreted and debated. "Amerindian Images and the Legacy of Columbus" examines the constitution of an Amerindian world born of resistance against European cultural imperialism. The essays in this volume by literary critics, linguists, semioticians, and historians argue that in the long run the images constructed by the Amerindians to confront the consequences of their encounter with a European cultural apparatus will ensure the endurance of their own culture, that they modified rather than renounced their own imaginary to integrate the material ramifications of their conquest and Westernization. The essays show that the Amerindians in effect became their own Others; that to study the emergence of these images is to watch the Other emerge from the Amerindian Self; that Amerindians have understood and accepted the substantial alternity of the Other; and that in the process, they have realized the impossibility of absolute assimilation.

Columbus called them "Indians" because his geography was faulty. But that name and, more importantly, the images it has come to suggest have endured for five centuries, not only obscuring the true identity of the original Americans but serving as an idealogical weapon in their subjugation. Now, in this brilliant and deeply disturbing reinterpretation of the American past, Robert Berkhofer has written an impressively documented account of the self-serving stereotypes Europeans and white Americans have concocted about the "Indian": Noble Savage or bloodthirsty redskin, he was deemed inferior in the light of western, Christian civilization and manipulated to its benefit. A thought-provoking and revelatory study of the absolute, seemingly ineradicable pervasiveness of white racism, The White Man's Indian is a truly important book which penetrates to the very heart of our understanding of ourselves. "A splendid inquiry into, and analysis of, the process whereby white adventurers and the white middle class fabricated the Indian to their own advantage. It deserves a wide and thoughtful readership." —Chronicle of Higher Education "A compelling and definitive history...of racist preconceptions in white behavior toward native Americans." —Leo Marx, The New York Times Book Review

Why is the capital of the United States named in part after Christopher Columbus, a Genoese explorer commissioned by Spain who never set foot on what would become the nation's mainland? Why did Spanish American nationalists in 1819 name a new independent republic "Colombia," after Columbus, the first representative of the empire from which they had recently broken free? These are only two of the introductory questions explored in The Legacy of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, a fundamental recasting of Columbus as an eminently powerful tool in imperial constructs. Bartosik-Velez seeks to explain the meaning of Christopher Columbus throughout the so-called New World, first in the British American colonies and the United States, as well as in Spanish America, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She argues that during the pre- and post-revolutionary periods, New World societies commonly imagined themselves as legitimate and powerful independent political entities by comparing themselves to the classical empires of Greece and Rome. Columbus, who had been construed as a figure of empire for centuries, fit perfectly into that framework. By adopting him as a national symbol, New World nationalists appeal to Old World notions of empire.

*Includes Columbus's journal entries of his first voyage to the New World from August-October 1492. *Includes maps of Columbus's voyages and pictures depicting Columbus and important people, places, and events in his life. "At two o'clock in the morning the land was discovered...As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us." - Christopher Columbus's diary, October 11-12, 1492 A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? The Age of Exploration and the explorers who set out on their history-making expeditions left many legacies and profoundly influenced history around the world. The voyages of men like Columbus and the conquests of men like Cortes escalated tensions between the European nations, initiated imperialistic empires on a global scale, helped birth the United States, and ensured that the wars in the 20th century were truly world wars. In Charles River Editors' Legendary Explorers series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of the most important explorers of history in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. The most seminal event of the last millennium might also be its most controversial. As schoolchildren have been taught for over 500 years, "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." In October of that year, the Italian Christopher Columbus immortalized himself by landing in the New World and beginning the process of European settlement in the Americas for Spain, bringing the Age of Exploration to a new hemisphere with him. Ironically, the Italian had led a Spanish expedition, in part because the Portuguese rejected his offers in the belief that sailing west to Asia would take too long. Columbus had better luck with the Spanish royalty, successfully persuading Queen Isabella to commission his expedition. In August 1492, Columbus set west for India at the helm of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. After a harrowing trip that nearly left his crew mutinous, on October 7, 1492, the three ships spotted flocks of birds, suggesting land was nearby, so Columbus followed the direction in which the birds flew. On the night of October 11, the expedition sighted land, and when Columbus came ashore the following day in the Bahamas, he thought he was in Japan, but the natives he came into contact with belied the descriptions of the people and lands of Asia as wealthy and resourceful. Instead, the bewildered Columbus would note in his journal that the natives painted their bodies, wore no clothes and had primitive weapons, leading him to the conclusion they would be easily converted to Catholicism. When he set sail for home in January 1493, he brought several imprisoned natives back to Spain with him. Everyone agrees that Columbus's discovery of the New World was one of the turning points in history, but agreements over his legacy end there. Columbus became such a towering figure in Western history that the United States' capital was named after George Washington and him. Conversely, among the Native Americans and indigenous tribes who suffered epidemics and enslavement at the hands of the European settlers, Columbus is widely portrayed as an archvillain. Legendary Explorers: The Life and Legacy of Christopher Columbus chronicles Columbus's life and his historic voyages, but it also examines the aftermath of his expeditions and analyzes the controversy surrounding his legacy. Along with maps and pictures, you will learn about Columbus like you never have before, in no time at all.

"This is a reader devoted to the life and writings of Bartolomé de las Casas (1485-1566), and the effects of his legacy on the age of the Encounter when Europeans-principally but not exclusively Spaniards-conquered the Americas. Las Casas is arguably the most important figure of the Encounter Age after Christopher Columbus, and Las Casas is well known to those who teach Western civilization, various survey histories of Spain and Latin America, and Atlantic history. He is known principally as the author of the "Black Legend," as well as the "protector" of American Indians. He was one of the pioneers of the human rights movement, and a Christian activist who invoked Biblical scripture to interpret what was right and wrong in the great age of the Encounter. He was also one of the first and most thorough chroniclers of the conquest, and a biographer who saved the diary of Columbus's first voyage for posterity through his History of the Indies, for the journal of that voyage was lost. He was also an innovator in political theory and a proto-ethnographer, and his contributions in geography, philosophy, and literature are no less significant. That he was also crusty, self-righteous, judgmental, given to gross exaggerations, and not a very loving Christian adds the very human dimension of failure to his character. This reader provides the most wide-ranging, and concise anthology of Las Casas' writings, in translation, ever made available. It contains not only excerpts from his most well-known texts, but also his writings on political philosophy and law, which are largely unavailable. Many of these selections have never been translated into English and they mostly address these under-appreciated aspects of his thought. As such, this volume presents Las Casas as a more comprehensive and systematic philosophical and legal thinker than he is given credit. The introduction puts these writings into a synthetic whole by biographically tracing his indigenous advocacy throughout his career"--

*Includes Columbus's journal entries of his first voyage to the New World from August-October 1492. *Includes maps of Columbus's voyages and pictures depicting Columbus and important people, places, and events in his life. "At two o'clock in the morning the land was discovered...As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us." - Christopher Columbus's diary, October 11-12, 1492 A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? The Age of Exploration and the explorers who set out on their history-making expeditions left many legacies and profoundly influenced history around the world. The voyages of men like Columbus and the conquests of men like Cortes escalated tensions between the European nations, initiated imperialistic empires on a global scale, helped birth the United States, and ensured that the wars in the 20th century were truly world wars. In Charles River Editors' Legendary Explorers series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of the most important explorers of history in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. The most seminal event of the last millennium might also be its most controversial. As schoolchildren have been taught for over 500 years, "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." In October of that year, the Italian Christopher Columbus immortalized himself by landing in the New World and beginning the process of European settlement in the Americas for Spain, bringing the Age of Exploration to a new hemisphere with him. Ironically, the Italian had led a Spanish expedition, in part because the Portuguese rejected his offers in the belief that sailing west to Asia would take too long. Columbus had better luck with the Spanish royalty, successfully persuading Queen Isabella to commission his expedition. In August 1492, Columbus set west for India at the helm of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. After a harrowing trip that nearly left his crew mutinous, on October 7, 1492, the three ships spotted flocks of birds, suggesting land was nearby, so Columbus followed the direction in which the birds flew. On the night of October 11, the expedition sighted land, and when Columbus came ashore the following day in the Bahamas, he thought he was in Japan, but the natives he came into contact with belied the descriptions of the people and lands of Asia as wealthy and resourceful. Instead, the bewildered Columbus would note in his journal that the natives painted their bodies, wore no clothes and had primitive weapons, leading him to the conclusion they would be easily converted to Catholicism. When he set sail for home in January 1493, he brought several imprisoned natives back to Spain with him. Everyone agrees that Columbus's discovery of the New World was one of the turning points in history, but agreements over his legacy end there. Columbus became such a towering figure in Western history that the United States' capital was named after George Washington and him. Conversely, among the Native Americans and indigenous tribes who suffered epidemics and enslavement at the hands of the European settlers, Columbus is widely portrayed as an archvillain. Legendary Explorers: The Life and Legacy of Christopher Columbus chronicles Columbus's life and his historic voyages, but it also examines the aftermath of his expeditions and analyzes the controversy surrounding his legacy. Along with maps and pictures, you will learn about Columbus like you never have before, in no time at all.

Was Christopher Columbus a visionary or an opportunist, a rapacious colonist or a Christian mystic? The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mapmakers gives us a truly judicious portrait of the great navigator--one that is as much about the accretion of the Columbus mythos as it is an absorbing account of his life and character.