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Other Worlds: The Voyage of Columbus
Introduction
Debate over the legacy of Christopher
Columbus has opened new perspectives on the Renaissance world
that gave impetus to his first voyage, and has raised awareness
of the cultures he and those who followed him encountered in
the world across the sea. Through the Internet, students can
observe the events of 1492 from this dual vantage-point, exploring
the two worlds that made contact when Columbus stepped ashore.
Learning Objectives
To gain an understanding of the forces
within European society that found expression in the voyage
of Christopher Columbus; to examine the cultures of those
whom Columbus and his successors encountered in the New World;
to analyze the degree to which cultural expectations shaped
the encounter experience for Columbus; to reconstruct the
encounter experience for those who saw Columbus sail into
their world.
1 Begin
by asking students what happened in Spain in 1492. Most will
probably reply that Christopher Columbus set off in that year
to reach the East by sailing west; but his voyage was only
one of three momentous events that made 1492 a pivotal year
in Spanish history.
2 Use
the resources of the Columbus
and the Age of Discovery website to introduce students
to late 15th-century European culture. On the site's homepage
you will find links to "1492:
An Ongoing Voyage." Follow the link to "The
Mediterranean World" for an online exhibit that summarizes
the chief features of Renaissance Europe. Then have students
investigate different perspectives by summarizing selected
articles in the Columbus
and the Age of Discovery database. (To access the database,
follow the "Hypertext INDEX of articles" link on the website's
homepage, click on "INDEX-pg. For public use." and then click
on "Full index of 'permission granted' files." for a hyperlinked
list of articles organized alphabetically by author.) Some
suggested articles include:
- Rebecca Catz, "Christopher
Columbus and Portugal," which highlights the combination
of economic, political, and technological forces that made
this an age of exploration;
- Timothy Foote, "Where
Columbus Was Coming From," which describes the contradictory
social forces that made this both a golden age of humanistic
achievement and a time of often shocking inhumanity;
- Frank Graziano, "Columbus
and the Invention of Discovery," which examines the
era's paradoxical tendency to test ideas against experience
yet still trust in visionary truth;
- Kevin A. Miller, "Why
Did Columbus Sail," which charts the powerful currents
of religious belief that steered men like Columbus toward
worldly goals; and
- Charlotte Porter, "The
Scientific Cosmos of Columbus," which surveys the equally
powerful influence of science and the dawning of empirical
inquiry.
3 As
students present their summaries, compare the different perspectives
that these authors present. What kinds of evidence does each
emphasize? What kinds of evidence does each leave out? What
aspects of Columbus and his age does each bring into view?
How can these perspectives be combined to provide a multi-dimensional
view of the Great Navigator's motives and assumptions as he
sailed toward the setting sun?
4 Shift
attention next to the world Columbus encountered when he crossed
the Atlantic. Again, the website "1492:
An Ongoing Voyage" provides a useful overview, accessible
from the Columbus
and the Age of Discovery homepage by clicking on the "What
Came To Be Called America" link. Have students review
this for an online exhibit covering Caribbean, Middle American,
and other branches of late 15th-century Native American society,
then have student research teams use Internet and library
resources to explore two of these societies in greater depth.
- Have one group investigate the Caribbean
culture that Columbus encountered directly. In the database
of the Columbus
and the Age of Discovery website they will find useful
articles on the Taino by George A. Aarons, William F. Keegan,
Irving Rouse, and Samuel M. Wilson. The Taino inhabited
the island where Columbus first landed. For further study,
students can also visit the ArchNet
website for access to the "Caribbean
Archeology" site of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
(Click on "Regional View" at the ArchNet homepage, then
follow the "Central America" link to "Caribbean Archeology.")
Here students can view archeological excavations and artifacts
and can read specialized reports on the picture of pre-Columbian
Caribbean society that emerges from this evidence.
- Have another group explore the Aztec
culture of Middle America, which Cortés and his troops
conquered in 1519. The
Columbus and the Age of Discovery website provides access
to two accounts of this "encounter" through its homepage
link to the "European
Database on the Age of Discovery." At the "European
Database" homepage, click the entry "A list of primary and
secondary sources," then scroll down to the section headed
"Secondary Sources" for a link to "Bernardino
de Sahagun, The war of conquest: how it was waged here in
Mexico," a 16th-century history from a Native American
point of view. Also on the "European Database" homepage,
in the section headed "North America," students can click
on "Hernán Cortés" for an online edition of William
Prescott's classic The
History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843). For archeological
information about Aztec culture, have students click the
"Regional View" link on the ArchNet
homepage, and then click on "North America" for a link to
"Feathered
Serpent Pyramid," an online excavation of the ancient
Aztec city, Teotihuacan. ArchNet's
"North America" page also includes a link to the "Mesoamerican
WWW Page," which feature a "Precolumbian Link Page" that
will lead students to a valuable site on the "History
of Mexico."
5 Turn
finally to Columbus' description of first contact between
these two worlds in the journal of his 1492 voyage. Widely
available in libraries, this text can also be accessed from
the Columbus
and the Age of Discovery homepage by clicking the "European
Database on the Age of Discovery" link. At the "European Database,"
scroll down and click the entry for "Christopher Columbus,"
then scroll down again to the heading "His own writings" and
click on "Extracts from the 1492 journal." Have students prepare
notes for a class discussion of this journal entry, focusing
on the interplay between experience and expectations that
it records. What did Columbus see and fail to see? What preconceptions
and beliefs influenced his observations? Have students propose
questions they would like to have been able to ask Columbus
about his experiences on that day in 1492. Then conclude by
having students write a journal entry on the encounter with
Columbus from a Native American point of view.
Extending the Lesson For added perspective on the culture
of Renaissance Europe, introduce students to the art and architecture
of that period using the resources (and "Links" section) of
Detroit
Institute of Art website. Have students investigate how
the era's preoccupation with science and religion combine
in the work of Italian masters like Bellini, Bronzino, Michelangelo,
and Da Vinci. Students can also extend their study of indigenous
peoples of the Americas through the resources of the NativeWeb
website. At many NativeWeb
sites, descendants of those whom Europeans encountered in
their colonization of the Americas offer an alternative vantage-point
on those events, one that often reveals how the impact of
that intercultural contact is still felt today.
Standards Alignment
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