Essay on "America Before Columbus. The Website"

Essay 4 pages (1398 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

America before Columbus. The website used is American Hertiage.com.

What is the most surprising thing you learned from this website? Why?

In an article written by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., it states that while all Americans know that Christopher Columbus sailed to America, "discovering" it in 1492. However, the website claims that Portuguese and Brazilian historians have been claiming for over half a century that Columbus simply capitalized on the "unpublicized achievement" (American History). What is most surprising about this article is that it appears to tell us something that I think most educated or at least contemplative individuals have thought for a long time (which was the reason for the quotes around "discovering" above). During the late 15th century, there was a lot of sailing going on. Columbus was not the only one, however, we have somehow been pushed to believe that he was the first "civilized" man to step foot on American soil.

The Portuguese and Brazilian historians believe that the first to step foot in the New World was Portuguese navigator (American History). The article states that in recent years an old nautical chart dating back to 1424 was found in England and it showed what cartographical experts believe is a representation of the New World -- almost 70 years before Columbus' voyage across the Atlantic. The document was tested for authenticity and it was found to be completely genuine (American History), which means that Columbus was not the first explorer in America and he certainly did not "discover" America; he simply capitalized on the endeavor, which is too bad for the others.

It is interesting that this is still such a big and heated topic for debate: Who discovered America? Well, America was discovered, essentially, by the people who lived here: the indigenous people, the Native Americans. The fact that people get so up-in-arms about whether or not Columbus really "discovered" America seems like going a little too far with the patriotism argument. What does it matter to Americans who live here now whether or not an Italian (if indeed Columbus was Italian, perhaps he was Spanish, or even Portuguese!) or a Brazilian "discovered" our great land? The problem most likely rests in the fact that this is what we have been taught. It is what our parents were taught and what our grandparents were taught. It seems simply too late to go back and say, "Yeah, remember Columbus? He didn't discover America. It was some other guy." But it is not too late to find out more about history. Why would anyone try to cover up the truth?

Do you think your website is a valuable and/or reliable site fore learning about American history? Why or why not?

Yes, I believe that this website is valuable and reliable for learning about American history. For one, the magazine American History on which the website is based has been around since 1954 and that shows that it is tried and tested. The people who are publishing articles on the website are scholarly and academic people; they are not people writing for Wikipedia (although their articles may be lifted and posted on Wikipedia).

Part Two: Essay Questions:

1. Ruckman (16) states that we have recently become caught up in the age of globalization, however, if we take a look back to the beginning of America, the New World colonies founded by Europeans from different countries like Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands, we can see that globalization was alive and well in the New World in the sense that the new colonies were an amalgamation of European ideals, ideas, customs, and people. The textbook refers to the New World as the "Atlantic World" (16) because of "its obvious connections between western Europe and the Spanish, British, French, and Dutch colonies in North and South American" (16). The colonies of America were "part of a great imperial project launched by the major powers of Europe" (16).

Religion was a major element in the New World. The majority of the Europeans who came to the New World were Christians and the majority of them wanted to maintain and did maintain their religious affiliations to European Christianity (Ruckman… READ MORE

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