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History 2700 Eportfolio.docx Size : 16.725 Kb Type : docx |
Looking back through the tomes of history, I have often wondered what the most significant moment within those pages is. It is a hard question full of what-if scenarios and could that be questions, and not an answer. I am one to believe that all events, in the” grand scheme” are significant and important, from that moment in a local tavern that ignited the fuels of open rebellion to Britain, to that declaration that all men and women are created equal, to present times, with actions, inactions and ideas pushing us ever forward into the realm of future history.
If I must simply pick one, then I shall have to go back to the very beginning of the semester and choose that of the voyage of Columbus. Without his (re)discovery of our world, the United States and essentially the world would not exist in the same terms as it does today.
Prior to Columbus’s voyage in 1492, there had been other explorers to the lands in the west. Scholars believe it was the Native American’s that are technically the first of the explorers, and, having found fertile lands and abundant wildlife, these people stayed and flourished. Afterward there were other explorers from Europe who looked across the vast blue ocean and wondered what was there. Leif Eriksson was one such explorer. His voyage and those of the Viking settlements were unrecorded and lost to tome.[1] After the Vikings it would take another 500 years before someone looked across the ocean for an explorative purpose, but this time the “New World” would be an inadvertent discovery.
Columbus, an Italian sailor, had listened as other sailors had to stories of lands in the west. These tales were not the only ones to circulate in Columbus’ time, as other ideas such as that of the Atlantic being a direct route to India and China were also prevalent.[2] Columbus, being a man of enterprising ambition, wished to set out and find this route, thinking the stories he had heard were true and combined; that the lands talked about were those of India and China. Sometime in the 1470’s Columbus approached the seafaring nation of Portugal for financial backing for this venture, but after nearly ten years of rejection and failed negotiation, Columbus moved on, and took his proposal to Spain.
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were already leading their people in a Golden Age of the Spanish Empire, and were in the midst of expelling the Moors from Spain’s lands when Columbus first approached them in 1486. After many years of debate and negotiation, Columbus’s dream was nearly quashed, but then, in 1491, Queen Isabella finally gave the order to finance Columbus’s venture.[3]
Having this backing, Columbus set forth with an exploration party that consisted of three ships and crew on August 3, 1492. On October 12, several days after his calculations that he and crew would reach Japan, land was finally spotted. Columbus believed that his quest to find India had succeeded, when in fact, he had something far greater.
The Native Arawak people were the first he met that day, and his appearance was strange and new to them. It is this meeting and this discovery that is the most significant to the shaping of America, a day which is both celebrated and denounced. To some, Columbus is a hero whose rediscovery led to more discoveries, and leading to greater progress throughout the world.[4] Yet for others, it was a dark day.[5] It was the day that the Native Americans’ way of life began to unravel, it was the day that would lead to many others full of the horrors of Spanish Conquest and greedy search for gold, and also days that saw bloodshed in the name of fanatical religious devotion, and others that saw death at the hands of horrible disease.
For better or for worse, this meeting spawned a new age for Europe, with colonial expansion opportunities, as well as economic and philosophical growth. Columbus’s discovery can be considered to be the most important event to shape the times and future. Had Columbus not sailed the Ocean blue on that particular August day, had he not gotten the financial backing, perhaps the world would be a very different place. Someone would have eventually made the trek, but it might not have been Spain. It likely would not have happened for several decades if not centuries. Without the discovery, there would be no Spanish Conquistadors to seize the golden empires of South America and take them home to Spain, nor would that have given the British, led by Queen Elizabeth I the opportunity to plunder those riches and refill its own empty coffers with sponsored privateers, many of whom would turn “pirate”. The Golden Age of England would not have been possible. Without Columbus setting foot on Hispanola that day, the Empires would not have competed in a colonial race; John Smith would have never set foot on North American soil, would never have built Jamestown, nor would the Puritans, who were very near deadly persecution in England for their political and religious views, set forth to land in Massachusetts. The ideals that shaped the United States would never have formed, and there would have been no Revolutionary War against the British Empire. There would be no Constitution ratifying a new nation where all men (and women) would become equals, where religion, speech and the right to bear arms would be so valiantly defended. There would be no Democratic Nation, no United States.
In conclusion, without Isabella agreeing to support Columbus’s dream, that first Voyage would not have occurred, nor would the events that led to the creation of one of the world’s most unique and in its prime, most powerful nations in the world. Democracy would likely still be an idea the Greeks once had, and the world today would be a different place. It is true there are many good things that could have come from Columbus never coming to America, but eventually someone would, and who is to say that the events would not be similar or more devastating? It is easy, though, to say all these what ifs and, but in the end we should appreciate what Columbus did, realize there were good and bad aspects to it all, and appreciate the history so that, if ever we are to reach a distant or not so distant planet, we don’t make the same mistakes as to fall prey to greed and cause devastation for the native people. It is knowing, respecting and accepting our history, whether good or bad that is what makes or breaks us in the end.
[1] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/127070/Christopher-Columbus
[2] Nash, Gary B. The American People, Creating a nation and Society, Upper Saddle River, 2009. Pgs 27-30
[3] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/295037/Isabella-I/3565/Reign
[4] McClellan, Jim R. Changing Interpretations of America’s past, 2000. (Chapter 2, page 24 Source 16)
[5] [5] McClellan, Jim R. Changing Interpretations of America’s Past, 2000 (Chapter 2, page 26 Source 19)
