w ' I , , ' l i l l l l l l l 1 I I . I I ' 1 , / I , I l l I l I , l l i I I I I I I I I ' , I r I I I I I I I I I ~ i 1 1 J ~ I I I ~ , . I ( 3 J c

r r i c ~ ~ l k ~ r i ( c O I I ~ itiis trade [ i l l l r i ( h ( ~ r ~ ~ I ( J V C + ~ J one of 1 I i c 9 rriosi orijust, evil, and cruel among thern.

Bar to lome de 10s Casas ?

I n fourteen hundred and ninety-three,

Columbus stole all he co t~ ld see.

Tradit ional verse, updated

I N FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO, Christopher Columbus sailed in from the blue. American history books present Colun~bus pretty much without precedent, and they portray him as Anlerica's first great hero. In so canoniz,ing him, they reflect our national culture. Indeed, now that Presidents' Day has combined Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays,

All but one of the twelve book7 I cx;lminccl begin the (:olurnbus story with Marco 1'010 and rhr (:rusade;. (Avworicutl Ad~lenturcs starts simply with Coiumbus.) Here is their composite account of what was happen- ing in Europe:

"Life in Europe was slow paced." "Curiosity about the rest of the world was at a low point." Then, "many changes took place in Europe during the 500 years before Columbus's discovery of the Americas in 1492." "People's horizons gradually widened, and they became more curious about the world beyond their own localities." "Europe was stirring with new ideas. Many Europeans were filled with burning curiosity. They were living in a period called the Renaissance." "What started Europeans thinking new thoughts and dreaming new dreams? A series of wars called the Crusadcs were partly responsible." "The Crusades caused great changes in the ways that Europeans thought and acted." "The desire for more trade quickly spread." "The old trade routes to Asia had always been very difficult."

'I'he accounts resemble each other closely. Somctimcs ditkrent tcxthooks even use the same phrases. Overall, the level of scholarship is dixcour;~~- ingly low, perhaps because their authors are more at home in Anlc.rican history than European history. They provide no real causal explanutions for the age of Enropean conquest. Instead, they argue for E~~rope's greatness in transparently psychological tern~~--"~cople grew morc cul-i- ous." Such arguments make sociologists smile: we know th'rt nobody measured the curiosity le\/el in Spain in 1492 or can with a u ~ h o r i t ~ compare it to the curiosity level in, say, Norway or lccland in 1005.

Here is the account in The A~nerirzn Way.

What made these Europeans so daring was their belief in themselves. The people of Europe believed that human beings were the highest form of life on earth. This was the philosophy, or belief, of humanism. It was combined with a growing interest in technology or tools and their uses. The Europeans believed that by using their intelligence, they could develop new ways to d o things.

'I'his is not the place to debate the precepts or significance of hun~anisnl, a philosopllical movement that clashed with orthodox Catholicism, In any case, humanism can hardly cxplain Columbus, since he and his royal sponsors were ~ C V O L I ~ orthodox (:atholics, not htlmanist5. //lo A ~ w r , i - i r , , ~ ~ ~ Wry tclls (I,\, I-~oncthcle\s, that (:olurnht~; "Ii.ltl 1 1 1 ~ . l l t 11 l1 .11 i i5 t ' 5

. .

l ~ L ~ l i L ~ l ~ l l ~ , l l l )esin utitil twenty-five years after 14921

\ \ ' I I . I I I \ ~ O I I I ~ 0 1 1 !ic,r~.I \Y/,Y/I rncl\t I ) ; I \ ~ ;\ttc.~ition to wh;it rhe tcxthooks , 1 1 1 . I , I I I I ~ ! : I I \ , 1 1 1 ~ 1 \ \ I I . I I 10 , \ . I ( ( . 1 1 0 1 tt.1111ig , I \ . !'lit, c l i , 1 1 1 ~ c , \ i n I .~ I I .OI>

1 1 1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 \ l l l l , ! l l l l l ' I ~ 1 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 ~ 1 1 . . ' . \(1\.1!',1". . I 1 1 1 1 I ~ I C ' / 1 1 ( ) 1 ) . 1 1 ) 1 ( ' ( l l l ~ ~ ~ ' l l ~ 1 ~ 1 ) 1 . 1 I I ~ . O I I \ 1 1 1 1 1 ~ 1 0 \1111 I 1 , . I / t i I ' f 1 1 I ~ I ! , , I I ~ . . t , I { . I \ ~ ~ I I I . . .111c1 131isrol I;SIII.I.IIIC.II, I ) I I I I I I L . \ .11\o 1 ) . 1 \ t c I 1 1 1 ' \: I \ I L I I I I I I o j r , '.. C ~ O I I I I I I . I I ~ O I I oCrI)(: world fol-

. . 1 1 1 ~ . I I < . S I f iv l \ I (11. I I I O \ I ( O I I \ ~ ~ ~ I I I . I I I 1 . 1 1 g ( i \ ( ~ I ~ I ~ I I I I C I I I i l l lirrrnn~i history.

) I I I - liis[ory 1)ooks origIi[ I O L I I \ < ( I \ \ I O [ I \ I \ \ < , I ~ . I I 11~1~)pencd and why, ilis~cad of supplying vagur, ~ j c , , r ~ - l ~ C ~ I - L . L I ~ : I I j>r.~,rlollllcc.nic.nts such as this, from 7 % ~ American Trrrdztion: "Interest in pracric;il 1natter.s and the world outside Europe led to advances in shipbuildi~lg and navigation."

Perhaps foremost among the significant factors the textbooks leave out are atfvances in military technology. Around 1400, European rulers began co commission ever bigger guns and learned to mount them on ships. Europe's incessant wars gave rise to this arms race, which also ushered in refinements in archery, drill, and siege warfare. China, the Ottoman Empire, and other nations in Asia and Africa now k11 prey to Europear~ arms, and in 1493 the Americas began to succumb as well.'

We live with this arms race still. Since the demise of the Soviec Union, the nuclear arms race may have come to a temporarv resting point. But the West's advantage in military technology over the rest of the world, jealously maintained from the 1400s on, remains very much contested. Western nations continue to try to keep non-Western nations disadvan- taged in military technology. Just as the thirteen British colonies tried to outlaw the sale of guns to Native Americans,'' the United Stares now tries to outlaw the sale of n~~c l ea r technology to Third World countries. Since money is to be made in the arms trade, however, and since all nations need military allies, the arms trade with non-Western nations persists. The Western advantage in military technology is still a burning issue. Nonetheless, not a single textbook mentions arms as a cause of European world domination.

In the years before Columbus's voyages, Europe also expanded the use of new forms of social technology-bureaucracy, double-entry book- keeping, and mechanical printing. Bureaucracy, which today has nega- tive connotations, was actually a practical innovation that allowed rulers and merchants to manage far-flung enterprises efficiently. So did double- entry bookkeeping, based on the decimal system, which Europeans first picked up from Arab traders. The printing press and increased literacy allowed news of C:olumbus's findings to travel across Europe much farther and faster than news of the Vikings' expeditions.

A third important development was ideological or even t h ~ o l o ~ i c ~ l : amassing wealth and dominating other people came to be positively val~rcci as the key means ofwinning esteem on earth and s;llv;~~ion in ~ i l ~ . h(. c.;~llc.d "[hi . Kequirelnent." Here is one version:

I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name of the Pope take the King as lord of this land and obey his mandates. If you do not do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you all. I will make war everywhere and every way that I can. I will subject you to the yoke and obedience to the Church and to his majesty. I will take your women and children and make them slaves. . . . The deaths and injuries that you will receive from here on will be your own fault and not that of his maiesty nor of the gentlemen that accompany me. l 3

Having thus satisfied their consciences by offering che Indians a chance to convert to Christianity, the Spaniards then felt free to do whatever rhey wanted with the people they had just "discovered."

A tifth development that caused Europe's reaction to Col~rmbus's 1.c.po1-t. about Haiti to differ radically from reactions to earlier expedi- [ i o ~ i . w;ls E~lropeb recent success in taking over and exploiting various i \ l . l l l ( l jot-icties. O n Malta, Sardinia, the Canary Islands. and, later, in 1 1 . ( . l . 1 1 1 ( 1 , 1.111.opc;i11.s I ~ ~ ; I I . I ~ L ~ r l i ; rr conclucsr of [Iris sol-t was a rorltc to

L I E S M Y T E A C H E R T O L D M E )

cristipNotenot only prompted Columbus's voyages and the probable contemporaneous trips to America by Portuguese, Basque, and Bristol fishermen, but they also paved the way for Europe's domination of the world for the next five hundred years. Except for the invention of agriculture, this was probably the most consequential development in human history.

wealth. In addition, new nncl r ~ i c , ~ ~ ~ tlc.~cll~~ iOrn~s of snlallpox and bu- bonic plague had arisen in l. I ~ . I \ , c , to d~velop new instrun~e~lts. according to T ~ P Avnrricatl \ I , , , , , I ) L I I ~Ll)(~opIc~ ciici11,[ l

I l l I I I l l I I I I 1 i , l , t : , I 8 I I , , I \110 1 ' 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 1 , 1 . 1 1 1 \ I , .,, 1 1 1 . 1 1 111t ( I I I I I I I l l \I,/, 1 1 1 6 . I l l . 0 1 > 3 1 1 1 1 . . , , I 1 1 1 1 1 , ~ 1 . 1 1 1 \ , I l t ~ \ l l l , ~ , ! l , ~ . \ . l 1 l l l l l ( 1 1 1 I ' l l l , ~ , ( . I I I I I \ I I I .

I l l L , \ L . I ) O , l l \ \ . l l L , L ~ \ ~ ) l L ~ \ , \ l O l l \ 01 \\ I 1 , l l I Ill . I l l 1 l l l l ~ l l l l l , l ~ ~ , \ l ,51cl>ll~~ll jc11 c. :~l ls " I I I L , C I ~ L I I . I I I ~ 01 1 1 1 ~ J ISCO\~L.I .~, 0 1 ! \ I I IL , I I ( . I I ) \ ( , I I ~ I I I I I ) ~ I > . " ' 1 ~ 1 I ) l ~ . I provides a chi-ol~olo~ical list of' cxpcd i~ io~~s 111.11 111.1). 11;1vc> rc,~c.llc.(i Americas before C o l l ~ n t b ~ ~ s , with comments on thc iluality of I I I ~ . evi- dence for each as of 1994.'1 While the list is long, it is still pro\>ably incomplete. A map found in 7i1rkey dated 1513 and said to hc hased on material from the library of Alexander the Great includes coastline details of South America and Antarctica. Ancient Roman coina keep turning up a11 over the Americas, causing some archae~lo~isrs to con- clucle that Roman seafiarers visited the Arnericas more than once.-" Na- tive Americans also crossed the Atlantic: anthropologists conjecture that Native Atnericans voyaged cast millennia ago from Canada to Scandina- via or Scotland. 7wo Indians shipwrecked in Holland around 60 B.C. became major curiosities in Europe."

The evidence for each of chese journeys offers fascinating Flilnpses into the societies and cultures that existed on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia beforc 1492. 'They also reveal controversies among those who study the distant past. If textbooks allowed for controversy they could show students which claims rest on strong evidence, which on softer ground. As they challenged students to make their own decisions as to what probably happened, they would also be introducing students to the various methods and forms of evidence--oral history, written records, cultural similarities, linguistic changes, human blood types, pottery, archaeological dating, plant migrations-that researchers use co derive knowledge about the distsnt past. Unfortunately, textbooks seen1 locked into a rhetoric of certainty. James West Davidson and Mark H. Lytle, coauthors of the trxtbook irhe ffuited Stutes-A History of'the Republic, have also wrirten Ajer the Fact, a book for college history majors in which they emphasize that history is not a set of facts but a series of arguments, issues, and cont~oversies.~'~ Davidson and Lytle's high school textbook, however, like ics competitors, presencs history as answers, not questions.

New evidence that emerges, as archaeologists and historians compare American cultures with cultures in Africa, Europe, and Asia, [nay con- firm or disprove these arrivals. Keeping LIP with such evidence is a lot of work. 'To tell about earlier explorers, textbook authors would have to fitmiliarize themselves with sources such as those cited in the thrct lweceding footnotes. It's easier just to retell the old f~~miliar (:oluntbu\ 51 orv.

T A B L E 1 . E X P L O R E R S O F A M E R I C A

- -

8 I /Ik FROM TO tVIDtNCE

' O C O O ~ B C - Siberia Alaska High: the , , , survivors peopled the Americas

0 B - - Indonesia South America Moderate: similarities I .500? B c (or other direc~ion] in biowguns,

papermaking, etc.

'?000? B i. - to present

Jorjan Ecuadoi Moderate: similar pottery, fishing styles

Siberia Canada, High: Navaios and New Mexico Crees resemble each

other culturally, differ fror.1 other Indions.

Siberia Alaska lj igh: ( - X Y ) I I I ~ ~ J I ~ ~ C ~ i.;,n\oc ! \ ! , I ; I ~ s ( ] ( . I , , < > ' , !h3 , ' I 1 , 1 :,, ' I I

Afro-Phoenicia Central America Moderate: IVegroid and Cauccsoid likenesses in sculpture and ceramics, Arab history, etc.

Phoenicia, New England, Low: megaliths, Celtic Britain perhaps possible similarities

elsewhere ir7 script and language.

Irelavd, via Newfoundland? Low: legends of St. Iceland West Indies2 Brendon, written c.

,A, D 850, confirmed by Norse sagas.

continued

L I E S M Y T E A C H E R T O L D M E

lo

cristipNote...Australia, Polynesians reached Madagascar, or Afro-Phoenicians reached Canaries. By "people" Way means, of course, Europeans - a textbook example of Eurocentrism.

Wi1.1 r is 111~1 in1porr:lnce tod;rv of rllese African a ~ i J I'hoenici:~~) plrde- ~ . ~ ~ s s o i \ o f ( ; o l~ lo ib~~s? Like the Vikings. they provide a fasr-in:iti~i~ s t o v o ~ l c (i1.u ciin liold high school srudencs on the edge of their- scats. W might also rcalizc another k i d of irnporr;ince by contmmpl.~ti~l~ the f):lrrictilar meaning of Columbus Day. Italian Aniericans infer a)nlcthing positivr about their "national character" from the exploits of their ethnic nnccrors. The American sociologist George IIo~narls once quipped, explaining why he had written on his own ancestors in East Anglia. rather thail on some larger group elsewhere: "They may be humans, but not Homans!" Similarly, Scandirlavians and Scandinavian Americans have always believed the Norse sagas about the Viki~lgs, even wheo I I I U ~ L historians did not, and finally confirmed them by conducting archaeological research in Newfoundland.

If Colulnbus is especially relevant to western Europeans and the Vik- ings to Scandinavians. what is the meaning to African Americans of the pre-Columbian voyagers from Africa? After visiting the VOII Wuther~au museum in Mexico City, the Afro-Carib scholar Tiho Narva wrote, "With his unique collection surrounding me, I had an eerie feeling that veils obscuring the past had been torn asunder. . . . Somehow. upon leaving the rnuseurn I suddenly felt that 1 could walk taller for the rest of my days."" Van Serrirnis book is in its sixteenth printing and he is lionized by black u~ldergrailuatcs across America. Rap music groups ctranc "but we already had been there" in verses about C~lumbus:~') Obriouslv African Americans want to see positive imago of "them- selves" in American history. So do we all.

As with the Nor-se, including the Afro-Phoenicians gives a more com- plere and complex picture of the past. showing that navigation and exploratjon did not begin with Europe in the 1400s. Like the Norse, the Afro-Phoenicians illustrate human p o ~ s i b i l i t ~ in ilii, case black possibil- ity, (or, more accurately, the prowess of a multiracial society. Unlike the Norse, the Africaris and Phoenicians seem to have made a perlnancnt impact on the Americas. The huge stone statues in Mexico imply as much. It took enormous effort to quarry these basalt blocks, each weighing ten to forty tons, move them from quarries seventy-five niiles ;i\v;iy, and sculpt them into heads six to ten feet tall. Wherever rhcv wcrc

L I E S M Y T E A C H E R T O L D M E

/ , ( '!

cristipNote...nonetheless stare back at us, steadfastly Caucasoid or Negroid, hard to explain away. Ivan Van Sertima and others have adduced additional bits of evidence, including similarities in looms and other cultural elements, identical strains of cotton that probably required human intervention to cross the Atlantic, and information in Arab historical sources about extensive ocean navigation by Africans and Phoenicians in the eighth century B.C.

cristipNote...black children's self-image, they say. They are right that the case hasn't been proven, but textbooks should include the Afro-Phoenicians as a possibility, a controversy.

cristipNoteLet us compare two other possible pre-Columbian expeditions, from the west coasts of Africa and Ireland.

I O I I I I I I I ~ I I I 1 1 I . . I I I I . I ~ I ~ I I ~ I . . 1 1 1 . . 1 1 1 1 ~ ~ 1 ~ ~ 1 : . . o ~ ~ l t , l l tilt. A ! I ( I I I ~ I , ( . ( I I I c l ~ i I r n ~ to I ) I I l l ! ) ( 1 1 1 1 ' ~ t l 1 l l l l t ) ' 1 1 1 t ) 1 1 ' / 1, ' I / 1 1 , 1 1 1 1 ' ~ l l l l ' f ( )111 ' 1 1 l > I l I c ! ( ~ c I ~ c ~ I11 PC11 t 1 ( U I U I t ' - I I , . ( ~ l ) i i i t t i t I ( I I I I I ~ . o l ~ t l ~ w ~ I ) I 1 / 1 1 A:, ,11,,. I 1 1 1 1 1 ~ 1 1 1 ~ 1 wus s ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ d l ~ tl~;covc:~ ctl St B~c~,clcrl\, r r r r 1 1 1 s . 1 1 I I I I ~ , . , I ~ I I r r 1 1 y, trl~out 500 AD

No1 o I > < , ~ < ~ \ t l ) o o l ~ I I ~ C . I ~ I I O I I , 1 1 1 ~ . \\'c,.,~ I \ \ ( I ~ . I I ~ , . l~o\vc\,c~~. \Y/I~ilc I L . . I \ ills out ( : O I U I ~ I ) ~ I . \ ' > ~ I - ~ ~ C C C S S ~ I - S , A~ne~-ic,l t~ history I)oolts

con till^^^. I O 111.1ke 1nist31rc,sc%nt cut-.~nd-dricd answers, mostly glorifying C:olunlhc~s, always voiding ~~~ice l - r :~ in ty or controversy. Often their errors seem to bc copied fi-o~n o t h e ~ textbooks. Let me repeat the collective (:olumhus rtory tllev tell, this time italicizing everything in i t that we have solid reason to believe is true.

Born in Genoa, of humble parents, Christopher Columbus grew up to become an experienced seafarer, venturing a s far a s Iceland a n d West Africa. His adventures convinced him that the world must be round and that the fabled riches of the East-spices and gold-could be had by sailing west, superseding the overland routes, which the Turks had closed off to commerce. To get funding for his enterprise, he beseeched monarch aher monarch in Western Europe. After c t first being dismissed by Ferdi- nand and Isabella of Spain, Columbus finally got his chance when Isabella decided to underwrite a modest expedition. Columbus outfitted three piti- fully small ships, the Nifia, the Pinta, a n d the Santa Maria, a n d set forth from Spain. Aher an arduous journey of more than two months, during which his mutinous crew almost threw him overboard, Columbus discov- ered the West Indies on October 12, 1492 Unfortunately, although he made three more voyages to America, he never knew he had discovered a New World. Columbus died in obscurity, unappreciated and penniless. Yet without his daring American history would have been very different, for in a sense he made it all possible.

As you ciun see, textbooks get the date right. and thc nalnrs of the ships. Most of the rest that they tell us is untrustworthy. Many ;lspccts of (:ollirnburi lifc icliiain a niystrry. He clsinicd to be from (;enor. Italy, and there is evidence that he was. l ' l~e re is also evidence that lit. w'lsn'r: (:oIurnhus didn't secm to be able to write in Italian. eve11 when writillg 10 people in (;enoa. Some historians believe he was Jewish, ;I ( V T / O O ~ : ~ O .

c.orivert to LChristianity, probably f r o ~ n Spain. (Spain wah plrs ,~~r- i~lg ils Jews to convert to c.t~rti i~ll , l~-ly whcn each seems so certain of what i t declares, can he pl.c.tty SCJI-!.. LK'l1.1t ~ ' 1 s the weather like during Columbus's 1402 rrip? Aciorcl i~l~ to / ,(iti/I o/' I1romise, his ships were "stor~n-batrered"; but Aurrc~?ir,t/?i Adr~~t~trrro~ s ~ y s

Mosi fexibooks include o portroit of Columbus These head-and-shoulder pictures hove no value whctsoever as iirstoricol documents, because not one ..f tile countless inlayes we hove of *he man wos painted 1n his lifetime TO rl~ake the point that these images are ,r(~uthzntic, the library of Coingress .# . I / . , rh,s rshri t ieaii!iing six diiierent

8 , I t # , ? ! > , , ffl(-es

L I E S M Y T E A C H E R T O L D M E

, I I

cristipNote...according to Irish legends, Irish monks sailed the Atlantic Ocean in order to bring Christianity to the people they met. One Irish legend in particular...

I>LIs's C)\VII jo~~l-lldl s11ows C I C ~ I - I V 01;11 he 1r.- o i Ameiicnn historit

()rhcr soul-ces claim that Columbus lost heart ancl that the captains of ~ l l c other two ships persuaded him to keep o n . Still other sources suggest (hat the three leaders met and agreed to continue on for a few more days .11,d then reassess the situation. After studying the miltter, (:ol~~rnhus's biographer Samuel Eliot Morison reduced the cornpl;iirlts to 1ncl.e ~ s i p - i~ig: "They were all getting on each other's I I C I - V ~ S , as I ~ ; I I ) ~ > ~ I I \ 11\ 0 \ , < . 1 - I>c>ard.

Such ex:lggeration is not entirely harn~less. Anorhc:~- ascl~cr!,pc lurks l>clow the surface: that those who direct social enterprises arc more intelligent than those nearer the bottom. Hill Bigelow, ;I high school history teacher, has pointed out that "the sailors are stupid, superstitious, cowardly, and sometimes ~cheming. Columbus, on the other hand, is 111-ave, wise, and godly." Thcse portrayals amount to an "anti-working c-l;~ss pro-boss polen~ic."~' Indeed, the only textbook that still reperits [he old flat-carth myth thinks badly of the sailors, whom it characterizes .ls "a motley crew."

False entries in the log of the Santa Maria constitute another piece of the nlyth. "Colun~bus was a true leader." says A History of'tbe IJnited .Stiztts. "He ;il~ered the records of disrances they had covered so the (I-cw woulcl not think they had gone too far from home." Salvador de M.ldariaga has persuasively argued that to believe this, we would have lo think the others on the voyase were fools. Columbus h ; ~ c l "no special 111

cristipNote...captained the Nina and Pinta. During the return voyage, Columbus confided in his journal the real reason for the false log entries: he wanted to keep the route to the Indies secret. As paraphrased by Las Casas, "He says that he pretended to have gone a greater distance in order to confound the pilots and sailors who did the charts, that he might remain master of that route to the Indies."

cristipNote...of the Indians arrived alive, but along with the parrots, gold trinkets, and other exotica, they caused quite a stir in Seville. Ferdinand and Isabella provided Columbus with seventeen ships, 1200 to 1500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs for a second voyage.

Of the twelve textbooks, only six mention that the Spanish enslaved or exploited the Indians anywhere in the Americas. O f these only four verge on mentioning that (:olumbus was involved. The United States- A History of the Republic places the following passage about the fate of the Indians under the heading "The Fate of Columbus": "Some Span- iards who had come to the ~ m e r i c a s had begun to enslave and kill the original Americans. Authorities in Spain held Columbus responsible for the atrocities." Note that A History takes pains to isolate Columbus from the enslavement charge-others were misbehaving L i p and Liberty implies that Colun~bus might have participated: "Slavery began in the New World almost as soon as Columbus got off the boat." Only The American Adventure clearly associates Columbus with slavery. Americ~zn History levels a vague charge: "Columbus was a great sailor and a brave and determined man. But he was not p o d at politics or business." That's it. The other hooks simply adore him.

As Kirkpatrick Sale poetically sums up, Columbus's "second voyage marks the first extended encounter of European and Indian societies, the clash of cultures that was to echo down through five centuries.""" The seeds of that five-century battle were sown in Haiti between 1493 and 1500. 'I'hese are not mere details that our textbooks omit. They are facts crucial to understanding Americdn and European history. Capt. John Smith, for example, used Colu~nbus as a role model in proposing a get-tough policy for the Virgiriia Indians in 1624: "The manner how to suppress them is so often related and approved, I omit it here: And you have twenty cxamples of the Spaniards how they got the West Indies, and forced the treacherous and rebellious infidels to do all man- ner of drudgery work and slavery for them, themselves living like soldiers upon the fruits of their labors."-" The methods unleashed hy Columbus are, in fact, the larger part of his legacy. After all, they worked. The

- -

island was so well that Spanish convicts, given a second chance on Haiti, could "go anywhere, take any woman or girl, take anything, and have the Indians carry him on their backs as if :hey were mules."" In 1499, when C o l ~ ~ m b u s finally found gold on Haiti in significant amounts, Spain became the envy of Europe. After 1500 Portugal, France, Holland, and Britain joined in conquering the Americas. These nations were at least as brutal as Spain. The British, for example, unlike the Spanish, did not colonize by making use of Indian labor but simply forced the Indians out of the way. Many Jndians fled British colonies to Spanish territories (Florida, Mexico) in search of more hum'lne trcat- ment.

call thr ( ; o l u m l ~ i ; ~ ~ ~ i:xih:~ngc.-' Crops, animals. itleas, and diseases hegall to c:ross the c,cc;1115 rcgi1I~1.1~. I ' c r h ~ ~ s the most fir-ruching impact of C:olumhus; findings was o n F,uropc,ln (:hristianity. In I492 all of Ell- rope iv;ls in the grip o f the C:atllolic C:IILI~CII. AS L~TOUSSC puts it , hefore Amrric.n, "F,l~ropc w a virri~:llly incaphlc of self-criticism."" After America, F.i~rope's religious r ~ n i f o r m i t ~ was ruptured. tior how \yere these new peoples to be explained? 'l'hey were not mentioned in the Bihlc. '1'11e Indians simply did not fit ~ { i t h i n orthociox (:hristia~liry's cxpl;~na~ion of the nloral univei-se. Moreover, i~nlike the Muslinls, who ~nigllt bc \vri~ten off as "cian~~led intidels," Indians hild not rejected Christianity, they hati just ncvcl- cncour~tcred ~ t . Were they doomed to hell? E\~t:n 111c ~111imals of Amt:rica posed a religioi~s challenge. According to the Uihle, a t the tlLlwn of cre:~tio~l all animals lived in the (iarden of Eden. I.atcl; two ot each species entel-cd Noah's ark ,lnd ended up on Mt. Aral.at. Sinec 1:Llen a11d Mr. Ararat were hoth in the Middle East, whcrc. col~ld tllcsc new .Amel-ic,in species have c o n ~ c froni? Silch ques- tions shook orthodox ( '~tholicism and contribi~tcd to the l'rotestant I~eform;~tion, which hcgan i l l 15 1'. '

I)ol~~ic;~lly, n.~tio~ls likc the, Ara\ual

1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1 ~ . 1 1 1 : ~ 1 \ . I \ \ \ \ l l l l ~ I I 1 1 1 . 1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1 1 , . I S . , 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ) I O 1 1 . 1 1 1 1 l 1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1 1 1

t l l . l l , l , I , I I ~ ~ I I C

( ~ I I 1 1 1 1 1 / 1 1 1 \ \ O \ l l I \ \ I I I I I l ~ ~ \ I' 1 1 ' ' l ' I l l . l l l c l ' . l \ l I l ~ : I . ' " \ l l l . VI'll~ll ( . " I l l 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 \ \ \ . I \ \ c . I I I I I ~ : ( ) I I ( , C I I 1\.11~(.ll.1 I , I I 1 1 1 , \ \ O I I ~ I ( , I \ 0 1 1 1 1 ~ ~\nie~-ic::~a, t l i ~ ,

,, \.. / I I ( ~ I . I I I ' . \ \ \ I \ . ' ' \ \ i . I I \ ) I I I I I " .111d " 0 1 C I I I I ~ I % 1111(.l11~:crit.~.. 1'11c.v 1i:1ve ver-y soo(l ( I I , , I ~ ~ I I ~ ~ . " \$.r-otc. "'11111 1 1 1 ~ . Iiillt: ~ l i . ~ i ~ ~ t ~ i t i s .I \le~-y 111:1rvelol1s s t~t i . . of' ;I . Y [ V ~ C . so o~.(le~-Iy rhat it is a pleasure ro see it. and they have good mtm~ories and they wish to see everything and ask what it is and fi)r what i t is used." Later, when Col~lrnbus was justibing his wars and his enslavement of the Indians, the); became "cruel" and "stupid," "a people warlike and numerous, whose customs and religion are very differeiit from ours."

It is always usefill to think badly about people one has exploited or pla~is to exploit. Modifying one's opinions to bring them into line with one's actions or planned actions is the most common outcorne of the process known as "cognitive disso~~ance," according to the social psy- chologist Leon Fesunger. N o one likes to think of himself or herself as a bad person. 1% treat badly another pcrson whom we consider a reason- able human being creares a tension between act and attitude that de- ~nnnds resolution. We cannot erase what we have done, and to alter our future behavior may not be in our interest. '1% change our attitude is easier. "

Columbus gives us the first recorded example o f cognitive dissonance in the Americas, for although the Indians may have changed from hospitable to angry, they could hardly have evolved from intel1igc:nt to stupid so quickly. 'The change had to bc in Columbus.

T h e Americas affected more than the mind. African and Eurasian stonl:lclis were also affected. Almost half of all ~riajor crops riow grown throughout the world originally came fro111 the Americas. According to Alfred Crosby, adding corn to African diets caused the population to grow, which helped fuel the African slave trade to the Americis. Adding potatoes to European diets caused the population to explode in the sixreenth and seventeenth centuries, which in turn helpcd file1 the Euro- pean emigration ro the Americas and Australia. Crops from America also plnyed a key role in tlie ascendancy of Britain, Germany, and, finally, Kussia; the rise o f these northern nations shifted the power base of Europe away from the Mediterranean.-"

Shortly after ships from (:olumhus's second voyage returned to Eu- rope, syphilis began to plague Spain arid Jraly. There is likely a causal conneition. O n the other hand, more than two hundred drugs derive from plants whose pharmacological uses were discovered by Am~.ric,lr~ l~ id ians .~"

I l 1 1 1 1 1 1 c , 1 ~ 1 ~ 1 ~ ~ ~ 1 1 1 ~ ' 1 1 , \ I I I , I l l , I % > I I . l l l \ I ~ ~ l I I l , , l I I I I 0 ~ 1 1 . . I l l l l < l1111,!: I l l ,,I \ \ \ I l l \ ' , I \ , 1 1 ~ , I l l ~ ~ l l ~ ~ , l l l l < l c \ c . , 1 1 1 , l \ ) l l . l \ ,~ , > l l l < ~ l l l , l l I ~ l 1 1 \ . 0 l ~ l 1 1 \ \ ~ ~ l h ' \

.~ .

! :111,1 1 1 1 1 ~ 1 . 8 1 1 I 1 . 1 1 1 I \ ? ( . I < , \o(,i\ ( 1 \ \ . 1 ; !;,(I tIi\~ovc.~-jc.5 of'go1d ,111d .\rl\,er rn 12 I ( , 1 . I 1 1 , I I !\rlLlc\. E111.0l)c:.111 I-c.1 ~gioils ancl Icndcra quickly .1111;l\xti ,o I I I L I C I I gold that they applied gold leaf to the ceilings of their ( I I I I I - C ~ C S ; ~ n d palaces, c-rected golden statues in tlie corners, and strung \ . I I ~ < . : ; of golden grapes bctwecn them. Marx and Engels held that this wrcciate how irnpol.tant America has been in the forniation of the tiloder~i world.

'I'l~is theft impoverishes us, keeps us ignorant of what has caused the \vor-Id t o dcvelop as it has. Clearly our textboolts arc not about teaching Iiis~ol-y. 'l'hcir enterprise is Building Character. 'T'hcy ther-efore treat ( : o l ~ ~ n i b u s '1s an origin myth: He was good and so are we." 111 1989 1'1-c\iticnr I3i151i invoked Colurnbus as a role model for the nation: "( : l i r i \ ~ o ~ > l ~ c r ( ~ : o l ~ ~ m h u s not only opened thc door to a S e w M r l d . but I I I I I - I I I h o w i ~ i g wh;~ t ~iionument;?l tc:irs c;111 be

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cristipNoteincreasingly saw "white" as a race and race as an important human characteristic.Columbus's own writings reflect this increasing racism. When Columbus was selling Queen Isabella the wonders of the Americas, the Indians were "well built" and "of quick intelligence." "They have very good customs"...

cristipNoteEconomically, exploiting the Americas transformed Europe, enriching first Spain, then, through trade and piracy, other nations. Columbus's gold finds on Haiti were soon dwarfed by discoveries of gold and silver in Mexico and the Andes.

I ~ L I I I I I / ~ I l ~ . I l ~ I I 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 ! ~ , I , 1 1 , I . . , \ i I 1 1 1 , I . I I I I l I l l l l ! ' I / I ( . ~ ~ I I I I I ~ I I ~ I I < I l l , . \ I I . I I I I ( , , I I I I \ \ \ , I ~ I , \ , l I I I I I I I ~ ~ I l c l ( 1 , I ~ I ; , , I . I I ~ ( , I I I I I I I ~ I I I \ I \ [ ( I ( 1 , I ~ I ~ ~ , ~ , ~ I ~ ~ \ \ 1 1 . 1 1 I \ \ \ 0 1 1 l 1 \ I l l l 1 l l l 1 1 . l l 1 I l l ~ . l ~ ~ l \ I l l t l I l l I t , , . I l l . " 11.\11)0,,1< .11111101\ \ \ I 1 0 A I C p ~ l ~ l ~ i ~ l ~ ( . O I I I I ~ I I , I I \ 1 0 1 ) 1 1 1 l c l I I . I I . I ( 1 c . 1 , ) I ) \ I O I I \ I \ , I ~ , I v c . 110 ~ I I I C ~ C ' S I i l l ~ l l e ~ i t i o ~ ~ i ~ ~ g W ~ ~ ; I I 111. ( l i c l \ \ . I I I I O I ( . . \ I I I < . I I ( . I \ o11ce. I I C . rc~ached thc~n----- even t l~o~lgl l t11at's h a l t of ~ I I C \ I O I . \ , ~ s t ~ l c l ~ ) ~ I I I : I I > s 1I1c 111orc inlport:~nt half.

I am not proposing the breast-beating altc.rnutive: that (:olumhus was bad and so are wr. On the contrary, textbooks should show that neither morality nor immorality can simply be conferred upon 11s by history. Merely being part of the United States, without regard to our own acts and ideas, does not make us moral or immoral beings. History is more co~n~l ica ted than that.

Again we must pause to consider: who are "we"? Columbus is uot a hero in Mexico, even though Mexico is much more Spanish in culture than the United States and might be expected to take pride in this hero of Spanish history. Why not? Because Mexico is :ilso much more Indian than the United States, and Mexicans perceive Columbus as white and European. "No sensible Indian person," wrote George I! Horse Capture, "can celebrate the arrival of (:olumb~s."~" Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history.

C:olumbus's conquest of Haiti can be seen as an amazing feat of courage and imagination by the first of Inany brave empire builders. It can also be understood as a bloody atrocity that left a legacy of genocide and slavery that endures in some drgree to [his day. Both views of Columbus are valid; indeed, Columbus's importance in history owes precisely to his being hoth a heroic navigator rlnd a great plunderer. If Colu~nbus were only the former, he would 111erely rival Ixif Erikson. Columbus's actions exen~plifji both meanings of the word exploit-a remarkable deed and also a taking advantage of. The worshipful hio- graphical vignettes of Colun~bus in our textbooks serve to indoctrinate students into a mindless endorsement of color~ialisn~ that is strikingly inappropriate in today's postcolonial era. In the words of the historian Michael Wallace, the Columbus myth "allows us to accept thr contem- porary division of the world into developed and underdeve1ol)ed spheres as natural 2nd given, ~.:lthcr than a historical product issuing from a process that hegan with Columbus's first voyage."

We understand Columbus and all European explorers and settlers more clearly if we treat 1492 as a meeting of three cu l t~~res (Africa was soon involved), rather than a discovery by o m . 7'he term Npw Wo~ldis itself part of the problem, for people had lived in the Americas For thousands of years. l 'he Americas were new only to Europeans. ' 1 ' 1 ~ ~

\ \ o ~ < l i ' , I ~ I I ~ I I I , I I I , I I I 0 1 1 1 1 c l ~ ~ ~ , l ~ l c ~ ~ ~ ~ , I t 1 1 I I O \ \ t , 1 1 1 ~ ) I I I 1 1 , I \ O I I , 1 1 ' . < ( 1 ' t ! . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 , 1 . 1 1 1 , . . 1 ~ l \ 1 \ 1 1 , 1 \ \ \ . 1 1 1 ( l 1 , \ \ 1 1 \ ' ( ) I 1 1 1 1 ~ \ 1 1 1 1 1 ~ 1 1 \ \ . 11c

\ I I I I ; , , : ' ~ I I , , , ,. 1 1 I l I I l l , , I \ \ I I C , , I I , > , I I I ~ I O I > ~ O I , C , I > ~ L O I I C I c o l o ~ l i , ~ l ~ / c c l I ~ I ~ I o I ? ~ . I I I < I I I I I O ~ I I I I I , I . I I ~ ~ L I , I ~ ~ . . " If ( ; o l ~ ~ l ~ , l > ~ ~ s h.~d 11ot cliscovcl-cd the. New ' I I \ I . I I L . \ / . i ( ~ d ?j'Promise, "others so011 would have." 'I'hree sen- Ic,llces later, the authors try to take back the word: "As is often pointed 0111, (:olumbus did not really 'discover' America. When he arrived on his side of the Atlantic there were perhaps 20 or more million people .~ll-cady here." Taking back words is ineffectual, however. Promi.re's whole .~~>l>roach is to portray whites discovering nonwhites rather than a mu- 11la1, multicultural encounter. The poinr isn't idle. Words are important -they can influence, and in some cases rarionalize, policy. In 1823 (:hief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court decreed ~ h a r Cherokees had certain rights to their land in Georgia by dint of their "occupancy" but that whites had superior rights owing to their "dis~over~." How Indians managed to occupy Georgia without having previously discovered it Marshall neglected to explain.x8

The process of exploration has itself typically been n~ultiracial and multicultural. William Erasmus, a Canadian Indian, pointed out, "Ex- plorers you call great men were helpless. They were like lost children, and it was our people who took care of them."XWfrican pilots helped I'rince Henry's ship captains learn their way down the coast of Africa.'"' O n (:hristmas Day 1492, Columbus needed help. The ,5nntn Mllriir ran aground off Haiti. Columbus sent for help to the nearest Arawak town, and "all the people of rhe town" responded, "with very big and many canoes." "'They cleared the decks in a very short time," Columbus continued, and the chief "caused all our goods to be placed together near the palace, until some houses that he gave us where all might be put and guarded had been er-nptied.""' O n his final voyage Colunlbus shipwrecked on Jamaica, and the Arawaks rhere kept him and his crew of more than a hundred alive for a whole year until Spaniards from Haiti rescued them.

So it has continued. Native Americans cured Carrier's men of scurvy near Montreal in 1535. They repaired Francis Drake's Golden Hind in California so he could complete his round-the-world voyage in 1579. Lewis and Clark's expedition to the Pacific Northwest was made possible by tribe after tribe of American Indians, with help from two Shoshone guides, Sacagawea and Toby, who served as interpreters. When Admiral 1'e:lrv discovered the North I'ole, the first person there was probably neither the European American Peary nor the African American Mat- 1 l 1 c ~ ~ Henson, his assistant, but their four Inuit pides, men and women O I I \vhom the entire expedition relied."' Our histories fail to mention

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cristipNoteaccomplished through perseverance and faith." The columnist Jeffrey Hart recently went even further: "To denigrate Columbus is to denigrate what is worthy in human history and in us all."

cristipNoteword discover is another part of the problem, for how can one person discover what another already knows and owns? Our textbooks are struggling with this issue, trying to move beyond colonialized history and Eurocentric language.

1 1 1 1 1 1 \111< 1 1 , . I [ ! . . 1 1 1 1 l 1 1 1 1 ! ' < 1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1 1 < 1 1 1 l I 1 < . , 1 1 . I \ 1 1 1 . 1 \ 1 ~ ~ 1 l o ' I l l l i i . . l l l t l 1 1 1 < . l C 1 0 1 1 l l , . t . l I I , , \ I , , , , 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! , , ,!I 1 1 1 C ~ l 1 1 \ 1 . l \ ~ ~ \ . I \ \ 1 1 ~ ~ < ~ 1 ~ 1 0 1 . 1 ! 1 C > I . d / l \ .111(! I < , < I I I I ~ , I O ~ : I ~ . I I I \ . I\ I I C . \ \ , I I I < I I I \ , , I , . , I , c 111.111, I I ; \ ( o I . v ~ t . ( ~ : O I U I I ~ ~ U S c01il:i ~ l \ \ l \ l l l l l \ ~l