America Before Columbus. The Website

¶ … 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 17). This can be seen in the Catholics who were so tightly bound to the Vatican in Rome (17). The textbook points out that this wasn't just the case for Catholics, the Protestants in the New World were also closely tied to their Protestant religion in England.

The relationship that the colonists had with the Native Americans was an important one because the European colonists needed the Native Americans to help them build their New World; in short, the Europeans needed the Indian workforce (Ruckman 17). Sadly, Indians became slaves who were bought and sold, or they were forced (indentured) workers (17). Ruckman notes that the colonists needed major work done and the Indian workforce was not enough to meet the demands of a growing society, which is why slaves for Africa were being imported -- roughly beginning around the year 1502 (17).

Spain came to the New World in 1492 (the same year as Columbus) and England appear on the scene roughly five years later -- 1497 (Ruckman 19). For the English, going to America was a response to social and economic troubles in their homeland (19). France founded Quebec, its first settlement in North America, in 1608 (less than a year after England's Jamestown) (23). The Dutch also arrived in America in 1624. Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in New York and established his own settlement, which is now New York State (23).

2. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was, of course, the bloody conflict that started the American Revolutionary War. The British wanted to seize both weapons and ammunition at Concord and kill leaders of the American Revolution. It was Paul Revere (reportedly) who traveled on horseback to Lexington and then to Concord to spread the warning that the British were planning an attack. When the British got to Lexington, the people hid. The next day, revolutionary men, the Minutemen, gathered at Lexington -- ready to use guerrilla tactics against the British. It was the desire of the American revolutionaries to free themselves from England's unfair governing that was the instigation of a revolution.

3. Life in the New World colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries was a time of reorganization and expansion (Ruckman 29). The first English settlements were business enterprises, for the most part, and they were not strong entities; there were so many challenges that they had to face, which, for the most part, they were not prepared for (28). There was little blending of cultures between the English and the Native Americans. The English wanted to isolate themselves from Indian culture as they had used these people for slaves and obviously did not think that they were on the same human level as they themselves were. The English didn't do a whole lot of mingling with other European colonists either. It is actually quite amazing that the English were able to form such strong and permanent settlements along the eastern seaboard when they were so anti-everybody else. Not only did they create great settlements in the east, but they even moved into the south where the created great plantations and grew a "slave-driven agricultural economy…which had few counterparts in the north" (28).