In this chapter, “Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress,” Howard Zinn explains how people have carried out human massacres throughout world history as if they were a necessity for the human progress. According to Zinn, these massacres are not limited to a specific place or time, but extend to different countries at different times in history. Examples of these massacres as tool for human progress are the genocide of the Arawaks and Hiroshima. Furthermore, Zinn explains that the use of genocide as a tool of progress has maintained in human culture because people have learned to ignore it; in other words, according to the author, people learn about universal history from the historical heroes’ perspective. For this reason, Zinn prefers to
Torture played a huge role in the powers of the inquisitors. “Document 5: The Case of Marina Gonzalez” in the book The Spanish Inquisition written by Lu Ann Homza, is an example of how important torture was for confessions however torture was ineffective when revealing truths. To torture an entire group of a population, it would have required a very thorough process. An inquisition began with an Edict of Grace after a Catholic Mass, in which those in community who were guilty of heresy were invited to the town center to declare any acts against the church.
The Conquistadors were able to present themselves as these great conquerors of the Americas, by ignoring the help of the natives as they wrote down history. They chose to paint themselves as theses epic warriors, when in reality they were assisted by the peoples of the Americas, and were later able to exploit these people; allowing their narrative to be favorable towards “their”
In 1519 conquistador Fernando Cortes and his men, along with their horses and weapons, arrived on the Mexican island of Cozumel off of the Yucatan after sailing months on the Atlantic Ocean from their home country of Spain (Deeds, Meyer, and Sherman, 78). After arriving on Cozumel, they were instructed by the “friendly natives” to go to the Yucatan and then later to an area by the name of Tabasco (Deeds, Meyer, and Sherman, 78). Once arriving in Tabasco, the Spaniards became aware that not all of the natives living in this new strange world would be quite as friendly as the ones on Cozumel. Here the Spaniards were greeted with arrows of resentment by the natives after Cortes explained that he and his men just wanted peace (Deeds, Meyer, and
“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.
The Broken Spears, by Miguel Leon-Portilla, is an all-inclusive and compelling account of the Spanish conquest, told by the Aztecs also known as the conquered. Leon Portilla’s choice of events depicted in this book collides together giving the reader a broad view of the Spanish conquest. This book gives a history of emotional and spiritual human experiences, allowing the readers to comprehend, and relate to the Aztecs as they went through terror and faced their fears. This book provides an extensive amount of details concerning lack of leadership, bias and technological hardship that led to the Aztec defeat. After reading this book the reader will start to understand how and why the Aztecs suffered .
All the Spaniards had done was killing of innocent lives for personal greed and acquiring as much goods as they could for their Majesty, doing so for the money was their justifications for killing the natives. Then we have Cortes, who instead of killing off the Natives of Tenochtitlan, he opened their eyes to the horrors of their religious ways and gave them the revelation of Christianity. Cortes didn’t mention any genocide of the natives, he spoke about the geography and religious views of the natives. He stated, “I will simply say that the manner of living among the people is very similar to that of Spain, and considering that this is a barbarous nation shut off from a knowledge of true God or communication with enlightened nations, one may well marvel at the orderliness and good government which is everywhere mentioned” (SB, 8). Cortes is only praising the natives and their life style because he feels the people have everything figured out in terms of being dominant and true government but, lacked in religion which he left them
Furthermore, Howard Zinn talks about the humanizing of oppressors. Initially, he brings up Christopher Columbus, a historical figure that is glossed over as someone that discovered America rather than a colonist that killed people for gold. He then talks about how Andrew Jackson’s expel of the Native Americans forced them into deadly and poor land, while many died in the movement from place to place. The FBI is often heroes in movie when in reality, they were watching people get beaten and murdered at their most desperate time of need. Zinn highlights the lies told by Hollywood’s films.
The Great Famine of 1845 was the worst ever due to poor management of people,
When thinking of the Spanish Conquest, two groups often come to mind: the Spaniards and the Native Americans. The roles of each of these groups and their encounters have been so heavily studied that often the role of Africans is undermined. As Matthew Restall states in his article Black Conquistadors, the justifications for African contribution are often “inadequately substantiated if not marginalized [as the] Africans were a ubiquitous and pivotal part of the Spanish conquest campaigns in the Americas […]” (Restall 172). Early on in his article, Restall characterizes three categories of Africans present during the Conquest – mass slaves, unarmed servants of the Spanish, and armed auxillaries (Restall 175).
Population dwindled, starvation ensued, and tensions
It left them ruined, zombified freaks. Towns fell. Villages burned. The condition
Native people were weakened and frustrated; causing the power of the government to diminish and weaken, leading to a downfall of the economy too. They lacked food and water which worsened the living conditions and caused natives to catch many diseases like AIDS, malaria and others under the harsh rule. The political units were disrupted while many individuals and groups resisted the European domination. Leading to industrial nations controlling the global
In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.
The famine was devastating. Where it brought about a ton of illnesses like typhus, cholera, diphtheria, jungle fever, looseness of the bowels, typhoid and because of lack of food individuals’ feet started swelling and numerous citizens felt exhausted and tires so they fell on the floor with sickness in the blood. The dead individuals were not in any case berried however they were tossed in the garbage or on the corners inside the
