How Did Christopher Columbus The Indians And Human Progress

Natalie Imamura
Ms. Theobald
HOTA
August 7,2014
A People’s History of the United States

1.) Columbus, the Indians, and Human progress
Zinn’s opinion was based on the Indians viewpoint such as the Arawak’s, blacks, and Cherokees. He believes that if we reflect on the past, we will be able to create a better future. When Columbus met the Arawak Indians he took some Indians as prisoners to help Columbus find gold. During this chapter it showed how Columbus was the starting point into the beginning of wars with the Indians. He shows how all the people such as Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, and the English settlers have overcome with power and destroyed villages and took slaves. It all ended in bloodshed. I do agree with Zinn’s point of view. It is

Zinn’s opinion was that the class distinctions caused a lot of conflict. An example is when Zinn wrote about the Bacon’s rebellion. White servants, blacks, and Indians kept rebelling against the middle and higher class. The middle class was worried that they were going to team up to take over their masters. Another one of Zinn’s arguments was also that the higher class kept passing laws that mainly were against the lower classes. I agree with Zinn’s opinion because the higher classes kept treating the lower classes poorly, and of course that will cause a lot of conflict. It is unfair for the people of the lower class to be treated as unequal. I do agree with Zinn’s interpretations. He had a lot of detail in his interpretation and from this information I could not see how anything could change my point of

Zinn points out that some people have presented the war as a popular case, but the truth is different. Zinn also shows the viewpoints of Mexicans. The Mexicans were fighting against the Americans for land. Polk’s main reason for starting the war was to get land of California. Zinn used President James Polk as an example. He agitated and provoked the war. The Americans wanted land on Mexico. The Americans had fired shots in Mexico, so a war was started. Zinn also points out that the invasion of Mexico was a defensive action to get support from the people. It was still seen as a war though. Zinn also describes the treaty of Guadalupe at the end of the chapter. Zinn gives negative information about how the war was even started. I agree with Zinn that it is not really a popular war. It seemed to me that Polk would do anything to get to California. It was pointless to me to fight the Mexicans. It was foolish how it started because Polk basically made it seem that Mexico invaded