Hist 17A Class Discussions
Class Discussions
Q1: This week's discussion will focus on readings 2.3 and 2.3 from Reading the American Past. In your post, please write about anything that struck you as interesting about the passage. What do you think you can learn from the passage? Did anything surprise you?
A1: Both Columbus’ “Columbus Describes His First Encounter with “Indians”” and Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s “A Conquistador Arrives in Mexico” were thought-provoking reads. What I learned was that Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish Conquistador under Hernan Cortes) and Christopher Columbus (Italian Explorer under Spanish King Ferdinand II) had very different viewpoints of the Native Americans. Christopher Columbus’ main goal was to lead the Spanish Crown to the East via a quick route, but when he found the Caribbean, he wanted to find riches for Spain & spread Christianity, while Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s main goal was to claim lands for Spain under Cortes. Columbus saw the Native Americans culture as “they brought us parrots and cotton in thread balls and javelins and many other things, and they traded them to us…a people very poor in everything. All of them go around naked as their mothers bore them…..They have no iron… (20). ” On the other hand, Bernal Diaz del Castillo saw Native Americans’ culture as, “… it was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before …(24).” Christopher Columbus, being Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s predecessor, laid the foundation of Spain’s dominance in the Americas.
Q2: This week we will be discussing readings 3.1, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 from Reading the American Past.
A2: I found passage Words of the Bewitched (4-5) very curious. Women had been condemned to burning and hanging in Europe starting with Charlemagne’s Christianization of Europe and with thePactus legis Alamannorum, an early medieval Germanic written law code, in the 7th century. By the end of the Middle Ages,
Q1: This week's discussion will focus on readings 2.3 and 2.3 from Reading the American Past. In your post, please write about anything that struck you as interesting about the passage. What do you think you can learn from the passage? Did anything surprise you?
A1: Both Columbus’ “Columbus Describes His First Encounter with “Indians”” and Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s “A Conquistador Arrives in Mexico” were thought-provoking reads. What I learned was that Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish Conquistador under Hernan Cortes) and Christopher Columbus (Italian Explorer under Spanish King Ferdinand II) had very different viewpoints of the Native Americans. Christopher Columbus’ main goal was to lead the Spanish Crown to the East via a quick route, but when he found the Caribbean, he wanted to find riches for Spain & spread Christianity, while Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s main goal was to claim lands for Spain under Cortes. Columbus saw the Native Americans culture as “they brought us parrots and cotton in thread balls and javelins and many other things, and they traded them to us…a people very poor in everything. All of them go around naked as their mothers bore them…..They have no iron… (20). ” On the other hand, Bernal Diaz del Castillo saw Native Americans’ culture as, “… it was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before …(24).” Christopher Columbus, being Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s predecessor, laid the foundation of Spain’s dominance in the Americas.
Q2: This week we will be discussing readings 3.1, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 from Reading the American Past.
A2: I found passage Words of the Bewitched (4-5) very curious. Women had been condemned to burning and hanging in Europe starting with Charlemagne’s Christianization of Europe and with thePactus legis Alamannorum, an early medieval Germanic written law code, in the 7th century. By the end of the Middle Ages,