Columbian Voyages Reaction
Reaction to “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians”
In his book, “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians,” Alfred Crosby describes Bardic and Analytic Interpretations of the Columbian Voyages and Exchange.
The Bardic Interpretation was used by narrative historians who approached the history with the idea of providing a history that detailed a favorable provenance leading to the creation of the United States. They viewed the New World as a place without sin, which was virgin and untouched. These Bardic Historians methods contained a narrow focus, focusing on certain great heroes, which were predominantly white. The sources of the data that the Bardic Historians used when writing about these heroes came from documents, such as letters, diaries, and memoirs, rather than scientific or statistical data from the geology or biology of the time. One such historian was George Bancroft, who wrote about Columbus, on his discovery of the New World. He wrote how Columbus had discovered two new continents, which were populated by “savages,” with some signs of early civilization. He went on to describe the superiority of the conquistadors, along with other European imperialists, and their ease of conquering the native citizens. Although, many Bardic Historians choose to leave out how the natives were conquered, such as the decimation of the American Indian peoples through the biological warfare tactic of spreading small pox with blankets. Finally Bancroft ends with how many of the colonized countries under the rule of European countries rebelled, ending European Imperialism, but thanks to the influx of European citizens, the Americas matured quickly.
The obsolescence of old information caused society to approach the past with a new look in order to have an accurate, Analytical Interpretation of what had occurred, which with, history had become a science. The method the Analytical Historians used to reach the level of a
In his book, “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians,” Alfred Crosby describes Bardic and Analytic Interpretations of the Columbian Voyages and Exchange.
The Bardic Interpretation was used by narrative historians who approached the history with the idea of providing a history that detailed a favorable provenance leading to the creation of the United States. They viewed the New World as a place without sin, which was virgin and untouched. These Bardic Historians methods contained a narrow focus, focusing on certain great heroes, which were predominantly white. The sources of the data that the Bardic Historians used when writing about these heroes came from documents, such as letters, diaries, and memoirs, rather than scientific or statistical data from the geology or biology of the time. One such historian was George Bancroft, who wrote about Columbus, on his discovery of the New World. He wrote how Columbus had discovered two new continents, which were populated by “savages,” with some signs of early civilization. He went on to describe the superiority of the conquistadors, along with other European imperialists, and their ease of conquering the native citizens. Although, many Bardic Historians choose to leave out how the natives were conquered, such as the decimation of the American Indian peoples through the biological warfare tactic of spreading small pox with blankets. Finally Bancroft ends with how many of the colonized countries under the rule of European countries rebelled, ending European Imperialism, but thanks to the influx of European citizens, the Americas matured quickly.
The obsolescence of old information caused society to approach the past with a new look in order to have an accurate, Analytical Interpretation of what had occurred, which with, history had become a science. The method the Analytical Historians used to reach the level of a