Module 3 Reflection


The purpose of this text is to talk about the anniversary of Christopher Columbus and what happened years after he came how he impacted the South and should we really celebrate him as someone finding “new land” and bringing European diets food and culture or should we talk about him killing population with diseases in America. Columbus's first voyage of discovery was treated quite differently. Many peoples of indigenous and African descent identified Columbus with imperialism, colonialism, and conquest. The National Council of Churches adopted a resolution calling October 12th a day of mourning for millions of indigenous people who died as a result of European colonization. More than five hundred years after the first Spaniards arrived in the Caribbean, historians and the general public still debate Columbus's legacy. Should he be remembered as a great discoverer who brought European culture to a previously unknown world? Or should he be condemned as a man responsible for an "American Holocaust," a man who brought devastating European and Asian diseases to unprotected native peoples, who disrupted the American ecosystem, and who initiated the Atlantic slave trade? What are Columbus's legacy discovery and progress, or slavery, disease, and racial antagonism? New foods reshaped the diets of people in both hemispheres. Tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, corn, green beans, peanuts, vanilla, pineapple, and turkey transformed the European diet, while Europeans introduced sugar, cattle, pigs, cloves, ginger, cardamon, and almonds to the Americas. Global patterns of trade were overturned, as crops grown in the New World such as tobacco, rice, and vastly expanded production of sugar fed growing consumer markets in Europe.
Do you think we should celebrate Christopher Columbus day?

Image result for christopher columbus

N/A, N/A. "Christopher Columbus." History Today. 2018. 05 Sept. 2019 <https://www.historytoday.com/archive/people-who-discovered-christopher-columbus>.

Comments

  1. Hi Jaelen,
    What do you think, based on the historical information in the primary source documents?

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  2. Hello Jaelen,
    I do agree that instead of celebrating "Columbus day", it is more of time of grieving and sorrow. He didn't really do anything that great in terms of world history, yes he "discovered" new land, but new for who? The Natives were already here living peacefully before he came and massacred them. I side with you on the part of him bring mostly bad things to the America, and igniting the slave trade. However, I feel it would be happened one way or the other, he just was the one to do it.

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  3. Hi Jaelen,
    You are so right, discovering the new world brought many sources of wealth and food. Christopher Columbus discovered many new foods like potatoes,peanuts,maize, and many more. He then brought them back to Europe and Africa. Thanks for your blog post!

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  4. Hello Jalen,

    I just want to note that I have never acknowledged Columbus Day, even when I was younger my father thought it was pointless. And now that I have been doing more research I can now clearly understand why. Celebrating Columbus Day is basically celebrating the demise of an entire culture to uplift one that caused tremendous amounts of pain. I will say though that he did help with the initiation of the TransAtlantic Trade.

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  5. Hi Jalen,
    I do not celebrate Columbus Day. They say he founded apart of "the Land" but who can say he really did. I don't see this day as a holiday. He just stole the credit from people who were already living on "the land".

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