Alex Campos
9/5/14
HIST 1310.004

Thesis Statement: Christopher Columbus is historically important because he was the last man to discover the Americas, setting a new precedent for discoverers and starting a new era in a New World. Historians should understand his story in terms of discovery, contact, conquest and exchange, and this essay will explain how to do so with each of said terms.

Formulate your case on how historians should talk about early European history in the Americas.
Historians should not idolize Columbus for discovering America. Like most men of his day, he was exploring for gold, glory and God. All of these purposes being profoundly selfish. His discovery of land and its’ inhabitants was purely coincidental as was his conquering of such.
Evidence shows he was not planning on being at sea for as long as he was, and also shows that his conquest would not have been as easy if it wasn’t for the exchange of diseases him and his fellow Europeans brought across the waters to share with the natives.
These were a kind, giving group of people who were taken advantage of. Examples of their kindness can be found in the Morton reading when he states “If any one that shall come into their houses and there fall asleep, when they see him disposed to lie down, they will spread a mat for him of their own accord, and lay a roll of skins…and let him lie. If he sleep until their meat be dished up, they will set a wooden bowl of meat by him that sleepeth, and wake him saying,...if you be hungry, there is meat for you, where if you will eat you may. Such is their humanity…”

Identify and briefly describe one piece of evidence that distinguishes the English experience from that of the Spanish. Compare and contrast the two.
The Native Americans greeted the European travelers with kindness