Even though it has been a while since I was in grades k-12, I don't remember hearing the word "failure" describe Spanish and other European explorers. But it seems that's basically what happened. But the Europeans wanted gold, territory and superiority over another country and peoples so badly, that they didn't recognize it as such. Explorers and their party would die from starvation, conditions and disease, and the countries would just send someone else. If the first explorer didn't accomplish anything, and the natives would refuse to help them, I would call it a failure. But the Europeans would just send someone else.
I also thought about the Spanish and their attempt at converting the native peoples to Christianity, by having them agree to a form, and if they didn't, then they would be considered enemies. I thought it was pompous of the Europeans to think that everyone spoke their language or understood religion and God. And it never occurred to them that the native peoples thought the same thing. But things haven't changed much, since some countries and parties think they know more than others, and think they should be in control because they are superior.
I also thought it was interesting about the "one drop rule" and Pocahontas. Her descendants had to make her an "Indian Princess" to make it okay to have Indian blood. And eventually, some of them probably wanted to be related to her, with the stories which circulated since the 1620's.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I thought a lot about language barriers this week too and how easy it is to be ignorant sometimes. It seems really silly that the Europeans assumed (or didn't care) that people understood what they were saying, but there were gross miscommunications on both sides. It really reminds me of some current views in America that "if you don't speak English, get out". Not trying to step on any toes, but personaly, this type of ignorance is really upsetting, and we all know how well that mentality worked for the Europeans...
The Europeans had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they arrived in America. They thought Native Americans were grossly inferior to themselves. That wasn't the case and without disease and superior technology I don't think they would have been as successful.
I believe the reason why we don't think about the spanish as being "failures" is because the parts of history that we’re taught is the victorious parts. We learn about Cortez coming over and conquering the Aztecs, about the Spanish crossing Central America and finding the Pacific Ocean, about the going into South America and defeating the Incas. When we learn about them going into Florida, we only get the part about searching for gold and not them getting whooped by the Natives.
Post a Comment