This week’s readings were about the ‘discovery’ of America by Christopher Columbus and also about the history of Peru and its government.
The main comments that I have are from Christopher Columbus’ journal. The first impression of the journal is that Columbus believes that he is going to India to try and spread religion and Spanish rule. The beginning part of the journal was not as interesting as the second half when Columbus made it to land.
As soon as Columbus finds land, he states how he ‘made the necessary declarations’ (Columbus, 1492 pg 94) to take possession of the land. I think this sets the tone for the rest of the piece, as it portrays the ignorance that explorers had towards the indigenous people’s claim to the land that they were already settled on. Moreover, this idea is supported through the constant references that Columbus makes to how the indigenous people seem easy to convert to Christianity.
The language that Columbus uses seems very passive, in the sense that all of his revelations in the new land that he has discovered is not necessarily beneficial to him as an individual but to the Spanish monarchy. The constant references to how the ‘fertile’ ground, vast green trees and streams are instrumental to the growth and success of the Spanish rule on this land. This passivity that Columbus portrays through the language of his journal reflects his position on this journey. He was trying to persuade the Spanish monarchy that his journey to another land was advantageous to Spain, because of the money that he had promised to them from his journey.
The theme of money and wealth is prevalent in Columbus’ obsession with gold that is observed to be on many of the ‘islanders’ that he has encountered. Also, once he gets to land his new quest is to find the king of the land, who is supposedly the ‘Great Khan’. From the extracts, it seems that Columbus’s desire to find the gold is his lifeline, as he is constantly changing direction in order to try and find where the king and this gold is.
Another thing that I wanted to bring up were the religious tropes that I believe are scattered throughout Columbus’s journal entries. This is greatly because of the overwhelming natural imagery of the ‘trees and fruits, their plants, their harbours and all their splendours’ (Columbus, 1492, pg 127). Focusing on the ‘trees and fruits’, pulls similarities to the illustration of the Garden of Eden, and how Columbus is trying to purposefully represent how this land he has discovered is like that in the Bible which is so important in Spanish society.