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Christopher Columbus Essay

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Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage in 1942 on the West Indian islands, to find a new world for the Europeans. When he landed on the Caribbean Island the Indian Natives that lived there were at first scared but greeted him in a friendly manner. The conquest and settlement of the Western Hemisphere opened new opportunities for other Europeans such as the French, Dutch, English and Spanish to come to the island and colonize the Indian's land. For the Europeans to colonize and move in on Native land they had to find a way to interact with the Indians. Through their interaction they found cultural understandings and confusions that were documented by both the Europeans and the Indians. In the book, "Major Problems in American Colonial …show more content…

Indian women cooked, cleaned, build houses, planted corn, got lobsters and gathered flags. While their "lazy husbands" went fishing the Indian women would carry the fish and dry it for the next season. The Europeans saw the Indians gender roles within families as a sign of weakness for the husband and poor treatment of the wives. In the book, " Give Me Liberty" by Eric Foner, he states, " Europeans considered Indian men "unmanly"- too weak to exercise their authority within their families and restrain their wives open sexuality, and so lazy that they forced their wives to do most of the productive work" ( Foner, Pg 23). As a result the Europeans suggest bringing them freedom to liberate them from the unchristian gender roles. Wood suggests that the "ruder Indian men" should treat their women the way the English treat their wives with love and respect. This demonstrates how the Europeans expectations of the Indians are to be similar to their own culture. The Europeans are not trying to understand the Indians gender role but rather they are criticizing it and judging it for being different. In document one, "Captain John Smith Analyzes the Humane Scene, both English and Indian, in Early Jamestown, 1642. Captain John during his first Jamestown year, h explored Chesapeake Bay, in the course of which he was captured and taken to the paramount chief, Powhatan. Here he describes the Indians as wild

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