National Approach

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National Approach:

Article: David Armitage, Christopher Columbus and the Uses of History
History Today, (May 1992)

 

 

This is quite a long and dense article, which is mainly suitable for advanced level students (age 16-18). Although the text is a difficult one, it is good to sometimes work with longer and more challenging texts (especially for those students who may be thinking about going on to study history at university). The article is also useful in that it helps to explain how and why views about people and events in history sometimes differ, and change over time.

Because the text is a substantial and difficult one, students should work in groups of 3 or 4 and share their ideas and understandings of the text in relation to the following questions, before preparing to present their answers. Groups may also wish to ‘sub-contract’ sections of the article, in order to work through the text more quickly.


Tasks (students' view):

1

On page 50 (column 2), Armitage states that the five hundred year anniversary of Columbus’s journey to America in 1492 was celebrated in Italy, Spain and the USA. What connection does Columbus have with these three countries?

2

(See page 50, bottom of column 2 and top 11 lines of column 3) Why have some people seen Columbus’s voyage to America as a bad thing, which should not be celebrated?

3

(See page 51, top half of column 1): Armitage gives us his own view, as a historian, of how Columbus himself saw his role in history – what is Armitage’s interpretation of Columbus’s self-perception?

4

It is a long article, and there is a lot of detail in it about various views about Columbus over the past five centuries. But what is the main purpose of Armitage’s article? What is the key point he is trying to make? Try to sum this up in no more than 50 words. (This is very difficult, but the ability to précis information is an important skill in history).

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Tasks (teachers' view):

1

1. On page 50 (column 2), Armitage states that the five hundred year anniversary of Columbus’s journey to America in 1492 was celebrated in Italy, Spain and the USA. What connection does Columbus have with these three countries?

2

(See page 50, bottom of column 2 and top 11 lines of column 3) Why have some people seen Columbus’s voyage to America as a bad thing, which should not be celebrated?

3

(See page 51, top half of column 1): Armitage gives us his own view, as a historian, of how Columbus himself saw his role in history – what is Armitage’s interpretation of Columbus’s self-perception?

4

It is a long article, and there is a lot of detail in it about various views about Columbus over the past five centuries. But what is the main purpose of Armitage’s article? What is the key point he is trying to make? Try to sum this up in no more than 50 words. (This is very difficult, but the ability to précis information is an important skill in history).
 

Columbus: teacher commentary

1. Although there are some disputes about where Columbus came from, there is a general consensus that he came from Genoa in Italy. His voyages were financed by Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, hence his connection with Spain. As he is often described as the person who ‘discovered’ America, many people and groups in America see him as in a sense the starting point for American history.
2. Columbus’s voyages to America led to mass slaughter of many of the indigenous population and economic exploitation, as well as extensive damage or destruction caused by the spread of European diseases to which the natives of North America had no resistance. It has also been seen as the precursor to European domination and exploitation of other parts of the world.
3. Armitage claims that Columbus saw himself as a Christian evangelist rather than a conqueror and empire builder (although he does not present any evidence to support this opinion). However, his view is corroborated (backed up) by the historian Felipe Armesto, in a separate article in the same issue of History Today (Columbus - hero or villain - see additional material). Armesto describes Columbus as 'a loquacious and indefaticable self-publicist... the image he projected was that of a providential agent, the divinely-elected 'messenger of a new heaven, chosen to bear the light of the gospel to unevangelised recesses of th earth.' His personal viewpoint, and where he positions himself in the debates about Columbus can also be discerned in the sub-title to the article, ‘an event which ought to have been of benefit to all.’
4. Armitage points to the very different interpretations of Columbus’s impact on history over the past 500 years, arguing that there have always been people who have tried to use the story of Columbus for their own ends, and that this also applies to many other currently debated and controversial issues.


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