Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 2)

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 2)

"In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue." This is what most students, including me, must have heard of. I had no doubt about what he accomplished until I read the title of this chapter, "1493." This is the year after Columbus discovered the Americas, so I sensed that something that is not told in most textbooks will be unveiled in this chapter. I was ready to hear something shocking.

My conjecture was right. The first eyeopening fact was that "Columbus's voyage was not the first but the last 'discovery' of the Americas." (33) This raised a question, why do most textbooks not give attention to previous explorers who found the Americans, and decide to praise this particular man? Table I on pg. 40-41 clearly shows that there were a number of explorations that may have reached the Americas taken place before Columbus's. There was a possible exploration to the Americas even 70,000 B.C.! It is simply astonishing how authors conceal this amount of information. It is also chaotic how they describe the changes in Europe that led to the Age of Exploration with a delusive phrase like "people grew more curious." How do they know? They fail to explain the significant part, motivation. Loewen is doing this part of job for them in this chapter. He explained to us for the first time that the significant factors that led Europe to advances in exploration are developments in military technology and social technology, wealth, and Christianity, etc. I really wonder how textbook authors felt when this book first came out and was read by them. Moreover, I actually knew a little about the mystery of why Native Americans are often referred as "Indians." However, I gained that knowledge from a book about random miscellaneous facts, obviously not from history textbook because this type of information is easily censored. However, I didn't expect that even bad weather in the journey was invented. 

However, these are just some shallow parts of which authors wanted to hide. What they wanted to conceal so badly was Columbus's vice. In fact, it was predictable that Columbus might have figured out some ways to negotiate with indigenous people in order to open up his land. I did not know that he did in an extremely aggressive way. It is no longer a negotiation, but a domination. He kidnapped American Indians and demanded all goods the natives at Haiti had; if they refuse the offer, they were punished. He even started a slave trade. I looked up "slavery in U.S." and the time in the U.S. history when slavery was the most intense was 1790-1860. However, the major slave trade actually took place 300 years ago. Within a year since he discovered the Americas, he became a dictator. He definitely reminds me of Adolf Hitler.

Reading this chapter made me realize one thing. When I was at high school in U.S., Columbus Day was not written on the school calendar and "Staff Developments" was the reason for school off. I was wondering why, but I discovered the answer. Christopher Columbus is considered an invader rather than an explorer and what he has done does not deserve to be celebrated at my school. Now I realized it is ironic and morally wrong to celebrate someone's genocide. 

Having read class mates' blogs, I realized that some of them mention that Loewen is too biased on his statement. I am always surprised with this opinion but as I read their supportive evidences, I feel like I should not take in what the book says so easily, especially when sources talk about only positives or negatives. I should carefully examine if his opinions are reliable from now on. However, so far I think all references and citations on the back of the book justify and support what Loewen claims. This chapter at least succeeded to undermine the common portrayal of Great Columbus, in my opinion.