Unit 1: Civilized?

Colonization and the Myths of Columbus

Overview: 

This first unit focuses on assessing students' prior knowledge of the Caribbean. It attempts to provide an overview of the region by introducing the geography and history during the first contact with Europeans. For generations, purveyors of colonialism saw their work as part of a mission to bring "civilization" to people they deemed to be less developed than themselves. By engaging students with readings from Columbus, Las Casas, Zinn and other textbooks, students are challenged to reconsider the story of the "primitive native". Through a critical look at perceptions of the native populations of the Caribbean Islands both in Columbus's time and our own, students are ultimately tasked with a final essay to asses what the true meaning of civilized means.

Essential Questions: 

1. Who lived in the Caribbean before it was colonized?

2. What were the effects of European contact on the indigenous populations and civilizations in the Caribbean?

Final Assessment: 

In class Essay. Using the Glenco reading on the Natives of the Caribbean, the excerpt from Howard Zinn’s “Columbus, Conquest and Human Progress” along with the documents below, students will write write a four paragraph response to the prompt below. Paragraphs range between 6-10 sentences. Students should have at least 4 pieces of evidence from 3 different sources.

Prompt for Students: What do you think are the qualifications that are required before a nation can be considered “civilized”? Do you think the definition of “civilized” has changed in the last 400 years? If so, how? In reading the description of the Arawak/Taino do you find any indication that these people were uncivilized? How and why do you think that Euro-American colonists thought that they were uncivilized?