In Class Essay

Civilized?: 

Analyzing the Writings and Actions of Europeans in the Caribbean 

In Class Essay 

Task:

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, write a four paragraph response to the prompts below. Paragraphs range between 6-10 sentences. You should have at least 4 pieces of evidence from 3 different sources.

Prompt:

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? 

Other Possible Writing Prompts:

1. How would you contrast the viewpoints of Columbus and de Las Casas in regard to the “native people called Indians”? Do you think Columbus and de Las Casas agree or disagree about the goals of the Spanish explorers? How and why? 

2. What were the differences in how the author’s viewed the Native Americans? How did this perception of the Natives impact the actions each took towards Natives or how they perceived the actions of others towards Natives? 

3. Las Casas and Columbus both come from a European cultural background—examine and clarify the differences in their perspective. How do we as historians account for such differences?