The New World (PDF)
Diario of Christopher Columbus
The History of the Indies by Bartolome de Las Casas
Letters from Mexico by Hernan Cortes
Codex Florentino
Author: Various (see above)
Date: c. 15th-16th centuries CE
Location: Italy, Spain, Mexico
Course Unit: The Other
Context:
"The shock of the first encounters between European colonizers and the indigenous people of the New World was so overwhelming that serious consequences exist to the present day. The European conquest of the New World, prompted by commercial motives and the desire to convert the natives to Christianity, resulted in mass slaughter, epidemics against which native people had no resistance, and slavery: in point of fact, the result constituted genocide. The Europeans' view of the native inhabitants as 'savages,' along with their methods of engaging in warfare and enforcing authoritarian rule, their use of the natives as slaves, and their insistence on the legal right of occupation to justify this conduct left an ugly heritage which has been all the more difficult to address because it hardly has been confronted until recent times." ("O Brave New World" 1887)
"O Brave New World." Bedford Anthology of World Literature: Compact, Vol. 1, edited by Paul Davis, et al, Bedford Saint Martin’s, 2009, pp. 1887-1927.
Topics/Questions to Consider While Reading:
How is the concept of the "Other" represented?
Who is the "Other"?
How is the "Other" treated?