Christopher Columbus- Hero or Villain?

Welcome to our Webquest! In this Webquest you will be responsible for reading documents either authored by Christopher Columbus or about his to determine his motovations for traveling to the New World. You will then decide, based on the evidence if he was a hero or a villain

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You will read and research websites to gain information about Christopher Colombus. You will use your evidence to make a determination about Christopher Colombus. Was he a hero or a villain? 

Step 1: Dear Diary

You will read from Columbus's journal of his voyage of 1492, available through EDSITEment from the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

Please pay close attention to the following:

1. The introduction—a restatement of the purpose of the voyage as explained to the King and Queen of Spain—primarily the sentence beginning, "Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith ...";
2. The entry for October 11, the day of the discovery;
3. Excerpts from the entries for October 13, 16 and 21 for descriptions of the Native Americans Columbus encountered.

Answer these quesitons using RACE about the article: 

1. What seemed of particular interest to Columbus on his voyage?
2. What were his impressions of the places he visited?
3. What ideas did he have about what might happen next?

Step 2:  Dear Europe

Students will read a letter written by Columbus in May 1493, available from the Osher Map Library of the University of Southern Maine. Columbus used this letter to publicize his successful voyage; it became a sort of best-seller throughout Europe.

It contains descriptions of the peoples he encountered.

Please pay close attention to the five paragraphs beginning with, "There are besides in the said island Juana ..." as well as the last two paragraphs.

Answer this question using RACE about the article:

What did Columbus emphasize in publicizing his journey?

Step 3: Dear Ferdinand and Isabella

In this Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, circa 1494, Columbus lists his recommendations about how Spain should proceed, including his suggestion that the area he encountered be systematically colonized. The letter is fairly brief;

Please pay close attention to  1, 4, 5 and 9.

Please answer the following questions using RACE:

What does Columbus emphasize about what he saw?

What should happen next?

Step 4: What was Columbus thinking?

After you have read each document, answer the following questions:

Working in your table groups, you should write your answers to these questions for use in comparing the documents with each other.

1. Who was the intended audience for this document?
2. When was the document written?
3. Does Columbus seem to have a goal in mind in creating this document? Is it intended to persuade the reader, emphasize a point, share information or some other purpose?
4. What details are described in this document?
5. Can students identify a primary message in this document?

Now, with a partner, you will compare the three documents.

You will compare your analyses of the individual documents. How do they differ? Are there any similarities? Ask students to reconsider the following:

1. What does Columbus emphasize in his journal as the purpose of his journey? Does this purpose seem to change in the later documents?
2. What details seem to interest Columbus as he describes the first days of discovery? Does his interest change as his journey progresses?
3. What other changes can students identify between the documents? Can students propose a hypothesis that would explain these changes?

Finally, you should make and post statements summarizing what Columbus found (for example, natives with a simple technology) and a list of outcomes Columbus believed would come as a result of his journey (for example, he stated that the natives he met would make good servants).

Step 5: Looking Back at Columbus

Now you will find out the effects of Columbus's voyages according to scholars by reading brief excerpts from specially chosen articles. 

In reviewing an article, you need only read those sections containing the specific information you are researching. A brief guide has been provided for each article.

• Foods and Plants: A variety of new foods and plants were introduced from Europe to the Americas and from the Americas to Europe. Students should concentrate on naming such plants and flowers.
  
  SOURCE: "The Gardeners of Eden: a bouquet of exotic flowers was one trophy of European expansion" by Samuel M. Wilson. 
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read the passage from "Many of the New World's most spectacular contributions ..." to "Europeans' gardens began to fill with the exotic flowers of Africa, Asia, and, eventually, the Americas."

1. Find the names of fruits, grains, vegetables and other plants that were common during this time period.
2. Which started in the New World?
3. Which started in the Old?
4. What, if any, changes in where plants grew occurred after Columbus voyages?

For information about the gardens the Aztecs had when the Europeans arrived, read from "The sixteenth-century chronicler Fernando de Alva Ixtilochitl ..." to "So no bird, fish or animal of the whole country was wanting here they were either alive of figured in gold and gems."

• Disease: Diseases introduced by the Europeans ravaged native populations. Only one disease migrated from the New World to the Old.
  
  SOURCE: "The Great Disease Migration" by Geoffrey Cowley from Newsweek (Special Issue, Fall/Winter 1991, pp. 54–56) 
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read the section beginning "Many experts now believe that the New World was home to 40 million to 50 million people before Columbus arrived," to "by germs." Then read from "By the time Columbus arrived, groups like the Aztecs and Maya" to "any Indian who received news of the Spaniards could also have easily received the infection."

1. Find out what diseases were particularly damaging to the people of the New World.

• Native Americans Encountered by Columbus: Columbus only met peoples with very simple technologies. However, America was home to a number of complex cultures that would have their own encounters with Europeans.

1. What cultures and technologies did Columbus himself encounter in the New World?
2. How were these cultures changed?

• SOURCE: "The Lost Worlds of Ancient America" by Melinda Beck, from Newsweek (Special Issue, Fall/Winter 1991, pp. 24–26) 
  
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read the introduction and the section "Mesoamerica" to create a list of the accomplishments of these "lost worlds." Look especially for mentions of buildings, inventions and scientific achievements. Why do you think the author calls them "lost worlds"?
  
  SOURCE: "Rumors of Cannibals" by Dave D. Davis in Archaeology (January/February 1992, p. 49) 
  
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read the first three paragraphs. Were the Carib people (also known as Caribe and Canima) cannibals? What happened because the Spanish thought they were cannibals?
  
  SOURCE: "Columbus, My Enemy" (A Caribbean chief resists the first Spanish invaders) by Samuel M. Wilson in Natural History (December 1990, pp. 44–49) 
  
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read from "Two years earlier" to "By 1497, after two years of epidemics and famine following the arrival of the Spaniards, the other chiefs were pushing Guarionex to put up some resistance."
  
  Did the Taino have reasons to be afraid of the Spanish? What did the they agree to do for the Spanish to keep the peace? Why were the other chiefs pushing Guarionex to fight the Spanish? How successful was Guarionex?
  
  Now read from "Bartolome staged a midnight raid on the surrounding villages" to "gave them their king and other leaders."
  
  Lastly, read the paragraph beginning "The impact of the Europeans' arrival was felt differently on other islands of the Caribbean," for a summary of what happened to various native peoples.
  
  SOURCE: Excerpt from "What Columbus Discovered" by Kirkpatrick Sale in The Nation (October 22, 1990, pp. 444–446) 
  GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read from "Take, for example, the Taino" up to "are gentle and are always laughing." Then read the paragraph beginning, "Do not ask, by the way, what happened to those gentle Taino. ..."
  
  What were the Taino people like before the Europeans arrived? Learn about their houses, transportation, crops and way of life. What happened to them? Why does the author say, "Do not ask ... what happened to those gentle Taino?"
  
  
• Christianity: Columbus declared he was sailing west "to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith."

1. How successful were the Spanish in converting the native peoples?

SOURCE: "How Did Native Americans Respond to Christianity?" by Thomas S. Giles in Christian HistoryIssue 35 (Vol. XI, No. 3) 
GUIDE TO THE ARTICLE: Read the introduction and the first paragraph of the section "Holding to the ancient faith." What were some ways the Europeans tried to convert the native peoples? What are some ways the native peoples responded?

Read from "In a letter in 1601, Brother Juan de Escalona laments" to "The true God, the true Dios, came, but this was the origin too of affliction for us." What do students think was the main reason the Europeans had trouble converting native peoples?

Now read from "What about those Indians who responded positively to the Christian faith?" to "Because these go about poorly dressed and barefoot just like us; they eat what we eat; they settle among us. ..." What made some missionaries successful?

Step 6: Organizing facts and findings

After completing their research, each group should prepare items for posting on a large graphic organizer designed to display the facts students learned. The class could decide, on the basis of the information at hand, exactly how to design the organizer. For example, the migration of food and plants or of diseases could be represented through text and/or pictures organized in the form of a chart with four columns: Before Columbus (In Europe), Before Columbus (In America), After Columbus (In Europe), After Columbus (In America). When this project is completed, each group can present its findings to the rest of the class, using the graphic organizer to illustrate what they learned.

Step 7. List appropriate statements about expectations and outcomes

Events don't always turn out the way one expects. As a culminating activity, have the class brainstorm and list many appropriate statements about expectations and outcomes in the following form:

Columbus (or "Europeans" or "Native Americans") __________
______________________________________________, but
_________________________________________________.

For example, students might say:

"Columbus thought he had discovered a new route to the Indies, but he had really traveled to what we now call the Americas."

"Columbus thought the natives 'would be good servants,' but trying to make slaves out of them was so unsuccessful that eventually Spain imported slaves from Africa."

"Columbus encountered natives living with a simple technology, but civilizations with advanced technologies also lived in the Americas."

Post the statements. As the students continue to study other events in history, especially meetings of disparate cultures, such as the colonial settlers and the Native Americans, they should note the effects of these encounters, both intended and unintended.

Step 8. Learning about Columbus

At the beginning of this lesson, students listed some of the ways the world changed after Columbus's voyage to the New World. Review this list with students. How would their list be different now if asked the same question? What should be added? Removed?

Students had learned some things about Columbus before this lesson. Based on what they have learnedduring this lesson, do students recommend any changes in the information young people are taught about Columbus? Changes in our celebration of Columbus Day?

You will taurn in all of your daily notes and final writing piece (Step 8)

Webquest adapted from EDSITEment- http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/what-was-columbus-thinking#sectio…