Modern history appreciates the history of the United States from a European perspective. This statement is based on the realization that the United States of America is the creation of people who migrated from Europe. The first group of Europeans who established a colony in America called it the New World. But what was America like before the Europeans came? More importantly, how did they find out about the New World? It is interesting to point out that there was a time when Europeans had no idea that there was a world on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The first European who discovered the New World was Christopher Columbus and he provided the first glimpse into the life in the American continent. However, very soon Europeans developed a very specific vision of people who lived in the continent, as Europeans believed their civilization was superior.
The Discovery
In the latter part of the 15th century Christopher Columbus said that there was a westward route that would allow European traders to travel from Europe to Asia. No one believed him and thought that his plan was desperate and unrealistic. It took him a long time before he could come up with all the resources needed to begin his journey. He discovered the American continent and it paved the way for other Europeans to create a link between the two continents.
An important aspect of Columbus’s quest of a westward route towards Asia is related to geography and the expansion of the power of European kingdoms to the far corners of the globe. But another important aspect of Columbus’s quest was the information preserved through his journals.
Christopher Columbus was not only an excellent adventurer; he also understood the historical importance of his work. Thus, he endeavored to preserve in writing his testimony on what he saw during his first contact with the native inhabitants of the American continent.
It has to be pointed out that a contemporary understanding of the natives can be easily affected by the interpretation of European historians or from the point of view of the white man. There are those who tried to paint an accurate picture of the norms, traditions, culture of the native inhabitants. But there are also historians who interpreted the natives’ way of life and behavior through the narrow context of their own culture and traditions.
An ethnocentric view of the world compelled the Roman Empire to label tribes people outside the realm of Rome as barbarians. In the case of America, the same thing can be said. More so, Ancient Greeks believed there were different worlds. They called the worlds “the Antipodes” (qtd. in Fernandez-Armesto). Thus, Europeans have developed the idea of their superiority throughout centuries as they considered others as their antipodes.
It is rather natural that Europeans of the 15th century saw the natives as uncivilized and requiring the transforming power of Europeans to be accepted in accordance with their standards. However, the eyewitness account of Columbus dated November 1492 will reveal something interesting. Columbus and his crew decided to send boats in order to interact with the natives. He wrote “they found the inhabitants all fled” (Columbus 108). It was an apt description of their mannerism and character.
In the same journal Columbus described people who were gentle, kind, and generous. The great explorer wrote, “They are an inoffensive, unwarlike people, naked, except that the women wear a very slight covering at the loins; their manners are very decent, and their complexion not very dark, but lighter than that of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands” (Columbus 114).
It seems to indicate a certain degree of innocence on the part of the native inhabitants. But that is not the only intriguing quality of the natives. In his journal Columbus also testified that the natives were ready to barter all that they have for a very low price. He cited an example wherein he said that a large basket of cotton was exchanged for a mere leather thong. Columbus also said that the natives were inoffensive and that they were not warlike.
This assertion can be supported by the testimony of John Smith. More than a hundred years after the discovery of the New World John Smith was an Englishman who sailed towards America with British interest in mind. But he saw the same gentleness, kindness and innocence from the natives. In one instance he wrote, “then having provided baskets for our men to carry our corn to the boats, they kindly offered their service to guard our arms” (Smith 250). This statement supports Columbus’s testimony.
The testimonies by Columbus and Smith, together with the primary documents that they left behind, have inspired a new breed of historians that are determined to reinterpret history not from a biased perspective but from what can be gathered from eyewitness accounts. A good example is the work of Anna Brickhouse.
She attempted to provide a historical account based on facts alone and not on the opinions of historians who interpreted the events based on their own standards. Anna Brickhouse focused on the eyewitness accounts of Jesuit narrators, a body of information that she used to develop her essay.
She wrote, “nearly forty years prior to the arrival of the English, then, the Spanish had established a settlement in the land where Jamestown would be founded” (Brickhouse 31). In effect, Brickhouse tried to show the superiority of primary documents as opposed to the interpretation of historians who came after.
Transnational Perspective
The study of primary documents of the period creates a deeper understanding of the world in general and the origins of the United States in particular. The effect is not only a greater appreciation of the ties that link Europe and America but also a deeper respect for the original people that inhabited this continent.
The journal of Columbus is like a time-traveler machine that one can use in order to be transported into that time period. It gives the ability to see through the eyes of an eyewitness. It gives the capability to dispel propaganda and other embellishments provided by historians of previous eras. It helps redefine what America means from the eyewitness accounts of the European explorers and the original lords and masters of the New World.
A transnational perspective offers the view that without Columbus’s achievements Europeans could not have established colonies in the New World. Columbus’s success opened the floodgates for the mass migration of European settlers from the Old World to the New World.
The discovery of the American continent did not only allow the exchange of ideas and goods but also opened the New World to exploitation from unscrupulous men and those who thought that they had the native inhabitants’ best interest in mind when they forced them to adapt to European customs and traditions.
On the other hand, a transnational perspective forces the reader to interpret history from the point of view of the original inhabitants. It also encourages a deeper appreciation of the culture and traditions of the natives before the arrival of the Europeans.
At the same time it provides a glimpse into the culture of the American continent. The eyewitness account of Columbus and Smith – who came a hundred years later – spoke of the same beauty and grace that existed not only in the hearts and minds of the people but also the natural landscape.
The primary documents provide insights into the beauty of the American continent and its people before capitalism came to destroy what was natural and innocent. The Native Americans of today are descendants of the people whom Columbus described as generous, gentle, and innocent.
But the same thing cannot be said of their heirs in the 21st century. It can be argued that Native Americans of the present time are angry and bitter because they were driven from the land of their ancestors. The native inhabitants did not bear such grudge. The native inhabitants were pleased with their business relationships with European explorers.
It can also be argued that contemporary historians and commentators judge them on the basis of their current status. They are judged based on the new American standards developed by people who can trace their lineage back to Europe. Using these particular standards the American Indians are described in the most unflattering manner.
Conclusion
A transnational perspective provides a clear understanding of the history of the United States not from the point of view of the Founding Fathers and the heroes of the American Revolution but from the eyewitness accounts of explorers who discovered the New World.
It is through a transnational perspective that one can have an unblemished view of the native inhabitants before their lives were altered by the forces of capitalism, exploitation, and forced evacuation from their ancestral lands.
Works Cited
Brickhouse, Anna. “Hemispheric Jamestown.” Hemispheric American Literature. Ed. Caroline Levander and Robert Levine. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2008. 18-35. Print.
Columbus, Christopher. “From the Journals of the First Voyages to America.” Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. 107-119. Print.
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. The Americas: A Hemispheric History, New York: Modern Library, 2006. Print.
Smith, John. “From The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles.” Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. 242-250. Print.