Your first assignment is to read the Chapter 1 from
Howard Zinn's, People's History of the United States. There will be
a quiz on Monday 9/8. For the quiz you will be asked to answer TWO of
the following questions. Use the questions to help guide your reading and
note-taking.
- Describe Columbus’ encounter with the indigenous people of the “New World”. What were the “enormous consequences” of the tiny gold ornaments in the Arawaks’ ears? Why do you think he misrepresented the facts of his findings on the islands to his king and queen.
- Compare and contrast the colonization practices of the Spanish settlers to the English settlers. Provide specific examples.
- Who was Bartolome las Casas? What did he observe? How did his descriptions and writing differ from Christopher Columbus’?
- Explain Howard Zinn’s philosophy on writing history.
- In what ways did European religions define the relationships between the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the colonists?
- How were the values of Native tribes like the Iroquois and the Europeans different? Considering these differences, was conflict inevitable?
