American History, Period 2, 01/15
Tyler was dressed in a ratty Fandom High t-shirt and sweatpants today, and he'd had to resist the urge to add a whistle.
"So, contrary to what I'm wearing, you didn't end up in Professor Dex's class," he informed the students. "You're still in U.S. history, and this week we start to actually discuss history. Radical concept, I know. Anyhow, we are looking at the first explorers through Columbus. I hope none of you still buy the idea Columbus started it all."
Algren, still dressed in his usual attire, looked a little on the amused side. His clothes were safe, for the time being. He didn't know how to use a washing machine.
"That honor goes to a list of people about as long as my arm," he stated, clasping his arms behind his back and strolling casually back and forth in front of the class. "Columbus gets most of the credit for the discovery of America because he made a better hero in the eyes of the people than, say, Leif Ericson, for whatever reason. For those of you not in the know, Ericson was a Viking, and was probably the first European to land in North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus got his turn. He was taking a route laid out before him by another Viking, one Bjarni Herjólfsson, who had spotted land. Ericson's trip yielded a few discoveries. First, a land covered in flat stones, which he named Helluland. Another land, covered in forest, he named Markland. Most likely, those places are what people know as Baffin Island and Labrador, now. The next place he landed was at the Northern tip of Newfoundland. He named it Vinland, set up a settlement, and stayed through the winter."
"It was a nice place to live," Tyler added. "Lots of salmon, not much frost. But for whatever reason, they didn't stick around."
"A few hundred years later," Algren said, moving right along, "another explorer landed on Newfoundland's shore. This time, it was an Italian man by the name of John Cabot, and, while his landing on June 24, 1497 does put him a few years behind Columbus, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom both recognize him as the man who discovered the New World, which might be partly because his voyage was done under the flag and funding of of England. Where he and his crew of 18 men landed is subject to some controversy, of course. Some people say Bonavista or Saint John's in Newfoundland. Others, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Maine. Officially, people agree to disagree, and they recognize Cape Bonavista as his point of arrival. He didn't settle there- He sailed back to Britain, was made an Admiral, and left again with a fleet of five ships. And, as is the way with such success stories, he was never heard from again.
"Of course, the two men I've just mentioned aren't the first people to set foot on North American soil by any means. That honor goes to the Native tribes." Here was a topic that Algren seemed like he could go on about for forever. "Columbus does get credit for us calling them 'Indians' today, but only because that brilliant individual made the mistake of thinking that North America was actually 'The Indies,' which was a blanket term for all of Asia at the time. Welcome to India, kids!" Algren took a moment to look suitably amused before pressing on. "It's possible that these people migrated to the Americas as early as 12000 years ago, via a land bridge which formerly connected North America to Eurasia across what is now the Bering Strait. They spread out across the continent, forming hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes amongst the Native Americans of the United States. These tribes and nations formed what people now refer to as the First Nations peoples of Canada, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and the Inuit."
"We don't really know how many of them there were in North America," Tyler threw in. "You can get estimates from 8.4 million to 112.5 million, though most of it shakes out around 50 million. And most of those estimates say around 80 percent had been killed off by 1600. Today, there are about four million people who identify as Native American in the U.S. -- a little over one percent of the population."
"This brings us nicely right back around to Christopher Columbus," Algren said, coming to a stop in front of the desk and leaning back against it. "Columbus gets plenty of credit in this day and age for a number of things that he didn't do, and hardly any mention of some things that were, very much so, his doing. For one, he didn't prove that the world was round. Educated men already knew that little fact, and maritime navigation at the time relied pretty steadily on the curvature of the spherical Earth and on the stars. Really, what Columbus proved is that he was a very lousy navigator himself. He figured he could reach Asia from Europe by sailing West across the Atlantic, while using an incorrect map which was drawn out nearly 1300 years before. A map which wrongly placed China at 225 degrees. This left not enough water in those calculations, and even less when you know that he underestimated the distance that each degree on the map represented, and he didn't know the difference between the Italian mile, which he was using, and the much longer Arabic mile, which the map used.
"Somehow, in spite of all of that, the guy managed to find land on the 12th of October, in 1942." Algren allowed a faint smirk. "Talk about dumb luck."
He was allowed to talk about historical figures that way, right? He figured he was allowed, being from history himself.
"The land he found was located somewhere in the Bahamas, and the people he encountered, either the Lucayan, the Taíno, or the Arawak, were peaceful, friendly sorts. He also explored the Northeast coast of Cuba and the Northern coast of Hispaniola. He made an excellent first impression on the locals by kidnapping a good ten to twenty-five of the natives to bring back to Spain with him. Seven or eight of them even made it there alive."
"The rumor is that his men also brought a little pal called syphilis back with them," Tyler mentioned. "Which might have been the native women's revenge."
"Effective revenge," Algren mused. "His second trip back to North America involved the systematic enslavement and murder of the native Taino people of Hispaniola. He told them that if they didn't bring gold to the Spanish settlers, their hands would get cut off. So they ran away. Apparently there are people out there who don't like the idea of some strange person hacking off their body parts. Some of them tried to mount a resistance, but there was no fighting their superior weaponry, and those who didn't get killed this way either died of European diseases, were taken as slaves, or committed mass-suicide in despair. Settlers hated him by his third trip back, for lying about the bounty of riches that the New World was supposed to have. And he refused to allow the natives to be baptized, because Catholic law wouldn't allow for the enslavement of Christians."
"Stellar guy, Chris. You can see why everybody gets a Monday off in his honor," Tyler said. "And that's where we're going to call it a day. Your in-class assignment is to pair up and act out a scenario: A European explorer has just met his first Native American. One of you is the explorer, one of you is the native. Indians, try to get the white guy to leave; Explorers, plead your case."
[Please wait for the OCD is up!]
"So, contrary to what I'm wearing, you didn't end up in Professor Dex's class," he informed the students. "You're still in U.S. history, and this week we start to actually discuss history. Radical concept, I know. Anyhow, we are looking at the first explorers through Columbus. I hope none of you still buy the idea Columbus started it all."
Algren, still dressed in his usual attire, looked a little on the amused side. His clothes were safe, for the time being. He didn't know how to use a washing machine.
"That honor goes to a list of people about as long as my arm," he stated, clasping his arms behind his back and strolling casually back and forth in front of the class. "Columbus gets most of the credit for the discovery of America because he made a better hero in the eyes of the people than, say, Leif Ericson, for whatever reason. For those of you not in the know, Ericson was a Viking, and was probably the first European to land in North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus got his turn. He was taking a route laid out before him by another Viking, one Bjarni Herjólfsson, who had spotted land. Ericson's trip yielded a few discoveries. First, a land covered in flat stones, which he named Helluland. Another land, covered in forest, he named Markland. Most likely, those places are what people know as Baffin Island and Labrador, now. The next place he landed was at the Northern tip of Newfoundland. He named it Vinland, set up a settlement, and stayed through the winter."
"It was a nice place to live," Tyler added. "Lots of salmon, not much frost. But for whatever reason, they didn't stick around."
"A few hundred years later," Algren said, moving right along, "another explorer landed on Newfoundland's shore. This time, it was an Italian man by the name of John Cabot, and, while his landing on June 24, 1497 does put him a few years behind Columbus, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom both recognize him as the man who discovered the New World, which might be partly because his voyage was done under the flag and funding of of England. Where he and his crew of 18 men landed is subject to some controversy, of course. Some people say Bonavista or Saint John's in Newfoundland. Others, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Maine. Officially, people agree to disagree, and they recognize Cape Bonavista as his point of arrival. He didn't settle there- He sailed back to Britain, was made an Admiral, and left again with a fleet of five ships. And, as is the way with such success stories, he was never heard from again.
"Of course, the two men I've just mentioned aren't the first people to set foot on North American soil by any means. That honor goes to the Native tribes." Here was a topic that Algren seemed like he could go on about for forever. "Columbus does get credit for us calling them 'Indians' today, but only because that brilliant individual made the mistake of thinking that North America was actually 'The Indies,' which was a blanket term for all of Asia at the time. Welcome to India, kids!" Algren took a moment to look suitably amused before pressing on. "It's possible that these people migrated to the Americas as early as 12000 years ago, via a land bridge which formerly connected North America to Eurasia across what is now the Bering Strait. They spread out across the continent, forming hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes amongst the Native Americans of the United States. These tribes and nations formed what people now refer to as the First Nations peoples of Canada, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and the Inuit."
"We don't really know how many of them there were in North America," Tyler threw in. "You can get estimates from 8.4 million to 112.5 million, though most of it shakes out around 50 million. And most of those estimates say around 80 percent had been killed off by 1600. Today, there are about four million people who identify as Native American in the U.S. -- a little over one percent of the population."
"This brings us nicely right back around to Christopher Columbus," Algren said, coming to a stop in front of the desk and leaning back against it. "Columbus gets plenty of credit in this day and age for a number of things that he didn't do, and hardly any mention of some things that were, very much so, his doing. For one, he didn't prove that the world was round. Educated men already knew that little fact, and maritime navigation at the time relied pretty steadily on the curvature of the spherical Earth and on the stars. Really, what Columbus proved is that he was a very lousy navigator himself. He figured he could reach Asia from Europe by sailing West across the Atlantic, while using an incorrect map which was drawn out nearly 1300 years before. A map which wrongly placed China at 225 degrees. This left not enough water in those calculations, and even less when you know that he underestimated the distance that each degree on the map represented, and he didn't know the difference between the Italian mile, which he was using, and the much longer Arabic mile, which the map used.
"Somehow, in spite of all of that, the guy managed to find land on the 12th of October, in 1942." Algren allowed a faint smirk. "Talk about dumb luck."
He was allowed to talk about historical figures that way, right? He figured he was allowed, being from history himself.
"The land he found was located somewhere in the Bahamas, and the people he encountered, either the Lucayan, the Taíno, or the Arawak, were peaceful, friendly sorts. He also explored the Northeast coast of Cuba and the Northern coast of Hispaniola. He made an excellent first impression on the locals by kidnapping a good ten to twenty-five of the natives to bring back to Spain with him. Seven or eight of them even made it there alive."
"The rumor is that his men also brought a little pal called syphilis back with them," Tyler mentioned. "Which might have been the native women's revenge."
"Effective revenge," Algren mused. "His second trip back to North America involved the systematic enslavement and murder of the native Taino people of Hispaniola. He told them that if they didn't bring gold to the Spanish settlers, their hands would get cut off. So they ran away. Apparently there are people out there who don't like the idea of some strange person hacking off their body parts. Some of them tried to mount a resistance, but there was no fighting their superior weaponry, and those who didn't get killed this way either died of European diseases, were taken as slaves, or committed mass-suicide in despair. Settlers hated him by his third trip back, for lying about the bounty of riches that the New World was supposed to have. And he refused to allow the natives to be baptized, because Catholic law wouldn't allow for the enslavement of Christians."
"Stellar guy, Chris. You can see why everybody gets a Monday off in his honor," Tyler said. "And that's where we're going to call it a day. Your in-class assignment is to pair up and act out a scenario: A European explorer has just met his first Native American. One of you is the explorer, one of you is the native. Indians, try to get the white guy to leave; Explorers, plead your case."
[Please wait for the OCD is up!]