In reading Columbus’s first and second voyages, I was instantly aware of the power of discovery. Christopher Columbus, though a poor mapmaker, leader, and sailor, was singlehandedly able to shape the image of the New World in Europe solely through his narration and the narration of those on his trip.
I was struck by his innate power. Simply by stumbling upon Cuba, Hispaniola, Guadalupe, and other Caribbean islands, he gained the ability to name them, claim them, and eventually impose a new way of life upon the people already living there. He names the islands he discovers in order to gain favor both with the Catholic Church and with the Spanish monarchs who financed his trip. He evaluates the natives by the ease in which they could either become Christians, slaves or both – a boon to both of those groups previously named. In addition, in his letter to Ferdinand, for example, Columbus espouses the great resources of these islands. While the lands are rich in many natural resources, the two that he describes most excitedly are the two that the Caribbean don’t have – gold and Indian spices.
At this point in history — the end of the fifteenth century — the only knowledge that the Spaniards have of these islands is exactly what Christopher Columbus tells them. This kind of power shows how only one person can have dominion over mapping, and over knowledge of an entirely new mass of land.
It’s interesting to think about how much of an impact Columbus had on our world today when so much of what he did was by accident. We talked about how he really wasn’t that good of a mapmaker, and much of what he found he came across by mistake, believing it to be China or India. But then I think about what I would’ve thought if I were just discovering land that I had never been to before, and I’m not convinced that I would really understand what I was seeing. The Caribbean were ‘unknown’ islands to the Europeans at the time, so I wouldn’t expect them to know where they ended up.