Christopher Columbus and the Definition of America as...

It should be said that Christopher Columbus was responsible for the discovery of what he thought the new lands could provide rather than the discovery of the ‘New World’. Since most of his ventures landed him and his followers to lands that were inhabited by people, who were favorable to trade, where culture, politics, and religion had been established, his discoveries were really a way of supporting his model for self-good. I will analyze the paper by Beatriz Bodmer â€Å"Christopher Columbus and the Definition of America as Booty†, to argue that despite Columbus’s quest for discovery, he did so with preconceived ideas that he would use to his benefit of convincing others of what he discovered and how these discoveries would benefit him.†¦show more content†¦During future voyages, Columbus approached his explorations of his own preconceived ideas, ideas filled with distorting the facts, reducing and ignoring what was actually present (Bodmer,2 0). It was easy for Columbus to maintain such significances, since cultural and scientific findings could be taken as theoretical beliefs, which were inconsistent with empirical findings and through his own irrational writings he believed to be the promised one, sent to render divine intervention. This belief of this was energized by the writing of Las Casas, who states that Columbus’s mission as a discoverer and evangelizer was part of a divine plan that was determined long before birth (Bodmer, 20). During the days of Columbus, to be an instrument of Divine Providence, meant that he had prestige and credibility making him nearly infallible, which in Columbus’s own statement, saw himself as an instrument of divine will and that everything he does is protected by God (Bodmer, 21). This ideology will lead to his weaken role as an instrument of knowledge and explains Columbus’s imaginary conception of how he would view the new lands to fit his preconceived models (Bodmer, 22) When Columbus was on the island of Cuba, he had changed his mind about it being Cipangu, only to replace his earlier conclusion with another, than identify the island as Cathay (Bodmer, 24). This would be