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World-famous explorer and colonizer, who led a series of successful European expeditions to the Americas, and subsequently instituted a series of brutal, genocidal policies designed to dominate and enslave the Native Americans. Loewen acknowledges that Columbus was one of the most important figures in world history, but not for the reasons that most American history textbooks suggest: Columbus was so important not because he “discovered America” but because his expeditions to the Americas established a standard of brutality, theft, and genocide that would characterize the Europeans’ relationship with the Native Americans for centuries to come.
Christopher Columbus Quotes in Lies My Teacher Told Me
The Lies My Teacher Told Me quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Columbus or refer to Christopher Columbus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2 Quotes
The textbooks concede that Columbus did not start from scratch. Every textbook account of the European exploration of the Americas begins with Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, between 1415 and 1460. Henry is portrayed as discovering Madeira and the Azores and sending out ships to circumnavigate Africa for the first time. The textbook authors seem unaware that ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed at least as far as Ireland and England.
Related Characters:
Christopher Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
38
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Loewen analyzes textbooks’ treatment of the European exploration of the Americas. History textbooks make the mistake of saying that Europeans—such as Prince Henry the Navigator, an important Portuguese monarch and maritime pioneer—were the “first” people to undertake important maritime expeditions across the world, ignoring the achievements of the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and many other ancient, non-Western societies.
The further implication of history textbooks’ Eurocentric view of world exploration is that, absurd as it sounds, Europe “invented technology.” Instead of celebrating other cultures for contributing to European science, mathematics, and technology, the average American history textbook implies that white, Western Europeans (including Americans, many of whom are descended from white Europeans) developed virtually all the key technologies of the modern world. By ignoring the non-Western predecessors to European exploration, textbooks reinforce the idea that Europe pioneered world exploration, and the technology to go with it, single-handedly.
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Christopher Columbus Quotes in Lies My Teacher Told Me
The Lies My Teacher Told Me quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Columbus or refer to Christopher Columbus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 2 Quotes
The textbooks concede that Columbus did not start from scratch. Every textbook account of the European exploration of the Americas begins with Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, between 1415 and 1460. Henry is portrayed as discovering Madeira and the Azores and sending out ships to circumnavigate Africa for the first time. The textbook authors seem unaware that ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed at least as far as Ireland and England.
Related Characters:
Christopher Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
38
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Loewen analyzes textbooks’ treatment of the European exploration of the Americas. History textbooks make the mistake of saying that Europeans—such as Prince Henry the Navigator, an important Portuguese monarch and maritime pioneer—were the “first” people to undertake important maritime expeditions across the world, ignoring the achievements of the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, and many other ancient, non-Western societies.
The further implication of history textbooks’ Eurocentric view of world exploration is that, absurd as it sounds, Europe “invented technology.” Instead of celebrating other cultures for contributing to European science, mathematics, and technology, the average American history textbook implies that white, Western Europeans (including Americans, many of whom are descended from white Europeans) developed virtually all the key technologies of the modern world. By ignoring the non-Western predecessors to European exploration, textbooks reinforce the idea that Europe pioneered world exploration, and the technology to go with it, single-handedly.
