"Teaching the Columbian Quincentenary"
 
by Marjorie W. Bingham
 
in OAH "Magazine of History" (Vol. 5, No. 4, Spring 1991,
pp. 7-9)
 
There are, I believe, at least six major ways to celebrate this
anniversary with some sensitivity within the school curriculum.
 
	My hunch is that many American history teachers inwardly
groan at the thought of yet one more anniversary--1492--to
commemorate.  Barely recovered from the bicentennial of the
Constitution and its ratification, still engaged in a similar
recognition of the Bill of Rights, teachers may long for
breathing space with no anniversary guilts.  Furthermore, the
Columbian Quincentenary seems particularly conflict-laden
although, as Thurgood Marshall pointed out, the ratification of
the original Constitution was not necessarily a celebratory
occasion for African Americans, native Americans, or women.  But,
at least, later civil rights and suffrage movements could be
examined and heroes of both sexes, several races, and many ethnic
groups could join those "demigods" (as Jefferson called them) of
the Constitutional Era.
	Commemorating 1492 is still more complex and teachers need
to think through for themselves how complicated instruction may
be, especially for native Americans and African American
students, whose ancestors were often adversely affected by the
voyages and their aftermath.  There are, I believe, at least six
major ways to celebrate this anniversary with some sensitivity
within the school curriculum.
	1. Focusing on Columbus may seem the most simple approach,
yet there are plenty of controversies.  We do not, for example,
have a clear sense of Columbus's early background.  In Samuel
Eliot Morison's classic biography, Columbus appears as a capable
"Admiral of the Ocean Sea," whereas in Gianni Granzotto's more
recent work, "Christopher Columbus: The Dream and the Obsession,"
he is portrayed as a magnificent bungler, a Don Quixote, pursuing
a confused image of the world.  Advanced students might do a
comparative treatment of Columbus from these works, or teachers
might use Morison and Granzotto for a contrasting thematic
framework.  Student debates or papers could respond to this
contrast.
	There are conflicting choices of islands where he may first
have landed in 1492.  For those interested in the landfall
controversy, "National Geographic" (November 1986), devoted a
special issue to the subject with Joseph Judge as editor.  While
the "Geographic" settles on Samana Cay as the scene of Columbus's
first landing in the Americas, the controversy continues. 
Particularly for students who like computer puzzles of wind
speeds, ocean currents, and topographical island maps, this
debate may be of interest.  For a series of articles at the
secondary reading level, teachers may use "American History
Illustrated" (January/February 1991), which pursues the question,
"Where Did Columbus Land?"  Also, those who enjoy using original
documents may want to find an older "Jackdaw" packet, "Columbus
and the Discovery of America," published in 1964 that contains
maps, letters, and woodcuts concerning the voyages.
	John Parker of the James Ford Bell Library narrowed down the
"essentials" upon which a teacher might focus.  His suggestions
were three: a) Martin Behaim's Globe (to illustrate Columbus's
worldview); b) Columbus's 1493 letter about his voyages; and c)
selections from "The Log of Christopher Columbus," newly
translated by Robert H. Fuson.  The "Log" is an excellent source
for students because so many of the issues of how Columbus
treated native Americans and his calculations about wealth and
honor are readily apparent for students analysis.  Perhaps one
way to handle this source is to divide the class and have
students read different sections of the "Log," looking at the
same time for what might be "celebrated" and what not.
	2. Another way of teaching 1492 is to see Columbus as part
of a Western European effort to understand the world after the
Crusades, the fall of Byzantium, and advent of the Renaissance. 
One of the newest aids to teachers taking this approach is the
PBS television series, "The Shape of the World."  Students and
teachers can obtain free packets of materials on the series from
IBM.  Each school also can receive a free, ninety-minute
videocassette of series excerpts.  In addition, there are various
new geographic aids from Rand McNally and the National Geographic
Society, such as the McNally's Antique Map series.  These may be
especially helpful for teachers developing lessons on how world
views changed as old maps were reconsulted and new maps from an
"age of exploration" were developed.
	3. While the two approaches mentioned above have been
"traditional" ways of teaching about Columbus, their emphasis on
explorers as heroes has been severely questioned.  Much of the
controversy over the quincentenary is whether it should be
celebrated at all.  As the historian Alfred W. Crosby said, 1492
made a "charnel house" of the Americas.  For teachers and
advanced students, the clearest and briefest statement of this
position is probably Crosby's pamphlet, "The Columbian Voyages,
the Columbian Exchange, and Their Historians," published and
distributed by the American Historical Association.  Here the
destructive quality of the European intrusion is recounted, both
in terms of the diseases the Europeans introduced and the labor,
crops, and metals which they extracted from the hemisphere.
	A new (1991) set of "Jackdaw" materials emphasizes cultural
"encounters" rather than the notion of "discovery" as descriptive
of the events of 1492.  Indeed, the new scholarship on the period
makes the point of ethnocentric language (such as Columbus's
"discovery" of people who knew quite well where they were) is
suspect.  Terms such as the "New World" need qualification in
recognition of the fact that contact meant two new worlds on both
sides of the Atlantic, or perhaps many new worlds as various
cultures were shaped and reshaped by the experience.  A new
source book edited by Mervin Lunenfeld, "1491, Discovery,
Invasion, Encounter" (D.C. Heath, 1991), does a good job of
presenting the historiographical issues and includes original
documents as well as discussion questions for each section.
	4. But if the concept of the "Columbian Exchange" implies
and interaction of Atlantic communities, the story may become
even more complex from the perspective of world history.  The
closing of the silk roads with the fall of Byzantium, the rise of
the Seljeck Turks, the Chinese explorations, the known Viking
travels, the recognition of the African continent's empires and
labor resources--all form a complex picture of global
interaction.  Teachers might wish to take the year of 1492,
divide their class to represent different parts of the world at
that time, and see how the respective areas contributed to and
were influenced by the momentous events of that single twelve-
month period.  Janet Abu-Lughod's "Before European Hegemony: The
World System, AD 1250-1350," suggests interactions leading to the
Columbus voyages.
	5. Remembering my days in the 1960s teaching "the Age of
Exploration" to the eighth grade, I think that the girls and I
got pretty tired of one male explorer and mapmaker after another. 
Of course, there was Queen Isabel, but she was a vague presence
rather like a fairy godmother setting Columbus off to the ball. 
Now, in the '90s, there is much more material on women's history
to use for the quincentenary.  The current controversy of
Isabel's proposed elevation to sainthood makes a good exercise
for students about varying perceptions.  But, as Granzotto's
biography makes apparent, Columbus was sustained by a network of
women: his first wife, Felipa Moniz, gave him contacts with the
nobility; his mother-in-law turned over her husband's
navigational charts to him; his mistress, Marquise de Moya,
arranged his contacts with the Queen; his common-law wife,
Beatrice, supported him financially; and the governor of one of
the Canary Islands, Beatrice de Bobadilla, helped to outfit his
ships.
	But another way to approach the subject through women's
history is to look at the impact of European culture on native
American women's lives.  The work of scholars such as June Nash,
Irene Silverblatt, and Ferdenand Anton, suggest the variety of
women's roles in pre-Columbian America and the subsequent
narrowing of choices down to the imposition of European attitudes
toward women.  Ways of teaching women's history might include
looking at specific cultures, like the Inca, or reading
Columbus's "Log" with his claims that he was protecting women's
"honor" even as he kidnapped them for use as interpreters. 
Materials for teachers would include Marysa Navarro's section on
Latin America in "Restoring Women to History: Teaching Packets
for Integrating Women's History into Courses on Africa, Asia,
Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East" (Organization
of American Historians, 1988; second edition, 1990), June Nash
Safa's "Sex and Class in Latin America," and volume one of "Women
in Latin America" by Susan Gross and myself.
	6. One more way of teaching the quincentenary is to focus on
pre-Columbian culture, whether it be Inca, Carib, Aztec, or
Navaho.  Aim at student understanding of these people as they
were before the West intruded upon their lives.  By taking this
approach, students may gain a greater sense of the changes that
occurred after 1492, both good and bad.  Once again, teachers,
might consider dividing the class into smaller groups, each one
focusing on a different Amerindian culture.  This structure may
underscore the point that the responses to the Europeans of the
indigenous peoples of this hemisphere varied because the "New
World" was a complex place.
	This list of six ways to teach the quincentenary by no means
exhausts the methods or sources available.  The American
Historical Association, for example, will be publishing a series
of pamphlets on the quincentenary which should be of particular
value to teachers.  In spite of all its difficulties, it seems to
me that this anniversary calls for teachers to pay extra
attention to the emphasis and value they place on the event. 
Frederick Jackson Turner celebrated the Columbian Quatracentenary
a century ago with his famous essay on how the frontier keeps
recreating "new worlds," overcoming the "savages" who originally
were there.  Perhaps in our 1992 observances we can recognize the
losses humanity endured as well as its adventures.