Franklin W. Knight
Abstract: In 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the Americas. Upon the quincentenary celebration of this voyage in 1992, it is important to look back and reflect upon the impact Columbus had on both Americans of European descent as well as the various American ethnic groups. This article argues that Columbus’s voyage had a lasting negative impact on Indigenous Americans. While to “white” Americans, the Columbus quincentenary represents dramatic discoveries or incredible conquests, to others, it represents social disruption and enforced emigration. The legacy of Columbus’s voyage brought to light five themes consistent with the expansion of Europe and the progressive integration of world communities: culture contact and social diversification, encounter and exchange, national and regional identity, ethnocentricity and racism, and the role of the United States of America in a changing world system. Columbus’s voyage led to local Caribbean populations being dislocated and destroyed by colonization and conquest. Also, Europeans introduced a variety of different plants and animals to the Americas. Europeans’ identities changed as their discoveries made them more arrogant as they defined their world more clearly. Their ideas of ethnocentricity and racism were sharpened and hardened by the Americas, and the United States is a result of the legacy.
Keywords: Columbus, Quincentenary, Voyage, Americas, Indigenous, Discover, Encounter
