Summary of Laurence Bergreen's Columbus

By IRB Media

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#1 When Columbus and his crew landed on Friday, October 12, they were greeted by the island’s inhabitants, the Taínos. The Taínos were a widely distributed ethnic group who were skilled at cultivating corn and yams, and making pottery.

#2 When the ships approached the shore, the hostages escaped one by one, and Columbus realized he had been deceived. He would have sailed on, but he wanted to claim all the islands he passed, so he did in the name of Castile.

#3 On October 15, his ships approaching an island, Columbus landed and was greeted by a man alone in a dugout canoe who gave him a gift of some unknown leaves. They were among the oldest crops known to humanity, and were used to cure tobacco.

#4 On October 16, Columbus’s modest altruistic gesture paid dividends. The islanders were more than willing to trade with the Europeans, and they even gave them some of their clothes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822516601

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Insights on Laurence Bergreen's Columbus

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When Columbus and his crew landed on Friday, October 12, they were greeted by the island’s inhabitants, the Taínos. The Taínos were a widely distributed ethnic group who were skilled at cultivating corn and yams, and making pottery.

#2

When the ships approached the shore, the hostages escaped one by one, and Columbus realized he had been deceived. He would have sailed on, but he wanted to claim all the islands he passed, so he did in the name of Castile.

#3

On October 15, his ships approaching an island, Columbus landed and was greeted by a man alone in a dugout canoe who gave him a gift of some unknown leaves. They were among the oldest crops known to humanity, and were used to cure tobacco.

#4

On October 16, Columbus’s modest altruistic gesture paid dividends. The islanders were more than willing to trade with the Europeans, and they even gave them some of their clothes.

#5

The diary that Columbus kept as he explored the New World was a manifesto of discovery, and it reflected his vision, ambition, and will to greatness.

#6

The journal of Columbus’s first voyage has been lost, and so we have to rely on a transcription of the original journal made by his son Ferdinand. Ferdinand naturally sought to burnish his father’s tarnished reputation, while Las Casas sought a deep enough circle in hell in which to cast the explorer.

#7

Columbus’s journal is a record of his passionate instability. He was more than a discoverer, he was an intensifier of both his voyages and his inner struggles. As he went island-hopping, marveling at the singing of the little birds and the grass like April in Andalusia, he heard about a large island that he reflexively decided must be Japan.

#8

When not contemplating his China delusion, Columbus was convinced that he had arrived at the doorstep of Asia. He spent a night and a day waiting to see if the king or other people would bring gold, but they only brought jewelry that some of the Indians wore hanging from their noses.

#9

On October 30, the fleet set off again, this time with two Spanish men named Rodrigo de Xerez and Luis de Torres, who were sent to find the king of the island. They had six days to complete their mission.

#10

When Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, he was extremely unprepared to communicate with the indigenous people he met. He made up stories about how the indigenous people he met were eating men and drinking their blood.

#11

After returning from the island, the two scouts reported that the inhabitants were very friendly and welcoming. They were offered chairs while their hosts squat at their feet, believing that they came from the sky.

#12

Columbus was excited to see so many different types of trees and plants on the islands he visited. He thought there were immense riches and precious stones in them, and that they extended far to the south.

#13

Columbus’s inborn sense of the sea helped him navigate, and he did not rely on celestial navigation alone. He also had an asset that made all the difference: an inborn sense of the wind and weather.

#14

Columbus’s dead reckoning was so accurate that he had already sailed from Spain to the New World without incident the