Columbus The Indians And Human Progress Summary

In Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress, Zinn exposes the discovery of America from the Arawaks’ perspective, whom he describes as hospitable, leaving aside the conquerors’ and colonizers’ traditional history. According to Zinn, the Indians who inhabited America before the arrival of Columbus did not live in complete barbarism as the curricular programs taught in the country's educational centers describe it, nor Columbus was a simple sailor en route to India as the stories we learn as children present him. That is to say, Columbus and the other conquerors did not rescue the Indians from a life of barbarism or misery because neither the conquerors were heroes, nor the Indians needed to be rescued. As Zinn points out at the end of his text,