Exploring The Americas Analysis

Using the ‘Exploring the Americas’ exhibit discuss both the ways in which the colonization of the Americas were depicted and the reasons for such depictions.

After slowly trotting through security and languidly ascending a massive marble staircase in the Library of Congress, one can find themselves at the entrance of the Exploring the Early Americas exhibit. At the top of the stairs a banner titling the exhibit, and most likely a mass of tourists pandering in and out of the entrance, signals your arrival. Two impressive Mesoamerican incense burners guard the path inside. It feels darkly symbolic knowing these objects once protected a Mayan tomb and now sit behind glass, peering out, trapped in a case within a country they
Comparison between the New World and fifteenth and sixteenth century urban centers in continents such as Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa dominate this portion of the exhibit and make the observer feel the advancement and similarities between the Old World and the New. Through maps, Tenochtitlan is compared to another water based island city, the sophisticated and intensely European Venice. Conquistadors and Spanish explorers reveled in the impressive city, with buildings constructed on islands interconnected by canals and handling water trade with ease. A new world Venice was present; a sophisticated city was beheld before the Spanish on a continent believed to be inefficient and unintelligent. Other 15th century maps of great cities such as Istanbul, Nanjing and Rome line the exhibit in comparison to Tenochtitlan and the Inca capital of Cuzco. Rituals, ceremonies and celebrations are chronicled through relief panels and vessels depicting ancient ballgames, cosmic origin stories and religious symbolism. A highly advanced and culturally significant society is depicted in beautiful full form. Vases, vessels, flasks and massive carved shells are all inscribed with ancient independent glyphs, some with meaning and some merely representing the “idea of writing”. Ancient caudexes show a flourishing system of
Columbus came upon the Taino, which he describes in detail within his journal and in manuscripts on display in the exhibit. He gives accounts of the generosity and naivety of the natives in these articles, stating that “They willingly traded everything they owned” and cut themselves “out of ignorance” on a sword handed to them by Europeans. Columbus’ initial interactions with the native’s garnered intrigue rather than appreciation, he instead focused more attention on the discovery of islands and search for fertile land. The explorer soon found what he was looking for; he described the island of Hispania as having “very lofty and beautiful mountains, great farms, groves and fields… most fertile both for cultivation and for pasturage, and well adapted for constructing buildings.” Columbus found the land Spain was searching for and the exhibit displays this first European encounter as a landmark of exploration, using primary European sources manuscripts and journals. Columbus and the natives seem to get along perfectly well in the exhibit, as it only chronicles their initial meetings and Columbus’ writings back to Spain. What we lack within the exhibit and sources provided are evidences and exhibitions of gruesome truths as to how Columbus and his men forced natives to work in mines until