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Native Americans relations with Europeans

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Native Americans relations with Europeans
According to the anonymous author , “Objectivity is neither possible nor desirable. It’s not possible because all history is subjective; all history represents a point of view.", which in other words means that people see history in the way they want to see it based on what they think is important. It is not possible to be objective because everything one says and thinks is based on our perceptions, knowledge, thoughts and feelings . It isn't desirable because if someone is trying to get a point across, they have to be subjective. History, while trying to be objective is mostly subjective. The historian brings their feelings, prejudices, backgrounds, as well as their P.O.V's to historical situations. This effects how history is told and written about. The various authors that have wrote about Columbus arrival to the New World based it off of their own view of the world and of Columbus. In " A People's History of the United States ", Howard Zinn approaches his view on history in a more opinion based way. Howard Zinn beings by retelling the encounter between the natives and Columbus. Zinn's view of this is different from the traditional encounter most historians talk about. Howard Zinn points out that the Europeans came to the Americas in search of slaves and gold and brutally killed almost all the Indians, who according to many other people were a peaceful people. This shows that Zinn is subjective and doesn't view Columbus as an "enlightened " explorer but rather a brutal one that would do anything such as torture others to get what he wants. Then Zinn gives his opinion on how history is usually told from the Elite groups point of view. Zinn points out that Columbus thought the Natives were weak and wouldn't be able to defend themeselves. Howard Zinn does give facts about the encounter such as using Columbus own journal as evidence but he does become biased in certain parts of the first chapter. In other words , Zinn wanted to tell the Natives pov because he

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