Debates
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Colón |
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There are some points in which it is quite right
not to compare and judge people by standards that did not exist
or prevail at the time they lived. On the other hand, they are
no longer alive so we can do them no material injustice. At
worst we can suppose things about them that are unproven or
speculative. But if we do not measure the past in some way
according to what we expect "to have learned from it", then we
cannot hope to address those who insist that it was those in the
past who must be the models for today and the future. Columbus
and Augustus are dead, only adherents to certain religions
believe they may suffer for what they did. It would be quite
useful however to say Cristobal Columbo just went off to
discover-- let us say gold and new land. But what if he had
decided to go to Toledo or Zaragossa or to Rome for the first
time in his life with the ambition to find gold and seize land?
We could guess that he would have considerable difficulty
defending himself from the gallows or whatever other penalties
prevailed at the time. Hence the voyages of discovery had to
posit two things: that somewhere in the unknown there was
something to be had (as such not a bad approach) and that it was
there for the taking (already a problem once they confronted
people who were already living there). It is on the second point
that Columbo has his problem. He had to justify taking what
could be arguably the property of someone else. Now this is
where the comparisons should be made: would he be licensed to
kill and pillage in Rome or Toledo? Probably not. Some pope or
king would find it objectionable.
Based on this comparison Columbo was not "bad" he
simple did what he would not be allowed to do in his own
country-- except as a mercenary. We cannot debate the conquest
as a fact but we can dispute whether it has any positive lessons
to emulate. Given that the conquest of America is celebrated
year after year, one could begin to ask when European law and
custom was abrogated for the Americas. The consequences of that
abrogation survive today.
Dr. Patrick Wilkinson
Cognitive Consulting and Language Logistics
Kirchstrasse 32
D-40227 Düsseldorf
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