Christopher Columbus and the First Voyages to the New World (World Explorers)

By Stephen C. Dodge

Book Overview

Examines the life and times of Christopher Columbus and describes his voyages to the New World. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 079101522X
• ISBN13: 9780791015223
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Chelsea House Pub
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.5" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Putting the voyages of Christopher Columbus in perspective

"Christopher Columbus and the First Voyages to the New World" makes the case that what Columbus did in 1492 was "the most momentous miscalculation in history." Stephen C. Dodge tells the story of the stubborn captain-general who led at iny fleet of three ships from the Spanish port of Palos that August. Columbus was convinced that by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean he would reach the Indies and claim the riches coveted by all of Europe for Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain. They sponsored the expedition that after a voyage of a little more than a month discovered an island gateway to two new continents that had been forgotten by whatever Europeans had ventured that far in the past. The meeting of Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas on the tiny island of San Salvador was arguably the most momentous in the history of civilization. Although Dodge only touches on the treachery, mayhem, slavery, and genocide that followed that first peaceful encounter, such things are much on the minds of students today who see Columbus as the father of all of the evils of the world represented by dead, white, male Europeans. The flip side of the coin is the entirely new civilization that Europeans built in the New World on the ruins of their old one. The Columbus of Dodge's book is a man who made three voyages of discovery to the Americas, all of which were filled with high adventure and made possible by his uncanny seamanship. But he was also a man who died bitter and neglected, not to mention unaware that he had given Spain the foundation for a massive empire that would make it a world power. The book begins with the first voyage to the Americas and then goes back in time to tell how Columbus first tried to persuade the Portuguese to underwrite his enterprise to the Indies before getting the backing of the Spanish. Chapters are devoted to the rest of Columbus' voyages and then the attacks that targeted Columbus after disillusionment over the realities of the New World made him the devil incarnate to his opponents on Hispaniola. The last chapter on "The High Voyage" tells of how Columbus died hurt over the loss of his privileges and feeling he had been cheated by the Spanish crown. In the middle of the book you will find "Widening the Globe," a photo-essay in color of maps and paintings reflecting the world of Columbus. The rest of the book is illustrated with black & white paintings, etchings, woodcuts, maps, writings, and artifacts, most of which are fairly contemporary to the life of Columbus. This volume will provide young students with an understanding of who Columbus was and what he did in the context of the era in which he lived. Although some of the information about Columbus is now in doubt (that recent special on cable television convinced me that Columbus was really Spanish, not because of those failed DNA tests but because most of what we have written in his own hand is in Spanish and none of i