Early in life I learned that in order to get what I wanted I had to be greedy. I began to play soccer at a young age. I knew that practicing the aspects of the game were not enough to make improvements. I had to be greedy, and go out and get what I wanted in order to be successful in my career as a soccer player.
Have no remorse for other players of the game; I was out for myself, to get what I wanted, and to be as greedy as possible. In Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen and The Slave Community by John W. Blassingame the authors provide evidence that greed is an Aspect of America. This essay will argue that greed was necessary for the Europeans to conquer the American continent.
Greed is defined as an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves. When Columbus arrived on the American continent he had one thing in mind. “Claim everything he saw right off the boat… taking the land and dominating the Indians was inevitable if not natural” (Loewen 44).
The idea was to gain as much land has possible. The more land Columbus was able to conquer the greedier he became.
The only way for Columbus to acquire large amounts of land was to resort to brutal tactics. “When an Indian committed even a minor offence, the Spanish cut off his or her ears or nose” (Loewen 61).
The Essay on Lies My Teacher Told Me By James Loewen
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen James W. Loewen, in my opinion, makes a very valid argument in Lies My Teacher Told Me. He argues that teaching (of history) today relies too much on the textbooks which glorify the United States and its imperfect leaders and heroes. His examples, in fact, are very surprising to those most unfamiliar, or deceived, in their understanding of American History ...
People will not willingly give up their homeland, and the only way to gain land was to get rid of the people on it, and make way for the new inhabitants that would soon arrive. “On March 24, 1495, he set out to conquer the Arawaks” (Loewen 61).
Indians resist, and forcefully removing them is the only way Columbus could get what he wanted. The hunger and greed for more and more land is the only way possible to get what one wants, and if the current inhabitants have to be forcefully removed, then so be it. The Europeans needed slaves to work the land. It was a necessary part of the expansion of America. The Africans were used to working hard long days. Being put in fields all day was nothing new to them.
“The Africans brought to North America were members of agrarian polities in West Africa, accustomed to hard, continuous labor, and a sedentary life” (Blassingame 5).
The Americans moved the Africans to work for them, because the men on the plantations could not do all the work themselves. Greed instated the use of slavery to further improve harvest. Why pay a salary, when a plantation owner paid only once then had full time help for many years. The greedy desire for slavery was necessary for the Europeans expansion in what is now the United States of America.
The slaves did more then just work the land and improve the agriculture of America. “Women played important roles. They made the clothes, served as warriors, and did the marketing” (Blassingame 15).
Slaves improved the lives of the European settlers in other ways as well, and gave them time for other things, rather then working in the fields. Without the slaves the industrial aspect of America would have come at a much slower rate. I believe the greed of the Europeans slavery movement helped the conquering of America, and its expansion.
Greed gave Columbus a vast supply of resources. With only a few men he could not gather all the resources he required to survive. “Columbus, upset because he could not locate the gold he was certain was on the island, setup a tribute system… [the Indians] all promised to pay a tribute to the Catholic Sovereigns every three months” (Loewen 62).
Because of this tribute system Columbus was able to gather large amounts of resources. He had abundance of gold, food, and other essentials needed to survive.
The Essay on Native American Land European Americans
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the movements to explore the new world increased rapidly. Among them was the arrival of the early Europeans on Americas. Only in a few decades this arrival has changed the land and the people of the Americas both on the physical the non-physical outcomes. On the physical outcomes, within a few decades after the arrival of European Ships on October 12, ...
“Having their guns and hearing nobody, they entered the houses and found the people were gone. The sailors took some things but didn’t dare stay… we marched to a place called Cornhill, where we had found the corn before. At another place we had seen before, we dug and found some more corn, two or three baskets full, and a bag of beans… the next morning, we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up” (Loewen 91).
Columbus did what he had to do to survive, and being greedy, and taking whatever they wanted was the only plausible way for him to do it. It was the only method of survival and the Europeans took advantage of it, and put it to use. One would argue that Columbus set out for the purpose of converting the peoples he discovered to Christianity. Columbus used the “Spanish Requirement” (Loewen 43) as a motive to get people to convert. Columbus believed that Christianity was the only way to be free and be loved by God.
So if one didn’t convert they were killed. Because of Columbus’s greed he made more and more Indians convert. “I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name of the Pope take the King as lord of this land and obey his mandates” (Loewen 43).
Greed was necessary for the Europeans to conquer the American continent.
I believe that greed was necessary for our early explorers to acquire large amounts of land, implement and maintain slavery, and get resources at any means possible. Without this greed the nation may never have existed or even been thought about. We need to thank the greediness of our early explorers because they paved the path for the America today. This essay brings forth a new point of view in the beginning of our nation, from the first footstep to the beginning colonies.
Thinking critically about this subject has given me many new ideas and beliefs about the early time periods of America. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen brought new truths out about our early history that I did not know ever happened. The Slave Community by John W.
Blassingame lets the reader know what slavery was actually like and the importance it had on America. After reading those books I have a whole new insight on American history, and its early beginnings.
Columbus Essay
Another Columbus Day has past by. And, as with every Columbus Day for the past year, I ask myself Why do we celebrate a man who was a murderer? Columbus sparked many a great western ideal. Capitalism, science as a religion, the establishment of a global monoculture, the enslavement of other races, the destruction of the environment, the eradication and abuse of life, and the genocide of Americas ...
