Title: The discovery of mankind : Atlantic encounters in the age of Columbus /
Authors: Abulafia, David
Publisher: Yale University Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Explorers Europe History.; First contact of aboriginal peoples with Westerners.; Indigenous peoples Public opinion History.; Public opinion Europe History.; Acculturation History.; Culture conflict History.; America Discovery and exploration European.; Canary Islands Discovery and exploration European.; Caribbean Area Discovery and exploration European.; Latin America Discovery and exploration European.
Abstract: "Emphasizing contact between peoples rather than the discovery of lands, and using archaeological findings as well as eye-witness accounts, David Abulafia explores the social lives of the inhabitants of the Atlantic World, the motivations and tensions of the first transactions and the swift transmutation of wonder to vicious exploitation. Lucid, readable and scrupulous, this is a work of humane engagement with a period in which a tragically violent standard was set for European conquest of the world."--Jacket.
Contents: pt. 1. Mental horizons : the peoples, islands and shores of the imagination. Finding people from other worlds -- Wild men and wanderers -- Images of Asia -- pt. 2. Eastern horizons : the peoples, islands and shores of the eastern Atlantic. Innocence and wildness in the Canary Islands, 1341-1400 -- The Canary Islanders, 1341-1496 -- Rights of dominion, 1341-1496 -- Quarrelsome conquerors, 1402-44 -- Gold and slaves, 1444-96 -- pt. 3. Western horizons : the peoples, islands and shores of the western Atlantic. From the Old Canaries to the New Canaries, 1492 -- Taínos and Caribs -- Turtles, shamans and snorting tubes -- Cuba = Cipangu = Japan, 1492 -- La Navidad, 1492-3 -- First news of the New World, 1493 -- Into the Caribbean, 1493-4 -- Misrule in Hispaniola, 1494-6 -- The project unravels, 1497-8 -- Columbus eclipsed, 1498-1506 -- pt. 4. Southern horizons : the peoples and shores of Atlantic South America. Vespucci's tabloid journalism, 1497-1504 -- The land of the Holy Cross, 1500 -- The realm of King Arosca, 1505 -- A compulsory voluntary 'requirement', 1511-20 -- The Renaissance discovery of man.