Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents

by Geoffrey Symcox, Blair Sullivan

Focused on Columbus' voyages and their impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies presents the voyager as a significant historical actor who improvised responses to a changed world while helping link Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a conflicted economic and cultural symbiosis.

Genres: History, Textbooks, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2005

About the author

Geoffrey Symcox is professor of history emeritus at the University of California-Los Angeles. He earned his BA in Modern History from Oxford University, a master's from Stockholm University, and a Ph.D. from UCLA.

Reviews

[Fallon Burner]

I like this edition better than the Penguin, mostly because of Symcox's introduction, but also the organizational choices. The Penguin is a little less confusing in that it follows a chronological narrative (based on the story that's being told, not so much its publication date). However Symcox & Sullivan made an interesting choice with organizational structure. It's chronological within thematic sections which, after having read their clearly organized narrative overview in the introduction, actually made the story make more sense. You hear from sources on the ground first, then you hear about people in Europe's reaction to those sources last. I recommend starting with this version over the Penguin.

[M Arteaga]

In 1492, previously separate worlds collided and began to merge, often painfully, into the world system in which we live today. Columbus’s four Atlantic voyages (1492-1504) helped link Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a conflicted economic and cultural symbiosis. These carefully selected documents describe the voyages and their immediate impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. The text is generally dry, but informative.

[Kienan Aguado]

Very interesting and informative read. I loved learning that Columbus was guaranteed the whole world by Isabella y Ferdinand because they basically 100% believed he would die and they just wanted him to shut up. And then when he lived and realized he wasn't getting anything from them, he sued them for decades. Soooooo funny.

[Ed Callahan]

These days it's become very fashionable, or trendy, if not tiresome, to denounce Columbus with the kind of ferocity which often isn't even reserved for the likes of Chinggis Khan. After all, opinions about Columbus have gone from viewing him as the champion of Western Civilization's expansion to demonizing him as the destroyer of civilizations. Destroyer of Worlds is a title best left for Krishna.

Symcox and Sullivan remind us that "no verdict is definitive." To that end, this book provides valuable resources for better evaluating both Columbus and the time in which he lived. What emerges is a more nuanced image of a monarchy eager to expand its presence and influence, a deeply devout admiral who truly believed he was both serving the bests interests of his God as well as his patrons, and the emerging role which the Americas would play in the ongoing development of European politics and self-understanding.

These sources deal primarily with Columbus' four voyages and his changing relations with the Spanish monarchy. Outside the introduction, none of the sources address the impact of European diseases on the Americas. We also have a huge accretion of mythology related to Columbus which ranges from his challenge to a flat-world cosmology (which didn't exist), to dying in poverty (which he did not), to Queen Isabella having to pawn her jewelry to fund his voyages (which she didn't). The myths in themselves are fascinating, but serve more to obscure than illuminate.

Mythbusting is not the purpose of this collection, although it succeeds to a certain extent in doing just that. In their introduction, Symcox, who is the editor of a multivolume collection of original sources related to Columbus and his voyages, and Sullivan, coeditor with Symcox of this same collection, have produced this volume "to add depth and complexity to the shallow, one-dimensional, partly fictional image of Columbus that is still current." I believe that they have succeeded.

[birdmaddgirl]

useful translations and context for columbus & his voyages

[Amanda]

Good book for quick research or for use in a classroom during a unit on primary documents.

[Sarah]

A little slow but very informative.