Assignment
• How Did Early-Modern Europeans View Non-Europeans?
• The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's "Round Africa to India" records his arrival in the city of "Calicut" (modern Kozhikode) in India in 1498. (Vasco da Gama is the "captain-major" referred to here.) How would you describe Vasco da Gama's interactions with the "king" (the Hindu ruler of Calicut)?
• Christopher Columbus's "Letter on His First Voyage" was written to the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who had financed his voyage in 1492. According to Columbus, what were the various motivations for, and benefits of, his discovery of these lands and peoples? Which of these benefits seems to be the most important to him?
• As he reported in his "Letter from India," the Jesuit brother Francis Xavier faced many challenges in trying to convert people in India to Christianity. What were some of those challenges, and how did he try to overcome them?
• In "Of Cannibals," how did French essayist Michel de Montaigne define "barbarism" and "savagery"? Do you agree with him?
• Overall, how would you summarize the attitudes of these four Europeans to the non-Europeans from various parts of the world that they encountered or wrote about? Respectful? Disdainful? Patronizing? Admiring? Both? Neither?
• Let's turn that question around. Of course, all of these sources were written by Europeans. But if we read carefully between the lines in these sources, what can we say about how these various peoples viewed the Europeans that they encountered?
Format your assignment according to the give formatting requirements:
• The answer must be using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, typed, with one-inch margins on all sides.
• The response also includes a cover page containing the student's name, the title of the assignment, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
• Also include a reference page. The references and Citations should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.