Lies My Teacher Told Me

by

James Loewen

Christopher Columbus Character Analysis

World-famous explorer and colonizer, who led a series of successful European expeditions to the Americas, and subsequently instituted a series of brutal, genocidal policies designed to dominate and enslave the Native Americans. Loewen acknowledges that Columbus was one of the most important figures in world history, but not for the reasons that most American history textbooks suggest: Columbus was so important not because he “discovered America” but because his expeditions to the Americas established a standard of brutality, theft, and genocide that would characterize the Europeans’ relationship with the Native Americans for centuries to come.

Christopher Columbus Quotes in Lies My Teacher Told Me

The Lies My Teacher Told Me quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Columbus or refer to Christopher Columbus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bias Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The textbooks concede that Columbus did not start from scratch. Every textbook account of the European exploration of the Americas begins with Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, between 1415 and 1460. Henry is portrayed as discovering Madeira and the Azores and sending out ships to circumnavigate Africa for the first time. The textbook authors seem unaware that ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed at least as far as Ireland and England.

Related Characters: Christopher Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
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Christopher Columbus Quotes in Lies My Teacher Told Me

The Lies My Teacher Told Me quotes below are all either spoken by Christopher Columbus or refer to Christopher Columbus. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bias Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The textbooks concede that Columbus did not start from scratch. Every textbook account of the European exploration of the Americas begins with Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, between 1415 and 1460. Henry is portrayed as discovering Madeira and the Azores and sending out ships to circumnavigate Africa for the first time. The textbook authors seem unaware that ancient Phoenicians and Egyptians sailed at least as far as Ireland and England.

Related Characters: Christopher Columbus, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis: