omissions that is in large part traceable to the first half of the nineteenth
century.
The textbooks’ first mistake is to underplay previous explorers. People from
other continents had reached the Americas many times before 1492. Even if
Columbus had never sailed, other Europeans would have soon reached the
Americas. Indeed, Europeans may already have been fishing off Newfoundland
in the 1480s.^4 In a sense Columbus’s voyage was not the first but the last
“discovery” of the Americas. It was epoch-making because of the way in
which Europe responded. Columbus’s importance is therefore primarily
attributable to changing conditions in Europe, not to his having reached a
“new” continent.
American history textbooks seem to understand the need to cover social
changes in Europe in the years leading up to 1492. They point out that history
passed the Vikings by and devote several pages to the reasons Europe was
ready this time “to take advantage of the discovery” of America, as one
textbook puts it. Unfortunately, none of the textbooks provides substantive
analysis of the major changes that prompted the new response.
Most of the books I examined begin the Columbus story with Marco Polo
and the Crusades. Here is their composite account of what was happening in
Europe:
“Life in Europe was slow paced.” “Curiosity about the rest of
the world was at a low point.” Then, “many changes took place
in Europe during the 500 years before Columbus’s discovery of
the Americas in 1492.” “People’s horizons gradually widened,
and they became more curious about the world beyond their
own localities.” “Europe was stirring with new ideas. Many
Europeans were filled with burning curiosity. They were living
in a period called the Renaissance.” “The Renaissance
encouraged people to regard themselves as individuals.” “What
started Europeans thinking new thoughts and dreaming new
dreams? A series of wars called the Crusades were partly
responsible.” “The Crusaders acquired a taste for the exotic
delights of Asia.” “The desire for more trade quickly spread.”
“The old trade routes to Asia had always been very difficult.”
The accounts resemble each other closely. Sometimes different textbooks