The Caribbean’s Cultural History Essay - 1701 Words

The Caribbean’s Cultural History Columbus’ discovery in 1492 set off a chain of events in the emergence of the Caribbean society, as Knight states in his book The Caribbean. The first voyage of Columbus in 1492 fortuitously discovered a whole new world and set in motion a chain of events whose profound consequences gave new directions to the histories of Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. It was the voyages of Columbus and those who followed him that brought the Americas into the consciousness of the Europeans(Knight 28). Many people question whether the discovery made by Columbus was beneficial or deteriorating for the indigenous people of the Caribbean. It was the exploration and discoveries by Columbus that further led†¦show more content†¦The plantations were an important aspect of the cultural history of the Caribbean. Mintz strongly believed that the plantations helped to shape each colony into what it is now. He suggests that plantations were a way to tie the island to the country that was colonizing it as he states that: the plantation system was an agricultural design for the production of export commodities for foreign markets- a means for introducing agricultural capitalism to subtropical colonial areas, and for integrating those areas with the expanding European economy(Mintz 26). The plantations could also be very useful in leaning more about the history of the people of the island, as Benitez-Rojo states in his essay, From the Plantation to the Plantation. He states that: the plantations serve as a telescope for observing the changes and the continuities of the Caribbean galaxy through the lenses of multifold disciplines, namely economics, history, sociology, political science, anthropology, ethnology, demography, as well as through innumerable practices, which range from the commercial to the military, from the religious literary(Benitiz-Rojo 38). He suggests that the history of the Caribbean and its people is confusing and somewhat jumbled, and feels that the study of the history of each plantation would help to organize the history of the Caribbean. Another commonShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Caribbean Islands1222 Words   |  5 Pagesthem, and the unique individual cultures that were integrated into one. The three authors Sidney W. Mintz, Antonio Benitez-Rojo, and Michelle Cliff, all and address the problem of the Caribbean’s identity. They each discuss how the Caribbean’s diverse culture was created and molded by each individual island’s history, how its society was molded by the development of plantations, how the Caribbean dealt with the issue of slavery, and how miscegenation and the integration of cultures, as a result ofRead MoreAn Analysis Of Jailhouse Boxing, Stato And The 52blocks1522 Words   |  7 Pageshas its roots in Africa (Although they both played some part in its development). 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