Columbus and the Age of Discovery by Zvi Dor-Ner

We are in direct line in every possible way.' And we came out of conflict with the native population. 'We are a direct extension of what he started. 'We are principally a European society in America,' observed Dor-Ner. What followed were patterns of trade with significant consequences, the introduction of European diseases that proved devastating to a western population with no immunity, and the importation of slaves commandeered in Africa. His first landing is believed to have been in the Bahamas.

He sailed in an effort to find another route to China and found what he thought were islands off the Asian coast. If trading was indeed his main goal, the commodities he ultimately dealt in, directly or indirectly, make for a remarkable manifest: horses, potatoes, sugar cane, disease, religion, people. Later installments describe the consequences of Columbus's voyage and subsequent colonization. He sailed to the Indies, to Japan, to make a buck, not to gain knowledge.' 'How practical the whole thing was,' said Dor-Ner. The first half of the series describes the world Columbus was born into and his quest to reach the East by traveling west.ĭor-Ner said that what surprised him most as he conducted his research was how much of the explorer's mission was motivated not by a quest for knowledge but by trade. He is the executive producer of 'Columbus and the Age of Discovery,' which airs in seven parts - two hour-long segments each night at 8 and 9, Sunday through Tuesday, with the final installment Wednesday at 8. What Dor-Ner's musings on a Paris subway ultimately wrought unfolds on PBS this week. It's not just 'Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.'' You look for a great historic moment that changes the lives of many people and in so many different ways. 'That's the kind of material you look for in a documentary.

There was no one representing native Americans, but for Africans to point out that Columbus had triggered a disaster for them was right, too. The Spanish and Italian views could not be dismissed. Another said the Caribbean people knew where they were all along, didn't need discovering, and that it was Columbus who was lost. Another said that Erik the Red should be honored as the discoverer of America. 'But an African protested that Columbus was an arch-colonialist, that the idea he would be honored was ridiculous.

'The United Nations was debating, going on concerning the decade of Columbus, and there was bickering about how the national honors should be divided by the Italians and Spanish. 'I was riding the Metro subway in, reading the International Herald Tribune,' he recalled. Zvi Dor-Ner still remembers the moment that day in Paris when he began to think seriously about Christopher Columbus.

Columbus and the Age of Discovery by Zvi Dor-Ner