: international studies

This week is about thinking critically about the master narratives (p. 48) that have shaped how world history has been written and taught. Namely, the paradigm of Eurocentrism that has dominated the story, which holds western civilizations as supreme.

Please think about the narratives of western civilization that you have been taught, and use at least 100 words to answer the following questions.

What is one way that you learned these narratives? (Lessons in school, movies/shows in popular culture, etc,.)

What is one particular historical moment/event that you remember being portrayed and framed in this way? (ancient Egypt, Columbus’ conquest, etc,.)

Finally, how would you invert or flip that narrative to re-write the story into a “new global storyline”? (For instance, what we are taught is the heroic story of Columbus and conquest could actually be a story of Indigenous resilience to invasion.)

Please answer all the questions above fully.

In your response, you should apply concepts and ideas from lecture and readings, and make your argument using concrete examples and data when possible.

This is the lecture video:

I have also attached a 100 pages of book that we use in class.

ANSWER

Learning about western civilisation mostly occurs in school where understanding concepts of governance and civics requires insight from history. It is in school that the legend of Christopher Columbus is passed and his discovery of the New World. From then on America represented a land of opportunity, and new beginnings and immigrants crossed the oceans from all around the world including Europe, Asia and even Africa as slaves into the New World. Almost everyone in America today can trace their ancestry back to some other region around the world apart from very few Native Americans which is significant in understanding the concept of Western Civilisation.

Another historical moment that is portrayed with such significance is space travel and the moon landing in 1968. Images from the moon landing portrayed our planet as a small spherical sort of ship that contained everything we knew about our existence. Suddenly, the planet that seemed so large and unending had gained edges and limits. From then on, there were calls to conserve natural resources in the event they ran out. Space travel was a vital moment in history also because curious questions arose on the life potential of other planets in our galaxy and others as well. It is the idea that has been carried to this day where several organisations are attempting to establish colonies in the neighbouring planet, Mars.

Flipping the history of Christopher Columbus and his arrival to America could be explained as the arrival of invaders to North America by the Natives. The new comers had no commitment to the principles of life and they cut down everything on their path with the notion that it was their destiny to conquer as explained in Manifest Destiny. The new arrivals build telegram lines, railways and roads that tore into both human and animal habitat in their endevour to make America Civilised. To the natives, these were invaders and they did not share their values and therefore were enemies to their society and culture.