Ajao Blog Post 5

 Christine Ajao

Professor Shirk 

International Politics 

4 May 2022 


Todorov’s work titled “The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other”, analyzes the venture that Columbus took to the Americas and how he treated the Native Americans that resided there at the time.  The chapter “Columbus as Interpreter”, details that since the Native Americans had a different way of living and did not use the “resources” that they had, Columbus felt like he had a right to take them. As well as this, they believed their voyage and taking over America could be backed up by their religious beliefs. Although the chapter says “his faith is Christian, but we have the impression that, were it Muslim or Jewish, he would have not have acted differently; what matters is the force of the belief itself” (Todorov) assuming that Columbus just used religion as means for power rather than just true belief. This really interests me because I do believe that he used his religion as means of power to commit horrible acts and I believe that we still see this issue today. There are times when leaders almost believe they are morally better if they are a certain religion and disagree with other countries that are deemed weaker than them because they are not run the way that particular country is. Like how Columbus believed the Spaniards were better than the Native Americans and didn’t like the way that they ruled and backed up their religion as means of conquering. 

For example, there have been times when religion is used to create laws and influence beliefs. In recent times, some can argue that the pro-life argument is purely religious and that majority of the lawmakers make that argument because it’s their personal religious beliefs. Regardless if pro-life or pro-choice in this situation, religion is used in this context as a means of controlling and regulating a situation against others who may or may not be that religion. The United States does not have an official religion and having leaders use their religions as means to control others should not be permitted. This is a more recent example but in the past religion has been used in different laws and even all of the state constitutions mention “God” or some type of belief. Having the use of God and referring to a Christian God, in the terms of lawmaking and power of citizens just how religion has an influence in a certain country. 

The idea of the United States disagrees with how other countries live and try to enforce their standards on other countries is nothing that is uncommon. With the rise of globalization, the US influences other countries to be similar to us culturally and live a different way of life. For example, different countries have now been influenced by Western culture. The US isn’t forcefully making countries behave a certain way, but still spreads our cultural norms to other cultures. Nigeria is an example of this. In recent years with the rise of cell phones and US social media, Nigeria has seen a decline in children knowing their father’s tongue and different cultural traditions. Although the US is not directly affected by this or even directly influences Nigeria, the spread of social media and US influence for profit to different cultures and countries.

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