This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary .(November 2015) |
Author | Orson Scott Card |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Pastwatch series |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | 1996 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
Pages | 351 |
ISBN | 0-312-85058-1 |
OCLC | 33277574 |
813/.54 20 | |
LC Class | PS3553.A655 P37 1996 |
Followed by | Pastwatch: The Flood |
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) is a science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card, the first in a proposed Pastwatch series. The book's focus is the life and activities of explorer Christopher Columbus. Much of the action deals with a group of scientists from the future who travel back to the 15th century in order to change the pattern of European contact with the Americas. These alternate with chapters describing Columbus' career and his efforts to obtain backing to his project of travelling across the ocean - much of which can be considered as historical fiction.
Sometime in the future, humanity invents a series of machines to view past events. Tagiri is a researcher at Pastwatch, the organization in charge of these machines. Her special interest is in the colonization of the Caribbean and the life of Christopher Columbus. One day she accidentally discovers that the machines may be used to send information backwards in time (meaning the past is not unalterable). Unsure about what to do with this knowledge she is nonetheless put in charge of a project to explore it along with her husband Hassan. They are eventually joined by their daughter Diko.
A parallel narrative tells of Columbus' efforts to secure financial and political backing for his voyage across the Atlantic. Tagiri and other researchers note that Columbus had always yearned for greatness but that as a young man he had been determined to head east in a new Crusade to liberate from the Muslims the Holy Land as well as Constantinople, whose fall was a recent and painful event to Europeans of Columbus' generation. Columbus only changed his mind and decided to head west across the Atlantic after nearly drowning in a storm.
The mystery of exactly why Columbus changed his mind is solved by Diko. She uses a new, and more visually sensitive, version of the time viewer and discovers that after surviving the wreck Columbus received a vision directing him to head west to convert the people who lived on a previous undiscovered continent. The researchers realize that this vision is actually a hologram sent back in time by people from an alternate timeline in order to influence the direction of Columbus' life.
Realizing that someone has already changed the timeline they try to figure out what might have been different if Columbus had headed east instead of west. The answer is provided by Hunahpu, an Amerindian researcher with Pastwatch. He argues that in the original timeline, the Europeans exhausted themselves in the anti-Muslim crusade propagated by Columbus, and meanwhile across the ocean the Tlaxcalan Empire of Central America grew powerful enough to invade the weakened Europe, subjecting the continent to a harsh regime of human sacrifice. Eventually, the Tlaxcalans underwent an Industrial Revolution and developed advanced weapons which enabled them to conquer the entire world - still without changing their bloodthirsty religion for what must have been an extended period. In order to undo that atrocity, the Pastwatch's counterparts from the original timeline sent the hologram back to direct Columbus, the greatest man of his era, to head west. The European conquest of the Americas thereby neutralized the threat - but at the price of untold suffering for the Native Americans, trampled under the European conquest.
Tagiri and her team determine that they must change history so that neither timeline happens as it did. The urgency of doing so increases when it is revealed that Tagiri's world is an imminent accelerating ecological disaster, which threatens the very survival of humanity. Tagiri and the others reason that the ruthless plundering of the world's resources which led to the disaster was a continuation of the dynamic of ruthless European conquest of the Americas, and averting the one might avert the other as well. In any case, with the world on the brink of total disaster, there is little to lose in interfering with history and trying to change and improve it.
Tagiri's team use their machinery to send Diko, Hunahpu, and a Turkish researcher named Kemal, back in time in order to change history. Hunahpu and Diko appear years before Columbus' voyage in Central America and the Caribbean respectively. They use genetically-engineered viruses to spread immunity to Old World diseases and work to strengthen Indian society for the coming European contact, including by spreading a pseudo-Christian religion among them and outlawing human sacrifice. Hunahpu helps accelerate the development of a Central American empire to rival European powers. When Columbus arrives, Kemal sinks his ships, stranding the explorer and his men in the Caribbean. After overcoming prejudice, Columbus learns to live with the indigenous people and becomes a powerful political leader among the natives of the Caribbean and eventually oversees a political union with the Central American empire.
Diko becomes Columbus' lover and the two establish a strong, lasting loving relationship. After years of their knowing and trusting each other, Diko reveals to Columbus the truth about her origins and what she had done. When hearing about how his voyage of discovery would have led to the widespread killing and enslavement of the Indians, Columbus bursts out crying and thanks Diko for saving him from perpetrating such deeds.
By the sixteenth century, the people of Central America and the Caribbean are able to send ships across the Atlantic to meet the Europeans on more equal footing. Neither Europeans nor Native Americans are in a position to conquer the other, and they embark on reasonably peaceful relations.
A postscript describes the future of this new timeline as a utopian one and how archeologists in the 1950s discovered the skull of Kemal and found within it a set of small metal plates which contained a message from Tagiri and the Pastwatch program.
According to Card at his Hatrack River website, a second and third book, Pastwatch: The Flood and Pastwatch: The Garden of Eden were planned: [1]
I have several projects under contract that will be written, as I find time—my sci-fi time-travel treatments of Noah's flood and the Garden of Eden, for instance.
In a 1999 interview with CNN, Card confirmed that those stories would be part of a "Pastwatch series". [2]
In 2010 Card stated in an interview that he would be writing a Pastwatch novel a year until the trilogy was completed. [3] As of 2023, this has not occurred.
Mark Winfield wrote: "Card opens up vast vistas of a history which might have been, a history in which centuries of harsh oppression of Native Americans (followed by the mass enslavement of blacks) might have been averted and more equitable relations between the two sides of the Atlantic established. (...) I am no expert on Mesoamerican history and culture. The alterations introduced in Western Hemisphere by the travelers from the future seem to me reasonably plausible, given the resources at these travelers' disposal - though an expert might pick holes in Card's scenario.(...) However, the final chapters, dealing with Columbus' belated return to Spain, seem in my humble opinion hopelessly idealistic.(...) The humane religion cooked up in the Caribbean by the time travelers could be considered a form of Christianity. But it is certainly not the Christianity practiced by the Catholic Church in 16th Century Europe. Which means that, from the Church's point of view, it is h-e-r-e-s-y, pure and simple. The 16th Century Catholic Church took a very dim view of heresy, the Spanish Church most of all. The Church established an institution charged with fighting heresy and stamping it out, the name of this institute: The Inquisition. (...) From the Church's point of view, the situation depicted by Card would inevitably be interpreted as "Columbus had become a heretic across the ocean, has come back with a heretic war fleet, and demands to establish on Spanish soil a heretic enclave where heresy could be openly practiced and from where it can be disseminated". Could the Spanish Crown have acceded smoothly and harmoniously to Columbus' request? Not likely. (...) Moreover, this is the very time when the Reformation was bubbling over in Germany. Inevitably, Columbus and his fellows would be regarded as the confederates of Luther. (...) This intervention from the future may have averted the European conquest of America, but it would not necessarily have created a peaceful and harmonious 16th Century. More likely, the European Wars of Religion would have gained a Transatlantic dimension". [4]
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.
Catharism was a Christian quasi-dualist or pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a heretical sect by the Catholic Church, its followers were attacked first by the Albigensian Crusade and later by the Medieval Inquisition, which eradicated the sect by 1350. Many thousands were slaughtered, hanged, or burnt at the stake, sometimes without regard for age or sex.
The Inquisition was a medieval Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases, and later a name for various State-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and other dangers, using this procedure. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment. If the accused was known to be lying, a single short application of non-maiming torture was allowed, to corroborate evidence.
The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian calendar dates from 1 January 1401 to 31 December 1500 (MD).
During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. The Norse explored and colonized areas of Europe and the North Atlantic, colonizing Greenland and creating a short-term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland circa 1000 AD. However, due to its long duration and importance, the later colonization by the European powers involving the continents of North America and South America is more well-known.
The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations and the existence of valuable resources for extraction.
Bogomilism was a Christian neo-Gnostic, dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century. It most probably arose in the region of Kutmichevitsa, today part of the region of Macedonia.
The Bosnian Church was a schismatic Christian church in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina that was independent from and considered heretical by both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches.
The Cainites or Cainians were a Gnostic and antinomian sect known to venerate Cain as the first victim of the Demiurge, the deity of the Old Testament, who was identified by many groups of Gnostics as evil. The sect was relatively small. They were mentioned by Tertullian and Irenaeus as existing in the eastern Roman Empire during the 2nd century. One of their purported religious texts was the Gospel of Judas.
The history of Christian thought has included concepts of both inclusivity and exclusivity from its beginnings, that have been understood and applied differently in different ages, and have led to practices of both persecution and toleration. Early Christian thought established Christian identity, defined heresy, separated itself from polytheism and Judaism and developed the theological conviction called supersessionism. In the centuries after Christianity became the official religion of Rome, some scholars say Christianity became a persecuting religion. Others say the change to Christian leadership did not cause a persecution of pagans, and that what little violence occurred was primarily directed at non-orthodox Christians.
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was a pivotal event in the history of the Americas, marked by the collision of the Aztec Triple Alliance and the Spanish Empire, ultimately reshaping the course of human history. Taking place between 1519 and 1521, this event saw the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and his small army of European soldiers and numerous indigenous allies, overthrowing one of the most genocidal empires in Mesoamerica that killed 80.000 people a year with human sacrifice in temples.
Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card coproduced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Between 1492 and 1504, the Italian navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus led four transatlantic maritime expeditions in the name of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to the Caribbean and to Central and South America. These voyages led to the widespread knowledge of the New World. This breakthrough inaugurated the period known as the Age of Discovery, which saw the colonization of the Americas, a related biological exchange, and trans-Atlantic trade. These events, the effects and consequences of which persist to the present, are often cited as the beginning of the modern era.
Heresy in Christianity denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.
The Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was the first Capitancy in the New World, established by Spain in 1492 on the island of Hispaniola. The Capitancy, under the jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, was granted administrative powers over the Spanish possessions in the Caribbean and most of its mainland coasts, making Santo Domingo the principal political entity of the early colonial period.
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.
Christianity in the Middle Ages covers the history of Christianity from the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The end of the period is variously defined - depending on the context, events such as the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, or the Protestant Reformation in 1517 are sometimes used.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, were the first European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. He has been represented in many fictional and semi-fictional works, including plays, operas, films and TV, as well as literary works.
The Bosnian Crusade was fought against unspecified heretics from 1235 to 1241 and was essentially a Hungarian war of conquest against the Banate of Bosnia that was sanctioned as a crusade. Led by a Hungarian prince, Coloman, the crusaders succeeded in conquering only peripheral parts of the country. They were followed by Dominicans, who erected a cathedral and put heretics to death by burning.
The Bilino Polje abjuration, also known as “Confessio Christianorum bosniensis”, was an act of alleged heresy abjuration by Bosnian clergy in presence of Ban Kulin and Giovanni da Casamari. It was signed by seven priors of the Bosnian Church, on 8 April 1203 at Bilino Polje field, near today town of Zenica, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The same document was brought to Buda, in 30 April by Giovanni da Casamari, Ban Kulin and two abbots, where it was examined by Emeric, King of Hungary, and the high clergy