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Columbus Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, 1493
History
Students Name
Institution of Affiliation
HIST 1302Date
Columbus Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, 1493
Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez who was among his patrons and had assisted him to finance his exploration trip (Wadsworth, 2016). Columbus wrote the letter in March of the year 1493 upon his arrival from his return journey from Cathay, which would later be named as America. The author was not administrative personnel but a missionary explorer as well as an economic scout in search of treasures. By his description of the nature of the inhabitants of the regions he visited as being timid indicates that he was an educated individual. In fact, a scout and explorer who is in charge of a voyage have to be educated enough so that he is capable of determining the routes and recording the encounters in his diaries.
Lord Raphael Sanchez was the intended recipient of the letter. In his letter, he used a more formal language that was in Spanish where it was later sent to Italy for translation to Latin. Lord Raphael Sanchez could not be able to read in Latin, and therefore this prompted Christopher Columbus to make extra efforts for the conversion of the letter. The main reason behind writing the letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez was due to the debt owned for financing his journey, his success to subdue the native people that he found on the islands as well the thrilling environmental nature of the region. The area was full of rich indigenous culture with the people know neither possessing weapons. The matter amazed Columbus and saw this as an opportunity to show allegiance to Lord Raphael Sanchez through taking control of the area and converting the people to Christianity, paying loyalty to the king and the people of Spain. The other reason for writing the letter was because Lord Raphael Sanchez was among the patrons of Christopher Columbus voyages and thus he was required to report all his discoveries to Lord Raphael Sanchez.
The storyline behind Columbus’ letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez is the detailed accounts of what he witnessed during his journey to America. He tells of how the people in the regions are fearful and timid and how they become friendly after realizing that there was no harm to them. He continues to tell how he exchanged items with rifles and to sometimes nothing in return claiming that the people were so generous. The generosity of the people in the region amazed Columbus making feel ashamed for trading useless items with the most precious items in the region such as gold. In an attempt to convince Lord Raphael Sanchez, Columbus says that the people had a potential to obey the king and serve him without questioning and even love the king’s people (Wadsworth, 2016). Columbus also tells Lord Raphael Sanchez that he could organize that they could obtain more men as slaves from the region to work as soldiers and provide other labor in the home country. Columbus further continues to claim that with Lord Raphael Sanchez’s assistance he would ask his men to search for medicine and other valuables such as gold in as many contents as possible.
The document was written due to the necessity to acknowledge Lord Raphael Sanchez’s effort to finance the voyage as well as being the patron of the voyage and therefore as a fact, a subject is expected to show allegiance to his master. It is in this quest that Christopher Columbus wrote the letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez immediately after his return from the voyage. Lord Raphael Sanchez had interests in the exploration journey, and therefore it was a necessity for them to be notified of the success of the crew as the patron. Columbus had to report whatever he saw and anything that was of value to the kingdom including all the treasures that he found in the regions of the visit. All these made him write the letter immediately after his return. Columbus was so much excited about his success of subduing the indigenous people and also their willingness to work with him devoting whatever they had to the crew as they were seen as gods to whom the people referred to as the people who fell from the sky. Columbus’ letter is more of research than just a mere trip as he was assigned the duty of searching the valuables and reporting back to the patron (James, 2016).
Columbus letter to Lord Sanchez can be termed as more of a political and economic document though to some extent it might be seen as a private letter. The reason as to why it can be regarded as a political letter is due to Columbus claim that the area and its people could pay allegiance to the king. Also, there were economic motives along with political motives. The reason to why it can be referred to as economic letter is the claim that if he had more support from the government, he could bring along more treasures such as medicine, gold and men to work as soldiers and provide the necessary labor in the land. Furthermore, the letter says that the people could easily be converted to Christianity a religion which proves the letter to be more of a spiritual encounter for missionaries in the attempt to convert more people to Christianity (Young, 1983). On the other hand, the letter may be deemed to be private; this is because Lord Raphael Sanchez was a patron to the crew and among the personnel behind the financing of the voyage and thus a unique finding could be directly addressed to him. The inclusion of Lord Raphael Sanchez’s names may, therefore, proof the letter to be more private.
In the letter, Columbus made no assumptions to Lord Sanchez. He wrote the letter in Spanish and sent it to Italy for its translation to Latin. He knew Lord Raphael Sanchez could not read Spanish and a translator would be needed. Taking into consideration that it was a private letter, he was prompted to translate the letter in advance before it reached to his patron. Yes, I can believe the document as it is the original document written in Spanish making me think and believe that Columbus was the original writer of the letter. Also, his direct address to Lord Raphael Sanchez and as well the letter is written in the first person singular meaning that whatever was written was the personal encounter to which he narrated to the recipient in the form of a letter.
The letter postulates that the people from Columbus region were opportunists who took advantage of the weaker people making them their subjects forcing them to adopt their culture and making them slaves to the extent of making them worshipped (Hickman, 2016). The people were used to slavery as Columbus took several individuals with him along his return journey were on some made it through as they were subjected to torture threatening their lives. It is also evident that the Spanish people were Christian and therefore were in the urge to make colonies and convert the inhabitants to Christianity. The issue of economic exploitation is not new in his homeland, as he tells Lord Sanchez that if he had the support, he would bring all the treasures such as gold and medicine along with the slaves to work as soldiers.
Columbus’ letter is an important document in history as it indicates the pioneers of colonization and economic exploitation in the world (Phillips & Phillips, 1993). Though it might not be of much relevance in today’s political activities, it can be used as a reminder of the indigenous cultures of the early people. It is through such documents that we come to realize how the world was viewed during the past days in history by inhabitants of the areas.
The letter is important to me as it contains Columbus own views on the indigenous people of the new world to which he explored. It is through this letter that I understand the kind of relationships to which the explorers had with the indigenous people and how they traded. It is to my surprise that the explorers took advantage of the indigenous people’s fear to exploit them both socially and economically. The letter is also of vital importance to historians and navigators as the explorers were the pioneers of navigation.
References
Hickman, J. (2016). Black Prometheus: Race and Radicalism in the Age of Atlantic Slavery. Oxford University Press.
James, M. (2016). The Great Explorers. New Word City.
Phillips, W. D., & Phillips, C. R. (1993). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge University Press.
Wadsworth, J. E. (Ed.). (2016). Columbus and his first voyage: a history in documents. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Young, J. D. (1983). Confucianism and Christianity: The first encounter (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press.
Columbus letter on his first voyage, 1493
History
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<Institution of Affiliation>
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Columbus letter on his first voyage, 1493
Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to the king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who had assisted him to finance his exploration trip (Buckley, Veronica, and John, 2015). Columbus wrote the letter on 15th march of the year 1493 upon his arrival from his return journey from the Caribbean. The author was not administrative personnel but a missionary explorer. By his description of the nature of the inhabitants of the regions he visited as being timid indicates that he was a learned person. In fact, an explorer has to be educated enough so that he is capable of determining the routes and recording the encounters in his diaries.
Columbus wrote the letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella as the primary audience, though some of the people had access to read the letter. In his letter, he used a more formal language in Spanish where it was later sent to Italy for translation to Latin. The king could not be able to read in Latin, and therefore this necessitated Christopher Columbus to make efforts for translation. The main reason behind writing the letter to the king was due to the debt owned for financing his journey, his success to subdue the native people that he found on the islands as well the thrilling environmental nature of the region. The area was full of rich indigenous culture with the people know neither possessing weapons. The matter amazed Columbus and saw this as an opportunity to show allegiance to the king through taking control of the area and converting the people to Christianity.
The storyline behind the letter is Columbus’ letter to the king with detailed accounts of what he witnessed during his journey to the Caribbean. He tells of how the people in the regions are fearful and timid and how they become friendly after realizing that there was no harm to them. He continues to narrate how he exchanged items with rifles and to sometimes nothing in return claiming that the people were so generous. In an attempt to convince the king, Columbus says that the people had a potential to obey the king and serve him without questioning and even love the king’s people.
The document was written due to the necessity to acknowledge the king’s effort to finance the voyage and therefore, as a matter of fact, a subject must show allegiance to his master. It is in this quest that Christopher Columbus wrote the letter to the king immediately after his return from the voyage. The king together with the queen had interests in the exploration journey, and therefore it was a necessity for them to be notified of the success of the crew. Columbus had to report whatever he saw and anything that was of value to the kingdom. All these made him write the letter immediately after his return as it was like an exam although he was so much excited about his success of subduing the indigenous people. The letter is more of a scholarly thesis as it was more of research than just a mere trip.
The letter is more of a political document though to some extent it might be seen as a private letter. The reason as to why it can be regarded as a political letter is due to Columbus claim that the area and its people could pay allegiance to the king and thus somehow indicates that there was some economic along with political motives (Graziano, 2017). Furthermore, the letter says that the people could easily be converted to Christianity a religion which proves the letter to be more political due to exploitation. On the other hand, the letter may be deemed to be private; this is because the king and the queen were the personnel behind the financing of the voyage and thus a special finding could be directly addressed to them just like Columbus deed indication the king’s and queen’s name on the letter. The inclusion of the names may, therefore, proof the letter to be more private.
In the letter, Columbus made no assumptions. He wrote the letter in Spanish and sent it to Italy to be translated into Latin. He knew the king and the queen could not be able to read the Spanish language and could need a translator prompting him to translate the letter in advance before it reached to the king. Yes, I can believe the document as it is the original document written in Spanish making me believe that Columbus was the original writer also his address to the king and the queen are present. Furthermore, the letter is written in the first person singular.
The letter indicates that the people from Columbus region were opportunists who took advantage of the weaker people making them their subjects forcing them to adopt their culture (Olwell, Robert, and Alan, 2015). The people were used to slavery as Columbus took several individuals with him along his return journey were on some made it through. Just a few individuals making it to Spain indicate that they were subjected to torture that threatened their existence. It is also evident that the Spanish people were Christian and therefore were in the urge to make colonies and convert the inhabitants to Christianity.
Columbus’ letter is an important document in history as it indicates the pioneers of exploration and confiscation as well (Winsor, 2018). Though it might not be of much relevance in today’s political activities, it can be used as a reminder of the indigenous culture and how people used to conduct their daily lives. It is through such documents that we come to realize how the world was viewed during the past days in history by inhabitants of the areas. The document is important to me; this is because it has an original data, a letter showing a method of communication by then. Also, the contents of the letter are of much value to historians as they get to know the events that happened in the past and to which evidence may be lacking thus act as a bridging gap. The letter is also important to me as it is an original script written by a famous historian and explorer who in many aspects influenced the lives of many individuals.
Work cited
Buckley, Veronica, and John Middleton. “A LASTING LEGACY.” Lifelines in World History:” The Ancient World”,” The Medieval World”,” The Early Modern World”,” The Modern World” (2015): 241.
Graziano, Manlio. In Rome We Trust: The Rise of Catholics in American Political Life. Stanford University Press, 2017.
Olwell, Robert, and Alan Tully. Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America. JHU Press, 2015.
Winsor, Justin. Christopher Columbus. BoD–Books on Demand, 2018.
Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview
Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview
This case is presented as close as possible to the way you may encounter it in working life. Your role is that of a newly hired HR manager. You will learn about the company by reading the employee handbook, talking with various employees and reviewing the human resource information system (HRIS) database.
When you first join an organization, you will have an idea of what the organization is like, and there will be a few things of which you feel certain, but your list of unknowns will be much longer. Each interaction with employees provides more data, but you will find that not everyone agrees on the facts of a particular situation. Sometimes you may find that the people you are speaking with do not know the information you are asking about; at other times, they know a great deal about the issue but choose to manage the information they provide to you for their own benefit.
We will not intentionally mislead you in this case, but do not expect everything to fall neatly into place. Uncertainty, differences of opinion and competing priorities are the norm in the professional world.
In your role as the HR manager, you are expected to analyze the situation, identify the problems and develop workable solutions. For the purpose of this case, you are asked to provide a written and oral presentation to the company president (your professor). While there is no single best answer, you must identify the key issues so that the solutions you propose are appropriate to the situation.
Columbus Custom Carpentry is a small, successful company. Recently, though, labor costs per unit have risen faster than gross revenue per unit. The company president has also found that human resource issues are taking up more and more of his time and frequently result in production problems. Both overtime and late shipments are increasing. Until now, the president’s administrative assistant has handled all HR-related administrative activities. You are the newly hired HR manager.
Subject matter knowledge you will apply in this case includes:
Internal and external pay equity.
Job grades and pay range/structure creation.
Market pricing using salary data.
Turnover.
Job analysis and job description development.
MANAGEMENT INTERVIEWS
Monday, 7:45 a.m. Jennifer Reen, receptionist
“Good morning, welcome to Columbus Custom Carpentry. You must be our new HR manager. Here is a copy of your schedule for today. The president has already sent out an announcement about you. We are not a big company, so you should get to know the office employees pretty fast. Manufacturing is a bigger department, so getting to know those employees will take more time. The warehouse employees come and go so fast, you will probably get to know them only through the recruiting process. Mr. Cooney told me not to schedule any interviews for you today, but there is a stack of applications in your inbox. Cary Dobbins wants three new hires for next Monday morning.”
Monday, 8:00 a.m. Anthony Cooney, president/CEO
“Welcome to the Columbus Custom Carpentry family. We have a busy day laid out for you, so I won’t take up too much of your time. You will begin with Barbara Duff, my administrative assistant. She will take you through our employee orientation and get you set up for payroll and benefits. Next, Matt Lee from accounting will give you your computer password and explain our network and backup procedures. The rest of your day will be devoted to meetings with various employees so you can get to know everyone and learn more about our company. “We had talked during your interview about the employee issues we are having, and I hope your outside perspective will help us get a better understanding of what the underlying problems really are. I would like to meet again on Friday, and you can give me a preliminary idea of what you see as the primary issues. After that, we’ll give you a couple more weeks to develop an action plan to deal with these problems. That may seem like a very fast schedule, but I want you to jump on this before your time gets filled up with other activities. I recently read about the concept of a ‘honeymoon’ during an HR manager’s first 100 days. The article indicated that during this period, you are able to accomplish things that will become impossible later. I want—we need—to make the most of this opportunity.”
Monday, 8:15 a.m. Barbara Duff, president’s administrative assistant
“I have been doing the employment tasks and record keeping. I’m sure you will find everything in order. I’ll take you through the regular orientation and benefits enrollment process. I’m glad you are here, because I have been asking Mr. Cooney for help for quite a long time; all this HR stuff keeps me from getting my real job done. We will get started by completing the I-9 form.”
A couple of videos and reams of benefit forms later, she gives you the employee handbook and returns to her desk.
Monday, 10:00 a.m. Matt Lee, accounting database administrator
Matt meets you at your office to go over the company network and show you how to access the HRIS database. At this company, the HRIS is an Excel file maintained by the president’s administrative assistant. Your e-mail inbox has already been created and contains 87 messages. As he is leaving, Matt says, “I’ve been doing the payroll because we didn’t have an HR department. Now that you are here, we should talk about transitioning that function over to you.”
Monday, 10:30 a.m. Mike Cooney, chief financial officer (CFO)
“We operate in a narrow niche market. We have to maintain a price advantage over the true custom manufacturers, or our customers will have no reason not to take advantage of the wider choices and individualized solutions. This means 6 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. Douglas Reys, SPHR that efficiency of operations is our primary competitive advantage. If we lose that operating cost advantage, our business plan collapses like a house of cards.
“We cannot produce at the incredibly low-cost level maintained by the mass market manufacturers. We would not get costs that low even if we mimicked their limited product lines and quality levels. We compete with them by creating styles and options that they don’t offer. Finding the balance between production costs and proliferation of models is a continuing struggle.
“We need to cut out the current levels of overtime to maintain our cost structure. It is not clear why we need this overtime. Our labor hours per unit made have stopped going down and are even up somewhat. Adding overtime to that increases our labor cost per hour as well. Turnover has been useful in the past, allowing us to replace higher-paid workers with more lower-paid new hires, but the pattern seems to be changing, and now it is our new hires who are leaving. The warehouse manager wants to increase wages in his area, but that raises our costs per labor hour without explaining how it will help us get our total costs down.”
Monday, 11:30 a.m. (lunch meeting) Derwin Boyer, manufacturing manager
“A variety of people issues are hindering our productivity. We have bottlenecks in the warehouse areas. These bottlenecks spill into our manufacturing area because we have to pull people off assembly work to get their own raw materials or to move finished product out of the production area. This also means that we are doing with more expensive manufacturing labor what should be done with less expensive warehouse labor. To operate at our needed levels of efficiency, employees need to be doing the jobs they are trained for. Driving around on a forklift just to find materials or to find a place to put finished units is not efficient.
“We operate under the concept of mass customization. Using modular parts, we can produce designs with features that appear to the end user as custom work but have the manufacturing advantages of mass production.
“The assembly jigs we have developed are the heart of our system. You can think of them as big clamps. They hold the material in just the right arrangement. If the assembler puts in the wrong part, the jig will not close, preventing the assembler from wasting materials. Once the materials are in place, the jig closes, and a single lever pull will drill any needed holes in the right place, in the right size and to the proper depth. It is fast, mistake-free and simple for the operator. Much of our assembly is gluing. Here is where the big clamp analogy is the closest. Once the jig is locked with just a couple of levers, proper clamping pressure is applied at exactly the right places. Assemblers no longer spend time placing individual clamps. Once closed, the jigs are tilted upright and rolled on their own rollers to a drying area. If they are to get painted, the paint hanger goes on before the jig is released and no one even has to touch the door unit until it is crated. Zero damage and zero waste in this part of the process.”
Monday, 1:30 p.m. John Brown, manufacturing supervisor
“It is hard to keep the guys working efficiently. We are always running out of raw materials, or the finished product builds up and I have to pull guys off the production floor to deal with it. The warehouse manager doesn’t do his job, but if I have my guys take loads over, he complains that they did not get stacked right and that the damage is our fault.”
Monday, 2:00 p.m. Cary Dobbins, warehouse manager
“We are treated like stepchildren; the manufacturing department pays more and has the best equipment. If I do get a good employee, this person transfers to manufacturing at the first opportunity. I tried blocking a transfer once, but the employee got mad and quit. If we get behind, manufacturing just drops product anywhere, and when it gets damaged, they blame it on us. They think anybody can do our job, but they can’t seem to put a blue crate into a blue bin without hitting something.
“I waste time interviewing and training when I should be working on the crating jig project that is supposed to reduce our damage ratio and make packing easier. My best guys can pack better than the jig right now, but I have to train new people all the time, and some just don’t seem to get it. Crating may not be rocket science, but putting nails in crooked damages the doors. Miss a corner—and the whole thing will fall apart the first time we try to move it. People get the idea that because it is manual labor rather than an automated machine, it is simpler. The opposite is closer to the truth. My forklift drivers don’t want to do crating because it has so much bending over and lifting that it is much harder physically than their regular work. The crating jig should make it possible for less-skilled people to do the crating job. This will eventually allow us to save money both on labor costs and the cost of replacing damaged goods.”
Monday, 3:00 p.m. Brandon Swift, marketing manager
“It is critical that we are seen by our customers as top quality because we charge more than the prices they see at the big-box stores. Damaged goods and shipping problems reflect poorly on our product, even if it is good quality. How many end users can truly judge the quality of our product? Not many; it’s all perception.
“We work directly with the homeowners in the design process, but the builders are the ones who refer the homeowners, do the sizing, place the orders and install the product. They are the ones who take the heat for shipping delays or damage. When they need service, parts or replacements, they want them now, not tomorrow or the day after. Time is money to contractors. We have to win on design but deliver at a price that makes our products a better value.”
Monday, 3:45 p.m. Stephen Moore, crater (new hire)
“I took this job to get off of second shift, but I am hoping to transfer to the manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me about this place, but they make you start in the warehouse and work your way up. What I don’t get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift job; running the forklift is easier work. Besides, working on the crating jig is really like working in the manufacturing side, where they use similar jigs to make the doors. The manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with my family in the evening, but if I don’t get that transfer and the raise that goes with it, I will have to get a second job to make ends meet.”
Monday, 4:00 p.m. Nathan Smith, production technician (manufacturing assembly)
“When I first got here, we made the doors from scratch. You could take pride in a door you made yourself. Now we just throw parts into a jig and stick them together. It allows new people to make a quality door with little training, but it is kind of sad for those of us who consider ourselves craftsmen. Most of my old co-workers have moved into the housing industry as finish carpenters. I came from there originally, and I’m afraid of going back just in time to lose my job due to a downturn in the housing market.”
Monday 4:15 p.m. Jeffery Green, raw materials warehouse
“I like running the forklift in raw materials. I know I could make a little more in production, but I think it would be boring doing the same thing all day. We have a good team in my area; most of us have been here awhile and know our jobs. The supervisor spends most of his time working on orders and inventory issues rather than standing over us. I like that. It’s not the same in production. The supervisors are always on their tails, and if anything goes wrong, there is lots of yelling. They are always trying to blame other departments because they are under so much pressure to produce. They’ll switch models on the fly, then complain that we don’t have the parts bin correctly stocked. The worst is when they try to help. Talk about screwing things up in a hurry! We should take away all of their forklift licenses.”