Names: _________________________________________ Date:_____________________
Creating An Imperialist Worldview Dialogue
Featuring: Christopher Columbus, Kind Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella
Your Task: In groups of three you will create a 3-5 minute dialogue
between Christopher Columbus, Kind Ferdinand, and Queen Isabella. Your
job is not to create just any ordinary old conversation. Your job is to
develop an important conversation that could potentially contribute to the
development of the most powerful nation in the world. The setting of this
conversation is King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s throne room,
Columbus has just returned from his first voyage, and these three
imperialists are planning the next voyage to expand the Spanish empire.
VERY IMPORTANT!!!
Your dialogue MUST communicate an imperialist way of thinking and its
impact on the Spanish nation. The best way to do this is by making the
conversation intentional using proper vocabulary and focusing on the small
details to make the conversation rich and engaging.
Follow these three steps to successfully complete your dialogue:
1. Become familiar with the background information on imperialism. It explains how
imperialist ways of thinking and behaviour developed accompanied with the cost of
imperialism.
2. Become familiar with the vocabulary as you MUST use 25 of the 30 vocabulary words in
your completed dialogue.
3. Assign roles as a group, and begin writing your dialogue including potential actions or facial
expressions. Use the example below as a guide for proper formatting :
Columbus: Your highness it is a great honour to return to the greatest nation in the world, after
such a long voyage!
King Ferdinand: It is a pleasure to welcome home such a successful explorer.
Queen Isabella: Yes Christopher what great treasures have you brought back from the new world.
Background Information: Understanding Imperialism
Imperialism means: “command” or “empire.”
The expansionist worldview contributed to the development of an imperialist way of thinking.
Imperialism is the extension of power over a territory and its resources and people. Portugal, Spain, and
other European countries wanted more than to expand their world, they wanted power over all territory,
resources, and people they came across.
Page !1 of !3
Names: _________________________________________ Date:_____________________
Taking Charge: Imperialist Behaviour
The imperialist behaviour of Europeans was partly a result of their attitude toward the Indigenous people
they found living in the new territories. The territories in Central and South America claimed by
Columbus and other Spanish explorers became known as New Spain. The Spanish government granted
land to people who wanted to settle in New Spain to mine for precious metals and set up plantations to
grow crops for export to Spain. Indigenous people were enslaved by Spanish landowners and forced to
work in terrible conditions. Millions of people were literally worked to death in the silver mines and
fields.
The Cost of Imperialism
In the early 1490s, the Inca and Aztecs had thriving civilizations in what is now Central and South
America. In a few years, these empires were destroyed by the Spanish. Everywhere that Europeans
explored and settled in the Americas, the Indigenous peoples paid a terrible cost.
According to Ronald Wright, the author of Stolen Continents, the following were some of the results of
European imperialism:
- By 1600 less than one-tenth of the original population of the Americas remained.
- Perhaps 90 million Indigenous people died during that time.
- Most died of diseases, such as smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, yellow fever, cholera, and
malaria brought by the Europeans. These diseases were unknown in the Americas, so Indigenous
peoples had no immunity, or resistance, to them.
- Many Indigenous peoples in the Americas completely died out, among them the Beothuk of
Newfoundland and the Ona of Tierra del Fuego.
Telling the Indigenous Story
Most of the written records of the original peoples of the Americas were destroyed along with their cities
and monuments. The Spanish, for example, burned thousands of ancient books of the Mayan people.
Vocabulary
You need to choose 25 of the 30 vocabulary words to complete you dialogue.
Expansionism
Immunity
Circumnavigate
Slaves
Gold
New Spain
Catholic
Resources
Navigate
Voyage
Territory
Imperialism
Economy
Society
Exploration
Monarch
Trade
Asia
Portugese
Raiding
The Treaty of Tordesillas
Diseases
Highness
Discovered
Spices
Mutiny
Curiosity
Risk
Indigenous peoples
Sovereign
Plantation
Route
Everyone should be writing the script just in there is someone missing you have a couple backup copies. Ensure you complete one copy and submit it on behalf of your group.
Page !2 of !3
Names: _________________________________________ Date:_____________________
Imperialism Worldview Dialogue Rubric
Criteria
5
4
3
2
1
Communicates
an expansionist
worldview.
(X2)
Student
demonstrated an
insightful and
unique
understanding of
the topic while
providing
excellent
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
thoughtful
understanding of
the topic while
providing good
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
basic
understanding of
the topic while
providing
simplistic
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
simplistic
understanding of
the topic while
providing
irrelevant
examples when
necessary
Very little
information was
given.
Evaluates the
impacts of
imperialism
from multiple
perspective
(X2)
Student
demonstrated an
insightful and
unique
understanding of
the topic while
providing
excellent
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
thoughtful
understanding of
the topic while
providing good
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
basic
understanding of
the topic while
providing
simplistic
examples when
necessary
Student
demonstrated a
simplistic
understanding of
the topic while
providing
irrelevant
examples when
necessary
Very little
information was
given.
Total
/20
Page !3 of !3