On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

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Despite the lack of Native perspectives in the historical record, Dodds Pennock unearths the stories of Malintzin, a Nahua woman enslaved by the Mayans who became the “primary translator and aide” to conquistador Hernando Cortés during his invasion of Mexico; Essomericq, the son of a Brazilian chief who traveled to France and became “an active member of the local community, a successful businessman, and the father of a large and prosperous family” in the early 16th century; and other “go-betweens,” many of whom were kidnapped and brought to Europe, where they learned new languages, customs, and other valuable information, including “the accurate value of European goods.

She also overestimates the extent to which the minds of early modern Europeans ran along rational, or at least material, tracks. Though part of the wider story of slavery, the enslavement of Indigenous American peoples is an aspect with which many in Europe might not be so familiar.However, there are some sources that occasionally allow us to hear the voices of Indigenous people themselves. We have long been taught to presume that modern global history began when the “Old World” encountered the “New”, when Christopher Columbus “discovered” America in 1492. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. Dodds Pennock is particularly interested in such cultural go-betweens, and makes every effort to understand what their position felt like from their point of view – especially, how they could use it for their own purposes.

Ugaz’s case is all too familiar in Peru, where powerful groups regularly use the courts to silence journalists by fabricating criminal allegations against them.So there is extensive discussion of naming, of making sure that Indigenous individuals and nations are properly named in the ways they would have known. Columbus and his huge (for the time) ship attracted a lot of attention, and people came to engage with him. Once Spanish rule is established, almost any worthy native who went to Spain to ask for privileges for his people is described here as a “diplomat” or “ambassador”; and those who petitioned for better treatment are said to have engaged in an act of “resistance”.

I have also acted as a historical consultant for several TV projects, including Heroes and Villains: Cortés for the BBC and Mankind: The Story of All of Us for the History Channel.In On Savage Shores, Caroline Dodds Pennock has collected a book’s worth of evidence that thousands of natives, from Newfoundland to Brazil, made their way to Europe in the 1500s, discovering it as validly as Columbus did of the west. Second, it focuses on the 16th and early 17th centuries – so the first 150 or so years of Europe’s substantial occupation of the Americas, meaning that for English language readers she focuses on the less common part of our tales of empire in the Americas – Spain and Portugal, with a smaller French and English presence. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Here Dodds Pennock notes the extensive and very early presence of American foodstuffs entering European diets – tomatoes, potatoes, beans and more within a few years of the beginning of sustained imperialist and colonialist invasion and presence. Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock featured on this week's BBC Radio 4's Start The Week and On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, has also been serialised for Book of the Week which will be broadcast everyday at 9.