Lecture 2: European Discovery and Early Exploration
Lesson Summary
This unit will focus on European exploration of North America, particularly during the first half of the seventeenth century. It will cover reasons for exploration and colonies established and will also specify particular explorers and their discoveries.
Essential Questions for Lesson
- What were the reasons for North American exploration?
- Who were the primary explorers from Europe, what countries did they explore for, and
where did they explore?
- What were the effects of exploration?
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Identify explorers, their countries of origin, territories explored and claimed, and
established colonies.
- Explain reasons for exploration/colonization in North America
- Explain the effects of exploration/colonization in North America.
The Europeans Reach America
GLOSSARY TERMS: Renaissance, conquistadors
Introduction
Who were the first Europeans to step onto American soil? Where and when did they do so?
We will probably never know entirely. Fishermen from Ireland or Scandinavia Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes—may have been blown off course and later returned home to tell how they hovered off a strange coast for a day or two. They may even have spent time onshore exploring or looking for food and water. Such events, however, never entered recorded history. If they did occur, they made little impression either on the voyagers or on the people who may have heard the voyagers" stories.
Early Explorers Visit America
During the 980"s, Scandinavian Vikings made the first historical landings in North America. About 985, the Norwegian Viking Eric the Red crossed the Atlantic in an open boat and set up two colonies on Greenland. Some fifteen years later, his son Leif voyaged farther west to a place he called Vinland the Good because of its abundant grapes. Historians now believe that present-day Newfoundland is Leif Ericsson's Vinland. In 1963 a half-burned timbered house of Norse design was found there. A technique called radiocarbon analysis dated the find at about the year 1000. According to Norwegian sagas, or tales of great deeds. Leif Ericsson was followed by another expedition that stayed in Newfoundland for three years. Then the colonists were driven away by Indians and did not return.
For the next four and three-quarter centuries, there was no known contact between Europeans and North America. Then, beginning in the late 1400"s and continuing through the 1500s, a series of remarkable voyages took place. Thousands of people from Portugal, Spain, France, and England sailed across the Atlantic to explore—and eventually to colonize—the Americas. Why did they do it?
Four Reasons Motivate
European Explorers
The reasons for the European voyages of exploration may be grouped under four headings. These are spices, gold, religion, and glory.
Spices.
In those days European farmers slaughtered most of their pigs and cattle in late autumn and, in the absence of refrigeration, preserved the meat by packing it between layers of salt. They needed such spices as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and especially pepper to disguise the meat's spoiled and salty taste. They also needed spices for making perfume, which was very popular since most Europeans never took a bath.
Spices came from eastern Asia, and the journey from there to Europe was slow, dangerous, and expensive. Many cargoes never reached the marketplace. What European merchants wanted was a faster and easier route to eastern Asia.
Gold.
By the late 1400s, the feudal territories of western Europe had developed into four major nation-states: Portugal, Spain, France, and England.
The monarchs of these new nation-states needed two things to maintain a strong central government. One was a bureaucracy to administer laws. The other was a standing army to replace the military services of feudal vassals. To pay the bureaucrats and the soldiers, money was needed. By the mid-1400s. however. Europe's gold and silver mines were running low. So the monarchs of Portugal. Spain. France and England began looking overseas.
Religion.
Still, another reason for the European voyages of exploration was the desire to spread Christianity throughout the world. This was especially true of Spain. It had recently won its independence from the Muslim Moors after several centuries of struggle, and the religious zeal of its people was strong and fervent.
Glory.
A fourth reason why Europeans set out to sea was the spirit of adventure. This attitude grew out of the Renaissance, the period between 1350 and 1600 when a new way of thinking developed in Europe. The Renaissance encouraged people to regard themselves as individuals, to have confidence in what they might achieve, and to look forward to the glory their achievements might bring.
The Age of Discovery Begins
The European voyages of exploration were launched by Portugal. Under the leadership of
Prince Henry the Navigator, a school for the study of geography and navigation was established in 1416. There, mapmakers pooled their knowledge of the earth's surface. There, ship captains and sailors learned how to use such navigational instruments as the astrolabe, which enabled them to tell their latitude while at sea, and the magnetic compass, which had been invented by the Chinese.
For almost forty years. Prince Henry sent his captains sailing south along the west coast of
Africa. Portuguese explorations continued after Prince Henry died. Bartholomeu Dias (de'as)
rounded the southern tip of Africa in 1488. Vasco da Gama (da gam'a) reached India ten years later. Now the Portuguese could sail directly to eastern Asia. As a result, their costs fell and their profits rose.
Christopher Columbus. When Dias returned triumphantly to Portugal from his voyage into the Indian Ocean, one of the many people waiting to see him was an Italian named Christopher Columbus. Columbus believed that a faster way to eastern Asia could be found by sailing west. Columbus thought the world was much smaller than it is and that he would reach land twenty-four hundred miles west of Europe. As it turned out, he was right—except that the land he reached was America and not Asia.
For some eight years. Columbus had tried to obtain financial backing for his plan. In 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain finally agreed to help, and a small fleet of three ships—the Nit'ia. the Pinta, and the Santa Maria—set sail.
After about a month at sea, Columbus's sailors began complaining. They were bored and sometimes frightened. In those days many people believed in sea monsters. Some insisted that the world was flat and that it was possible to sail over the edge. Columbus, however, kept assuring his men that the earth was round, that the journey was nearly over, and that God was guiding them accurately.
At two o'clock on the morning of October 12, 1492, the lookout of the Pinta saw a white cliff shining in the moonlight. “Tierra!” (Land) he shouted. It was an island in the Bahamas, probably Watling's Island. Columbus named it San Salvador, or Holy Savior, in honor of God. Later, on the same voyage, he landed on two other islands, Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, where he set up trading posts. He was convinced that he was off the coast of China.
The Spanish court backed Columbus in three additional expeditions, during which he explored the Caribbean Sea. He found no bejeweled officials of the Chinese court and little gold or silver. In 1504 he returned to Spain, where he died a poverty-stricken and disappointed man.
Surprisingly, the land Columbus reached is named not for him but for another Italian, a banker, and a geographer named Amerigo Vespucci (ves poot' ohe). In 1499 Vespucci made a voyage along the coast of Brazil, following it with a second voyage, this one along the coast of Argentina. When he returned to Europe, he voiced the opinion that what he had seen was not Asia but a new continent that "it is proper to call a new world." A German cartographer was so excited by the phrase that when he put out a world map in 1507, he labeled the continent America. In 1538, Flemish cartographer Gerhardus Mercator (mar kat'ar) applied the name to the northern continent as well. In the meantime, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had appealed to the Spanish-born Pope to prevent Portugal from taking over Columbus's discoveries. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the Pope drew an imaginary line dividing the world. All new-found, non-Christian lands west of the dividing line would belong to Spain, while that east of the line would belong to Portugal.
The Spanish Explore and Conquer
Columbus died before his great discoveries were recognized for what they were. However, it was not long before Spain was energetically exploring, colonizing, and plundering the Americas.
The Conquests of Mexico and Peru. In 1519 the Spanish governor of Cuba sent Hernando Cortes (kor tez') to search for gold and riches in what is now Mexico. Cortes landed with about four hundred men, sixteen horses, and fourteen cannons. He then made his way to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (ta noch'te tlan'), now known as Mexico City. After sacking the city, he was forced to withdraw. He returned in 1521 with an Indian translator, la Malinche, and some one hundred thousand Indian allies who hated their Aztec rulers.
Ever since then, Hispanics have used the term malinchismo (mal an chez'mo) to mean traitor.
Within a few months of the fall of the capital city, Spain was the supreme ruler of Mexico.
One reason the Spanish were so successful was that they had guns while the Aztecs had none.
Another reason was that the explorers brought the diseases of smallpox and measles with them. The Indians had no resistance to the new diseases and died by the millions. Within fifty years after the Spanish invasion, the population of Mexico had dwindled from about twenty-five million to only two million.
Even so, the energy, greed, and sheer physical strength of these Spanish conquistadors (kan
kwis'ts dors'), or conquerors, was astounding. By 1533 Francisco Pizarro (pi za'ro) had invaded Peru, scaled the mighty Andes Mountains, and conquered the Inca Empire and its great gold and silver mines.
Map Skills Movement which expedition crossed the Mississippi River? Location which modern U.S. city did Onate reach? Location what part of present U.S. territory did Cortes reach?
The English Colonists Arrive
GLOSSARY TERMS: joint-stock companies, charter, the head right system, indentured servants, burgesses, Puritans, Pilgrims, Mayflower Compact, proprietary colonies
England's first attempts to establish colonies in North America were made by individuals. In the 1600's joint-stock companies provided another means of financing colonization. A joint-stock company was a group of people, each of whom put up a certain amount of capital in return for a stated number of shares. If there were one hundred shares and a person bought ten shares, that person would get 10 percent of the profits. If there were a loss, the person would be responsible for only 10 percent of it. The first successful English colonies in America were founded by joint-stock companies.
The Virginia Colony Finally Succeeds
In 1606 two groups of merchants and adventurers from the ports of London and Plymouth asked James I for permission to form a joint-stock company to found colonies in America. The King was interested. After all, the expedition would cost him nothing and might return a profit. According to custom, on such ventures, the ruler got one-fifth of all gold and silver that was found. So James issued a charter or official permit.
The charter was the nearest thing to a written constitution for the proposed colony. It gave the two Virginia Companies—the London Company and the Plymouth Company—permission to settle along the Atlantic coast of North America and to have a monopoly on trade. The London Company was given the right to .settle the land from the Potomac south to what is now South Carolina. The Plymouth Company was permitted to settle in the region between present-day Maine and New four boys in three tiny vessels. Contrary winds slowed their progress, but finally, on April 26, 1607, they saw low on the horizon the green coast of Virginia. You can imagine their joy and excitement.
As the land came into view more clearly, they must have gazed at it with the same awe and wonderment that astronauts in the 1960s felt when they looked upon the surface of the moon from a hovering spacecraft.
The English sailed slowly up a wide and beautiful river until, on a small peninsula, they located what seemed like a good spot to build a fort. They named the place Jamestown and the river the James, in honor of their King. Jamestown was a fine choice for defense purposes.
The land was flat and nearly surrounded by water. In other ways, however, it was disastrous.
Much of the land was swampy, and there were swarms of mosquitoes. At that time, no one knew that mosquitoes carried deadly malaria.
Early Miseries.
After about two months, on June 22, two of the ships sailed for England, leaving 104 people at Jamestown. Things went bad quickly. People fell ill as the summer deepened. In his diary, one man wrote, "There died John Asbie of a bloody flux [hemorrhage]. The ninth day died George Flower of the swelling." Some nights, three or four people died, then "'in the morning, their bodies [were] trailed out of their cabins like dogs to be buried." In seven months, all but thirty-two were dead. The Indians saved those who were left. The diarist noted, "It pleased God to move the Indians to bring us com . . . when we rather expected they would destroy us." The Indians also brought bread, fish, and meat in great quantity.
John Smith Takes Charge.
In addition to their other difficulties, the men quarreled over leadership. After a year of drifting, a forceful ex-soldier named John Smith, twenty-seven years old, simply took charge. By sheer force of strength and personality, he got the men to clear the land and cultivate it. The men resisted at first. Most of them were "gentlemen," and in England, gentlemen did not work with their hands. Smith, however, made it clear that if they did not work, they would not eat. They worked. Smith established a friendship with Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief. According to legend, it was Pocahontas who rescued Smith when he was captured by her people. Pocahontas married a settler named John Rolfe, had a son, and later traveled to England.
The Starving Time.
In 1609 Smith was injured in a gunpowder explosion, and he soon left the colony for good. By then more supplies and some four hundred additional settlers, including young women and widows, had arrived. Still, conditions in the colony went from bad to worse. During that winter, there was famine and even cannibalism. This was the so-called starving time. People lived on roots and rats, and one man even murdered his wife and salted her away like salt pork.
By spring only sixty people remained alive. They decided to abandon the colony and return to England. They were sailing down the James River when they met an incoming ship. Aboard was the new governor. Baron De La Warr (from whom Delaware got its name), with more settlers and supplies. Reluctantly, the colonists returned to Jamestown. The first permanent English colony in America had narrowly missed being abandoned.
Saved by Smoke.
What finally got Jamestown off to economic health was something as insubstantial as smoke. At first, there was no intention of growing tobacco. It was an American plant, unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus. Also, the kind of tobacco the Indians in Virginia grew and smoked tasted bitter to Europeans. Then in 1612, John Rolfe introduced a different type of tobacco from the Caribbean islands. It was much milder and suited European tastes. The plants grew well in Virginia, and cultivation did not require skilled labor. Settlers were soon busily growing the new crop.
King James opposed tobacco because it was unhealthy. He called it a "stinking weed." However, tobacco quickly became so popular in Europe that he permitted it to be brought into England, where it was handsomely taxed. The Virginia colonists had at last found a profitable crop.
The Head right System and Indentured Servants.
In 1618 the Virginia Company introduced the head right system. Under it, any man who paid his way to Virginia would get fifty acres of land for himself and another fifty acres for every person he brought with him. Immigration increased.
Indentured Servants.
This meant that in return for their passage they agreed to work for someone for a specified number of years, usually seven, after which they were free. This practice eased unemployment in England. It also cleared English jails, for judges sent political prisoners and debtors to Virginia as indentured servants.
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