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Early Explorers

Their Lives and Discoveries

Ferdinand Magellan

Columbus Lands in the Americas

  • Convinced that he could find a sea passage to Asia through the Western Hemisphere, the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan persuaded the king of Spain to finance his voyage.
  • On September 20, 1519, Magellan set sail on the Atlantic Ocean with five ships and a Spanish crew of about 250 men.
  • ON RETURNING FROM HIS VOYAGE TO THE Americas, Christopher Columbus

wrote a letter describing his experience. In this passage from the letter, he tells of his

arrival on the island of Hispaniola.

  • "They refuse nothing that they possess, if it be asked of them; on the contrary, they invite any one to share it and display as much love as if they would give their hearts. They are content with whatever trifle of whatever kind they may be given to them, whether it be of value or valueless... So it was found that for a leather strap a soldier received gold to the weight of two and half castellanos, and others received much more for other things which were worthless. . . .I gave them a thousand handsome good things, which I had brought, in order that they might conceive affection for us and, more than that, might become Christians and be inclined to the love and service of Your Highnesses [king and queen of Spain], and strive to collect and give us of the things which they have in abundance necessary to us."

Work Experience

  • After reaching South America,

Magellan’s fleet moved down the coast

in search of a strait, or sea passage,

that would take them through America.

  • At last, in November 1520, Magellan passed through a narrow waterway (later named the Strait of Magellan) and emerged in the Pacific Ocean, which he called the Pacific Sea.
  • Week after week he and his crew sailed on across the Pacific as their food supplies dwindled. At last they reached the Philippines (named after the future King Philip II of Spain).
  • There, Magellan was killed by the native peoples.

The Dutch and the East India Trading Company

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Leif Eriksson

  • The first European to land on the North American continent was probably Leif Eriksson (or Ericson). He was a Viking, or Norse, explorer.
  • Leif was the second son of the explorer Erik the Red. Erik was originally from Norway but later settled in Iceland, where Leif was born. About ad 982 Erik took his family on an expedition to an unknown land—Greenland. Leif grew up in Brattahlid (now Qassiarsuk), on Greenland’s southwest coast.

Legacy

The first Dutch fleet arrived in India in 1595. Shortly after, the Dutch formed the Dutch East India Company and began competing with the English and the Portuguese. The Dutch also formed the West India Company to compete with the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas.

  • The Dutch colony of New Netherlands stretched from the mouth of the Hudson River as far north as Albany, New York. Present-day names such as Staten Island, Harlem, and the Catskill Mountains remind us that it was the Dutch who initially settled the Hudson River valley.
  • Different accounts of Leif’s voyages appear in two Icelandic sagas, histories about kings and other heroes associated with Iceland. Shortly before 1000 Leif voyaged to Norway, where he spent a winter at the court of Norway’s Christian king, Olaf I Tryggvason.
  • According to the Saga of Erik the Red, while returning to Greenland, Leif was blown off course and landed on the North American continent.
  • There he observed forests with excellent building timber and grapes, which led him to call the new region Vinland (“Land of Wine”).
  • When Leif returned home, he converted his mother to Christianity. She built the first Christian church in Greenland.
  • The church and other Viking buildings have been reconstructed in Qassiarsuk.

Only one of his original fleet of five ships returned to Spain, but Magellan is still remembered as the first person to sail around the world.

Trade, Colonies, and Mercantilism

  • Led by Portugal and Spain, European nations in the 1500s and 1600s established many trading posts and colonies in the Americas and the East. A colony is a settlement of people living in a new territory, linked with the parent country by trade and direct government control.
  • With the development of colonies and trading posts, Europeans entered an age of increased international trade.

  • Colonies played a role in the theory of mercantilism, which is an economic theory which states that trade generates wealth.
  • The balance of trade is the difference in value between what a nation imports and what it exports over time. When the balance is favorable, the goods exported are of greater value than those imported.

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Christopher Columbus

  • Christopher Columbus is the explorer who is credited for discovering America. Of course, there were already people living in America at the time who we call Native Americans.
  • There even was a European, Leif Ericsson, who had been to the Americas before.
  • However, it was Columbus' voyage that started the exploration and colonization of the Americas.
  • Columbus spent years trying to convince someone to pay for his voyage.Finally, he was able to convince Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to pay for the trip.
  • He set sail on August 3, 1492 with three ships named the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The voyage was long and difficult.
  • On October 12, 1492 land was spotted. It was a small island in the Bahamas that Columbus would name San Salvador.
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