Explorers of the New World

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Explorers of the New World

• -How Europeans discovered the Americas

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European Exploration and Settlement

•     Exploration of North and South America was
  spurred after Christopher Columbus , sailing for
  the Spanish monarchy, made his voyage in 1492.
  
• Men who were important explorers for Spain
  include Ponce de León , Cabeza de Vaca , Hernando
  De Soto , and Coronado.
  
• Important explorers for France were Giovanni da
  Verrazano , Samuel de Champlain , Louis Jolliet ,
  Jacques Marquette , and La Salle .
  
• John Cabot explored the North American coast for
  England in 1498.
  
• These three nations, Spain, France, and England
  were the chief nations to establish colonies in
  the present United States, although others also
  took part, notably the Netherlands in the
  establishment of New Netherlands which later
  became New York, and Sweden in a short-lived
  colony on the Delaware River called New Sweden
  ).

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Leif Erikson

• Leif Eriksson, son of Norse explorer Eric the
  Red, led the first European expedition to North
  America around ad 1000, according to folk legend.
  
• Norwegian archaeologists found the ruins of an
  old Norse settlement in Newfoundland in the early
  1960s. They believe Norse expeditions to North
  America may have ceased because of attacks by
  Native Americans.

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Spanish Explorers

• Columbus voyages mark the beginning of
  continuous European efforts to explore and
  colonize the Americas.
  
• Spain wanted to break the growing Portuguese
  monopoly on Asian spice trade and goods into
  Europe. Columbus was deeply religious and hoped
  to convert souls as well as find gold for his
  beloved Spain. Columbus made four trips to
  America, discovering the West Indies, Central
  America and South America.

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• The image of Columbus as a hero has been
  tarnished by criticism from Native Americans and
  revisionist historians.
  
• Although he was always judged to be vain,
  ambitious, greedy, and ruthless, traditional
  historians viewed his voyages as opening the New
  World to Western civilization and Christianity.
• For revisionist historians, however, his voyages
  symbolize the more brutal aspects of European
  colonization and represent the beginning of the
  destruction of Native American peoples and
  culture. One point of agreement among all
  interpretations is that his voyages were one of
  the turning points in history.

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First Expedition

• On Aug. 3, 1492, Columbus sailed from Spain, with
  three small ships, the Santa María, , the Pinta,
  and the Niña. After halting at the Canary
  Islands, he sailed due west and southwest. On
  Oct. 10 a small mutiny was quelled, and on Oct.
  12 he landed on a small island in the Bahama
  group. He took possession for Spain and, with
  impressed natives aboard, discovered other
  islands in the neighborhood. On Oct. 27 he
  sighted Cuba and on Dec. 5 reached Hispaniola.
      On Christmas Eve the Santa María was
  wrecked on the north coast of Hispaniola, and
  Columbus, leaving men there to found a colony,
  hurried back to Spain on the Niña. His reception
  was all he could wish according to his contract
  with the Spanish monarchs he was made admiral of
  the ocean sea and governor-general of all new
  lands he had discovered or should discover.

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Second Expedition

• Fitted out with a larger fleet of 17 ships and
  with 1,500 colonists aboard, Columbus sailed in
  Oct., 1493. His landfall this time was made in
  the Lesser Antilles, and his new discoveries
  included the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico. The
  admiral arrived at Hispaniola to find the first
  colony destroyed by Native Americans.
• He founded a new colony nearby, then sailed off
  in the summer of 1494 to explore the southern
  coast of Cuba. After discovering Jamaica he
  returned to Hispaniola and found the colonists
  interested only in finding gold and completely
  disorderly. His attempts to enforce strict
  discipline led some men to seize ships and return
  to Spain to complain.
• Leaving his brother Bartholomew in charge
• at Hispaniola, Columbus also returned to
  Spain
  
• in 1496.

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Third Expedition

• On his third expedition, in 1498, Columbus was
  forced to use convicts as colonists because of
  the bad reports on conditions in Hispaniola and
  because the novelty of the New World was wearing
  off.
• He sailed still farther south and made his
  landfall on Trinidad. He sailed across the mouth
  of the Orinoco River (in present Venezuela) and
  realized that he saw a continent, but without
  further exploration he hurried back to Hispaniola
  to run his colony.
• In 1500 an independent governor arrived and he
  sent Columbus back to Spain in chains. The
  admiral was immediately released, but his favor
  was on the wane other navigators, including
  Amerigo Vespucci , had been in the New World and
  established much of the coast line of northeast
  South America.

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Fourth Expedition

•     It was 1502 before Columbus finally gathered
  together four ships for a fourth expedition, by
  which he hoped to reestablish his reputation. If
  he could sail past the islands and far enough
  west, he hoped he might still find lands
  answering to the description of Asia or Japan. He
  struck the coast of Honduras in Central America
  and coasted southward along an inhospitable
  shore, suffering terrible hardships. Attempting
  to return to Hispaniola, he was marooned on
  Jamaica. After his rescue, he was forced to
  abandon his hopes and return to Spain.

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John Cabot stakes claims for England

• 1461-1498, English explorer, probably b. Genoa,
  Italy. He went to England, probably in the 1480s,
  and resided chiefly at Bristol, a port then
  promising as a base for discovery.

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• In 1497, John Cabot (Giovanni Cabotto) set off on
  a voyage to Asia. On his way he, like Christopher
  Columbus, ran into an island off the coast of
  North America. As a result, Cabot became the
  second European to discover North America, thus
  laying an English claim
• John Cabot left on his second voyage sometime in
  the year of 1498. He had with him 4 or 5 ships
  and about 300 men. Little was known about this
  voyage but more than likely he was shipwrecked
  and drowned. One thing is known, Cabot failed to
  return from his second voyage to the "New Founde
  Land".
• .

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Juan Ponce de León, Spanish explorer.

• c.1460-1521, Spanish explorer, first Westerner to
  reach Florida. After finding gold on Boriquén
  (Puerto Rico) in 1508, he conquered the island
  and, as governor (1509-12), made a fortune in
  gold, slaves, and land. Hearing tales from the
  Carib of a wonderfully rich island called Bimini,
  said to be North of Cuba, Ponce de León secured a
  commission (1512) to conquer and colonize that
  land.

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• There is a legend that he was seeking a spring
  with waters having the power of restoring youth.
  From Puerto Rico on Mar. 3, 1513, with three
  vessels, he sailed NE through the Bahamas,
  sighting the Florida peninsula (which he thought
  was an island) late in March and landing near the
  site of St. Augustine early in April.
• Probably because his arrival in Florida occurred
  at the time of the Easter feast ( Pascua Florida
  ), Ponce de León named the land (which he claimed
  for Spain) La Florida.

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• He turned south, exploring the coast he then
  returned to Puerto Rico, arriving Sept. 21, 1513.
  After partly pacifying Puerto Rico, which had
  been in revolt, he sailed to Spain, where the
  king commissioned him (Sept., 1514) to subdue the
  Carib of Guadeloupe and to conquer and colonize
  the isle of Florida. In 1515 he led an
  unsuccessful expedition against the Carib and
  returned to Puerto Rico, where he resided until
  1521.
• With two vessels, 200 men, 50 horses and other
  domestic animals, and farm implements, he sailed
  for Florida in 1521. Upon landing on the west
  coast, probably in the vicinity of Charlotte
  Harbor or Tampa Bay, his party was fiercely
  attacked by Native Americans, and he was severely
  wounded by an arrow.
• The expedition sailed immediately for Cuba, where
  Ponce de León soon died.
  

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Cabeza de Vaca Spanish Explorer

• Cabeza de Vaca came to the New World as treasurer
  in the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez that
  reached Florida (probably Tampa Bay) in 1528.
  When hardship and native hostility caused the end
  of the expedition, he was one of the survivors
  whose barges were shipwrecked on an island off
  the Texas coast, possibly Galveston or Mustang
  Island. Their story is one of the most remarkable
  in the annals of exploration.

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• After suffering considerably as slaves of the
  Native Americans inhabiting the island, Cabeza de
  Vaca and three other survivors escaped and
  started a long journey overland. His companions
  gained great repute among the Native Americans as
  healers since remarkable cures were attributed to
  their Christian prayers. Their route westward is
  as disputed as is the identity the island of the
  shipwreck, but after much wandering they did
  reach W Texas, then probably New Mexico and
  Arizona, and possibly (some argue) California
  before, turning south in 1536, they arrived in
  Culiacán in Mexico and told their story to
  Spaniards there.

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    They were almost certainly the first
Europeans to see bison, and their stories about
the Pueblo gave rise to the legend of the Seven
Cities of Cibola
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Samuel de Champlain explores for France

• 1567-1635, French explorer and the chief founder
  of New France.    
  
• After serving in France in the religious wars,
  Champlain was given command of a Spanish fleet
  sailing to the West Indies, Mexico, and the
  Isthmus of Panama.     With the sieur de Monts ,
  who had a monopoly of the trade of the region,
  Champlain returned in 1604 to found a colony,
  which was landed at the mouth of the St. Croix
  River.
• In the next three years Champlain explored the
  New England coast south and most of the larger
  rivers of Maine and making the first detailed
  charts of the coast. After the sieur de Monts's
  privileges had been revoked, the colony had to be
  abandoned, and through the efforts of Champlain a
  new one was established on the St. Lawrence
  River.

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•     In 1608 in the ship Le Don de Dieu, he
  brought his colonists to the site of Quebec. In
  the spring of 1609, accompanying a war party of
  Huron against the Iroquois, Champlain discovered
  the lake that bears his name, and near Crown
  Point, N.Y., the Iroquois were met and defeated
  by French troops. The incident is believed to be
  largely responsible for the later hatred of the
  French by the Iroquois.

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• In 1612 Champlain returned to France, where he
  received a new grant of the fur-trade monopoly.
  Returning in 1613, he set off on a journey to the
  western lakes.     Thereafter Champlain devoted
  his time to the welfare of the colony, of which
  he was the virtual governor. He helped to
  persuade Richelieu to found the Company of One
  Hundred Associates, which was to take over the
  interests of the colony. In 1629 Quebec was
  suddenly captured by the English, and Champlain
  was carried away to four years of exile in
  England. When New France was restored to France
  in 1632, Champlain returned. In 1634 he sent Jean
  Nicolet into the West, thus extending the French
  explorations and claims as far as Wisconsin. He
  died on Christmas Day, 1635, and was buried in
  Quebec.

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Routes of Champlain
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Robert Cavelier La Salle, sieur de explores for
France

• 1643-87, French explorer in North America, one of
  the most celebrated explorers and builders of New
  France.   
  
•   In 1673 the governor of New France.

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•   After studying for the priesthood in his native
  France and entering the Jesuit order in 1658,
  Réne-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle left the
  Jesuits and moved to Canada in 1666. La Salle
  received a land grant near Montréal and entered
  the fur trade. He also began to build forts,
  explore, and trade. During an expedition on the
  Mississippi River in 1682, La Salle descended the
  Mississippi to its mouth, arriving Apr. 9, 1682.
  La Salle took possession of the whole valley for
  France, calling the region Louisiana.
• La Salle was deprived of his authority by the new
  governor in 1683 and went to France where he was
  given power to colonize and to govern the region
  between Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico, La
  Salle set out (1684) with four ships for the
  mouth of the Mississippi.

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• He never reached it. With his ships La Salle
  reached the Gulf of Mexico but because of the
  sandy sameness of the coastline he was unable to
  find the Mississippi. He and his men landed
  probably on Lavaca Bay, Texas.
• They were unable to reach the Mississippi
  overland, and the men grew mutinous. On the third
  attempt the great explorer was murdered by his
  own men.

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Henry Hudson for England

• 1607-11, English navigator and explorer.
• He was hired (1607) by the English Muscovy
  Company to find the Northeast Passage to Asia. He
  failed, and another attempt (1608) to find a new
  route was also fruitless. Engaged (1609) for the
  same purpose by the Dutch East India Company, he
  sailed to Spitsbergen, where extreme ice and cold
  brought his crew near mutiny. Hudson, determined
  not to lose his reputation as an explorer,
  disregarded his instructions and sailed westward
  hoping to find the Northwest Passage . He entered
  Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and later New York
  Bay.

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• He was the first European to ascend (1609) the
  Hudson River (named for him), nearly to
  present-day Albany, New York. His voyage gave the
  Dutch their claim to the region. His fourth
  expedition (1610), financed by English
  adventurers, started from England. Again he
  sailed westward, hoping to find the Northwest
  Passage. Between Greenland and Labrador he
  entered Hudson Strait and by it reached Hudson
  Bay. After weeks of exploration, he was forced by
  ice to winter there.

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• By the next summer (1611) his starved and
  diseased crew mutinied and set Hudson, with his
  son and seven men, adrift in a small boat,
  without food or water. He was never seen again.
  His discoveries, however, gave England its claim
  to the Hudson Bay region.

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Jacques Cartier

• In 1534 King Francis I sent French explorer
  Jacques Cartier to find a northwest passage to
  the Moluccas, or Spice Islands. Cartier explored
  the Gulf of St. Lawrence and regions now known as
  Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Québec. Much of the
  French claim to Canada was based on Cartiers
  explorations.