Explorers of the New World

1. Explorers of the New World -How Europeans “discovered” the Americas

2. 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 ).

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 allinterpretations is that his voyages were one of the turning points in history.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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". • .

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18.     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

19. Samuel deChamplain 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Routes of Champlain

23. 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.

24.   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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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 Cartier’s explorations.