Name: ________________________________________________________________ Date: ___________ Pd: ________

Directions: Part 1: As you read, text mark the article using the following codes:
T-Advances in Navigational Technology that helped Exploration
E-Events that helped Exploration Begin
R-Results of Exploration

European Exploration

The first attempt by Europeans to colonize the New World occurred around a.d. 1000, when the Vikings sailed from the
British Isles to Greenland. Although the Vikings never returned to America, their accomplishments became known to
other Europeans. Europe, however, was made up of many small principalities whose concerns were mainly local.
Europeans may have been intrigued by the stories of the feared Vikings' discovery of a "new world," but they lacked the
resources or the will to follow their path of exploration. Trade continued to revolve around the Mediterranean Sea, as it
had for hundreds of years.

Developments such as the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the unification of small states, the emergence of new
technology in navigation and shipbuilding, and the establishment of trade with the East, made Europeans want to explore
beyond the Mediterranean. During the Renaissance, artists and writers such as Galileo, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo
adopted a view of life that stressed humans' ability to change and control the world. This helped foster individualism and
create a climate favorable to exploration.

With the decline of the political power and wealth of the Catholic church, a few rulers gradually solidified their power.
Portugal, Spain, France, and England were transformed from small territories into nation-states with centralized authority
in the hands of monarchs who were able to direct and finance overseas exploration. Technological innovations in
navigation set the stage for exploration. Bigger, faster ships and the invention of navigational devices such as the astrolabe
and sextant made extended voyages possible.

Portugal

Portugal led the others into exploration. Encouraged by Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese seamen sailed southward
along the African coast, seeking a water route to the East.

Spain

Spain's ambitions were launched by Christopher Columbus. Born in Genoa, Italy, around 1451, Columbus learned the art
of navigation on voyages in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Columbus, spent years seeking a sponsor and finally
found one in Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain after they defeated the Moors and could turn their attention to other projects.

In August 1492, Columbus sailed west with his now famous ships, Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. After ten weeks he
sighted an island in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador. Thinking he had found islands near Japan, he sailed on
until he reached Cuba (which he thought was mainland China) and later Haiti. Columbus returned to Spain with many
products unknown to Europe--coconuts, tobacco, sweet corn, potatoes--and with tales of dark-skinned native peoples
whom he called "Indians" because he assumed he had been sailing in the Indian Ocean.

Despite the treaty, controversy continued over what Columbus had found. He made three more voyages to America
between 1494 and 1502, during which he explored Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, and Trinidad. Each time he
returned more certain that he had reached the East. Subsequent explorations by others, however, persuaded most
Europeans that Columbus had More Spanish expeditions followed. Juan Ponce de León explored the coasts of Florida in
1513. Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean in the same year.
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition (in the course of which he put down a mutiny and was later killed) sailed around the tip
of South America, across the Pacific to the Philippines, through the Indian Ocean, and back to Europe around the southern
tip of Africa between 1519 and 1522.
Name: ________________________________________________________________ Date: ___________ Pd: ________

Two expeditions led directly to Spain's emergence as sixteenth-century Europe's wealthiest and most powerful nation. The
first was headed by Hernando Cortés, who in 1519 led a small army of Spanish and Native Americans against the Aztec
Empire of Mexico. Completing the conquest in 1521, Cortés took control of the Aztecs' fabulous gold and silver mines.
Ten years later, an expedition under Francisco Pizarro overwhelmed the Inca Empire of Peru, securing for the Spaniards
the great Inca silver mines of Potosí.

France

France was also exploring the Americas. In 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano was commissioned to locate a northwest
passage around North America to India. He was followed in 1534 by Jacques Cartier, who explored the St. Lawrence
River as far as present-day Montreal. In 1562 Jean Ribault headed an expedition that explored the St. Johns River area in
Florida. His efforts were followed two years later by a second venture headed by René de Laudonnière. But the Spanish
soon pushed the French out of Florida, and thereafter, the French directed their efforts north and west. In 1608 Samuel de
Champlain built a fort at Quebec and explored the area north to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and south to Cape Cod. The
French traded with inland tribes for furs and fished off the coast of Newfoundland. New France was sparsely populated by
trappers and missionaries and dotted with military forts and trading posts.

The Netherlands

The Dutch were also engaged in the exploration of America. Henry Hudson an expedition to America for the Dutch East
India Company and laid claim to the area along the Hudson River.

England

In 1497 Henry VII of England sponsored an expedition to the New World headed by John Cabot, who explored a part of
Newfoundland and reported an abundance of fish. But until Queen Elizabeth's reign, the English showed little interest in
exploration, being preoccupied with their European trade and establishing control over the British Isles. By the mid-
sixteenth century, however, England had recognized the advantages of trade with the East.

Thereafter, Queen Elizabeth granted charters to Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh to colonize America.
Gilbert headed two trips to the New World. He landed on Newfoundland. A year later, Raleigh sent a company to explore
territory he named Virginia after Elizabeth, the Queen. and in 1585, he sponsored a second voyage, this time to explore
the Chesapeake Bay region. By the seventeenth century, the English had taken the lead in colonizing North America,
establishing settlements all along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies.

PAUL R. LUCAS

The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.