Discovery
&
Exploration of the
New World
Background to Exploration
• 476 A.D.- 1300 A.D. Middle Ages:
• Crusades
• Renaissance
• mercantilism
• Tea, spices, silk, fruits, cotton brought
back
• Europeans want to enter into trade
• Begin to explore so they have the
monopoly of the resources
The World in
1400
The Vikings
• Came from Norway, Sweden, Denmark
• Erik the Red- a great Viking discovered Iceland
• 950- discovered Greenland
• 1000- Leif Erikson discovered Newfoundland
and settled it
– Not given much credit because did not have a record
of settlement
The Vikings
The Life of a
Sailor
• Where is the
ship’s name?
• If you were a
sailor how would
you find your
ship?
The Captain
• The captain of the ship needed
– funding
– manpower
– support from a rich benefactor.
• Most voyages during the fourteenth century were made
in the name of the royal ruler of a particular government.
• The ships that the royal leaders provided were not always
new, but the captain took what he was given.
• The captain himself was not always an experienced seaman.
– Desire for wealth or political favor were often his only
motivations for undertaking dangerous voyages.
– He could be a merchant, adventurer, soldier, or gentleman
of the court.
– Under his command were:
– the pilot or first mate (who was in charge of navigation)
– the crew (who worked the sails and rigging and made
repairs to the ship while in uncharted waters).
The Crew
• The crewmen who signed on to these long and
dangerous voyages were not the most
experienced seamen
• large numbers of them were needed
– to help man the sails
– allow for attrition due to illness and death.
I’m Hungry!
• In the days of the old wooden sailing ships,
food and fresh water was always a problem,
therefore feeding a hardworking crew would
have been very difficult.
• There was no electricity therefore no
refrigeration and the only fuel source to
provide hot food were wood burning stoves.
When do we eat?
• Little cooking was done at sea.
• Food often consisted of:
– pickled or dried meat
– ship's biscuits (made from flour with a little water to make
them hard). By the end of the voyage, these biscuits would
be full of black insects called weevils.
– cheese,
– onions,
– dried beans
– salted fish or recently caught fresh fish.
– Without fresh fruit and vegetables, which
contain vitamin C, sailors suffered from a fatal
condition called scurvy.
– Water supply was another serious problem.
Fresh water did not always keep in barrels and
wine turned sour.
– Fresh water was the first thing the crew looked
for whenever the ship reached land.
Where did they get the expression
“three square meals a day”?
• The ships carpenter would make plates for
the crew and the easiest way to make a plate
was to cut a square section piece of wood.
• Square shaped plates could be stowed away
easily and wooden ones would not break no
matter how violent the ships movement might
become.
• So when the sea allowed and there was
sufficient food available, every effort
would have been made to provide the crew
with a hot edible meal.
• This would have been collected from the
galley and eaten with relish on the mess
deck table utilizing the square section
plate.
Did You Know?
• To overcome scurvy, Royal Naval ships
crews were given a daily ration of Lime juice
and even today the Navy makes this ration
available when certain arduous conditions
prevail.
• This was noticed by the Americans before the
war of independence and hence the English
are still referred to as "Limeys" to this day.
Press Gangs
• The early press gangs operated within the law.
• They would frequent the bars on the lookout for any
young, strong and fit looking male.
• They would persuade the poor fellow into volunteering as
they bought the beers
• the poor wretch would awake from his drunken sleep to
find himself on one of his Majesty's Warships.
• He was now subject to the full rigors of military
discipline, so there was no turning back
• Press gangs would often use trickery.
• When the victim was not looking, they would
drop a shilling into his tankard of ale.
• Having drunk the ale, the victim was classed
as having accepted the Kings shilling and
therefore had "Volunteered" to serve on a
Warship.
• Any argument and the "Volunteer" was knocked
unconscious only to come round as a fully paid up crew
member, so once again there was no turning back.
• The landlords in charge of these port bars were rapidly
losing their customers with this trick, so they introduced
the glass bottom tankard.
• Press gangs soon realized that they could keep these
shillings for themselves if they simply used force and
kidnapped the victim.
• This became common place.
Portugal
• Reasons for Exploration~
– Portugal wanted to break the monopoly of Venice
and Genoa with trade to the East
– “mercantilism”
– Portugal wanted power
– Decided to sail around Africa to get to the East
(Cape of Good Hope)
• Warfare in the Mediterranean
Portugal
• Prince Henry the Navigator~
– Son of King
– Set up a school to train sailors and
study exploration
– Taught how to use a compass and
an astrolabe
• Find location with longitude and latitude
– Continued to sail and set up trading
posts
– Reached bottom of Africa in 1490
Portugal:
Famous explorers
• Bartholomew Diaz~
(Bartolomeu Dias)
– Reached the bottom of Africa
– Went back to tell Prince Henry
– Made them feel that they can do it
Portugal:
Famous explorers
• Vasco de Gama~
– 1498 sailed around Africa and
reached Asia
– Brought back all things Italians
were selling
– Now began to trade
– Lowered their prices so people
bought their products
– Gained the MONOPOLY!
Portugal
Famous explorers:
• Pedro Cabral~
– Started sailing
– Hit a hurricane in 1502
– Landed in Brazil and
claimed for Portugal
Portuguese territory in
New World
• Only territory was the accidental claim
in Brazil
Spain
• Reasons for Exploration~
– Saw Portugal getting wealthy and decided
they wanted to also
– Columbus thought to sail West to reach
the Indies
Spain
• Ferdinand and Isabella~
– Started the exploration which leads to
Spanish empire in new world
– They financed Columbus and his voyage
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Christopher Columbus~
– Really thought he reached Asia
– Died in 1506
– Discovered a new continent
– Landed in San Salvador in 1492, Bahamas
– Made 4 voyages 1492, 1493, 1498, 1502
– Changed history
Columbus
Man behind the myth
• At 2 a.m. on October 12, 1492, the
lookout on the Pinta sighted land, "a
white sand cliff gleaming in the
moonlight on the western horizon.“
• When daylight came, they edged
closer to the island. Small boats were
lowered from the three caravels, as
natives gathered on the beach, naked
and shy.
• Columbus and his officers came
ashore, planting the royal flag of
Ferdinand and Isabella, and gave
thanks to God.
• They were on the island of Guanahani,
but beginning a practice which would
last for 500 years
• they promptly ignored the name the
islanders called their home and named
the island San Salvador
• then knelt in prayers of thanks to a
God the islanders knew nothing about
• Columbus believed that he had landed on
an island off the coast of China, and called
the people "Indios", or Indians.
• He never saw the mainland of North
America.
Columbus set out to prove the
earth was round.
• At the end of the 15th Century, most
everyone knew the earth was a sphere.
• What was in question, however, was the size
of the earth--its circumference.
• Columbus underestimated the size of the
earth by one-fourth
Queen Isabella sold the
crown jewels to pay for
Columbus' voyage
• The queen may
have suggested
this at some
point, but her
financial
advisers assured
her that there
were other ways
to finance the
enterprise.
• One way was to make the city of Palos
pay back a debt to the crown by
providing two of the ships.
• Another way was to get Italian financial
backing for part of the expenses.
• The crown had to put up very little
money from the treasury.
Several hundred sailors were aboard the
three caravels on the initial voyage in 1492.
The ships were relatively large for the
anticipated long journey on an
unpredictable sea.
• Only 90 men made the first voyage of
discovery.
• The ships were quite tiny by modern
standards--no longer than a tennis
court, and less than 30 feet wide.
• The Santa Maria had 40 men aboard,
the Pinta, 26, and the Nina, 24.
• Only the Nina and the Pinta returned to
Spain, as the Santa Maria was
shipwrecked on Christmas Day, 1492.
• 39 men volunteered to stay behind at
the fortress called "La Navidad" on the
northern coast of present-day Haiti
• (they all perished at the hands of the
Indians prior to the return of Columbus
the following year).
The crew of the three ships on
the voyage of discovery was
made up mainly of criminals.
• The crew was primarily comprised of
seasoned sailors from the towns of Palos
and Moure, Spain, thanks to the efforts of the
Pinzon brothers.
• Just in case Columbus might have had
trouble attracting a crew, the crown did offer
amnesty to criminals.
• However, only four criminals were on board:
one a convicted murderer (he killed a man in
a quarrel); the other three, accused of freeing
him from prison.
• The initial voyage from
Spain to the new world was
perilous--fraught with bad
weather and lack of food.
• Several sailors died on the
way.
• No one died on the maiden voyage.
• There was enough food aboard for one
year.
• The weather was almost ideal--no
storms were encountered.
• However, on the return trip to Spain
there was a major hurricane which
almost destroyed the two remaining
ships.
Columbus set foot on
North American soil
• Columbus never saw North America.
• His first landfall was in the Bahamas.
• While in anchor of St. Croix (USVI) on November
14, 1493, some of Columbus' crew experienced the
first hostile encounter with the Indians.
• Five days later he landed at San Juan Bautista,
now Puerto Rico.
• Later he would visit the northeastern tip of
South America and the eastern coast of
Central America, but never mainland
U.S.A.
• The fact is that Columbus never admitted
that he had discovered a new continent
There was a priest on board
the Santa Maria in 1492.
• There were no friars or priests on the
first voyage in 1492, despite Columbus'
deep religious fervor.
• Many of the paintings of the first
landfall in the new world on San
Salvador show a priest with Columbus-
-contrary to the facts.
• There were five priests on the second
voyage.
Columbus died a pauper, in
chains, in a Spanish prison
• Despite the fact that the Spanish crown
retracted some of the privileges
promised to Columbus, he was a
relatively rich man at the time of his
death.
• Although he returned to Spain in
chains in 1500 after his third voyage,
the King and Queen apologized for the
misunderstanding and had them
removed.
• Columbus died quietly at the age of 55
in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506 in
his own apartment attended by family
and friends.
Columbus is buried in Santo
Domingo, the Dominican
Republic.
• There is much controversy surrounding
the whereabouts of the remains of
Columbus.
• There are records of the transferal of
his remains on different occasions, so
that it is possible that parts of his
remains are in several locations.
• The prevailing belief, however, is that
his primary burial place is in the
Cathedral of Seville, Spain,
• with some of his bones or ashes in
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic,
• and some in Genoa, Italy.
• At one time they were in Cuba
Where in the New World is San
Salvador?
Columbus's arrival point in the New World is still contested.
SOME OTHER INTERESTING FACTS
• WOMEN were not on the
first or second voyages of
Columbus.
• The first women colonists
appeared in 1498, when
Columbus was allowed to
recruit one woman for
every ten emigrants on the
third voyage.
• HORSES were introduced to the new
world by Columbus on his second
voyage.
• SEVENTEEN SHIPS and over twelve-
hundred men made up "The Grand
Fleet" of the second voyage in 1493.
• TOBACCO was introduced into Europe
because of Columbus' discovery of its
use by the Indians.
Source: International Columbian Quincentenary Alliance
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Amerigo Vespucci~
– North and South
America named after
him
– Unclear if he was ever
there
– Did not want to sail for
Italy
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Balboa~
– 1st of the Spanish
Conquistadores found
Panama and walked across it
to Pacific Ocean
– Claimed all the land that the
Pacific touched for Spain
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Ferdinand Magellan~
– Proved that there was a new continent and earth
was round
– 1st to sail all around the world
– Never finished voyage, died in the Philippines by
the natives
– 1519- 5 ships and 200 men sailed through the
Strait of Magellan to the Pacific
– 1522- last ship with 18 men came back to Spain
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Hernando Cortez~
– He popularized the new world
– Landed in New Mexico
– Conquered the Aztecs and took all
the gold and silver (millions of
dollars)
– Sent all of the wealth back to Spain
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Francisco Pizarro~
– Conquered Incas and took
all of their wealth
– Established wealth for
Spain
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Ponce de Leon~
– Left Cuba and went to look for Fountain of
Youth
– Found Florida and established the 1 st
Spanish settlement at St. Augustine
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Hernando de Soto~
– Went looking for gold and silver
and found the Mississippi River
– He died and his crew threw him
over board into river
– Claimed all land touching the
River for Spain
Famous Spanish Explorers:
• Francisco Coronado~
– He was told by Natives of the 7
cities of Gold
– Explored all western lands
– Never found the cities
– Killed Indian guide
– Claimed all land for Spain
Territory claimed and
settled by Spain
• All territory in New World divided land
into 2 parts
• South American countries (excluding
Brazil) under control of viceroy of
Spain
• Florida, American Southwest,
California, Mexico, Central America,
Spanish Islands in West Indies
Spain
• Sources of Wealth~
– Gold and silver from Native nations and tribes
– Natives became slaves to the production
– Natives were used until the African Slave Trade
was used
• Important Settlements~
– Mexico City
– St. Augustine
– Lima
– Havana
– Vera Cruz
France
• Reasons for Exploration~
– MERCANTILISM
– Start looking for Northwest Passage to get
to Asia
– Found Artic Ocean
Famous French Explorers:
• Jacques Cartier~
– sent by King of France
– Found St. Lawrence River
– Claimed land around for France
– He went back to King and told him that he found
the route to Asia
Famous French Explorers:
• *Samuel de Champlain~
– “Father of New France”
– 1608: established the city of Quebec
– 1st white man to explore great lakes
– Made wealth for France
– Began the Fur Trade between the Natives and the
French
Famous French Explorers:
• Marquette & Joliet~
– Marquette was a priest and Joliet
was a fur trader
– Continued exploration of Great
Lakes
– Explored upper Mississippi
– Claimed all land for France
Famous French Explorers:
• Robert de LaSalle~
– Sailed Mississippi River and
claimed for France
– Spain had already claimed
– French settled New Orleans and
received the land because had
the settlers
Territory Claimed and Settled by France
• New France
– 2 parts
• Along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes
• Louisiana to the Great Lakes and Gulf of
Mexico, between the Appalachian Mountains
and Rocky Mountains
• France had established forts for fur
trading and had more settlers
France
• Source of Wealth~
– Fur trade with Natives
– French traders treated the natives as equal
• Important Settlements~
– Quebec, Montreal, New Orleans
England
• Reason for Exploration~
– MERCANTILISM
– Desire to find Northwest Passage
Famous English Explorers
• John & Sebastian
Cabot~
– Italian explorers working for
the British
– 1st voyage landed in Northern
New England
– Claimed all territory for
England
– Never returned home after 2 nd
voyage
Famous English Explorers
• Sir Frances Drake~
– Pirate who loved to rob
Spanish treasure ships
– Went on a voyage around
the world
– 2nd to do so,
– 1st to survive
– Claimed south eastern U.S.
for England
Famous English Explorers
• Martin Frobisher &
Humphrey Gilbert~
– Looking for
Northwest passage
– No way to get
through because of
ice
Humphrey Gilbert's world map, 1576
Humphrey Gilbert's world map, 1576
Famous English Explorers
• Henry Hudson~
– Again looking for
Northwest Passage
– Sailed into Hudson Bay
(after Dutch voyage to
River)
– Never came back
– Left there
England
• Territory claimed and settled by
England~
– East Coast
– Maine- Georgia
– Area around Hudson Bay
Holland
• Reasons for Exploration~
– MERCANTILISM
• Henry Hudson~
– Discovered Hudson River and claimed all land
near for Holland
• Territory claimed and settled by
Holland~
– Claimed all land around Hudson River
• Long Island, Manhattan, Albany, Northern Jersey
Sweden
• Territory claimed and settled by
Sweden~
– Sent 1 ship
– Claimed Wilmington, Delaware
– South Jersey
– Build 1st log cabin in America
RESULTS OF EXPLORATION
• Competition between European nations for
monopolies
• New discovered continents for settlement
• Created wealth
• Proved world was round
• Increase and decrease of Empires