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The Age of European Exploration

By the 1400's, many Europeans wanted to buy products from Asia. The most desired products included jewels, silk, and such spices as cinnamon, cloves, and pepper.

Turkish Muslims controlled much of the main overland route between Europe and Asia. Muslims also controlled the sea routes from Asia to the Middle East. The Italian city of Venice held a monopoly on trade in spices and eastern luxury goods between the Muslim ports and the rest of Europe. As a result, other Europeans became eager to bypass the old routes and find a direct ocean route to the eastern part of Asia. Europeans then called that region “the Indies.” Europeans also hoped to make converts to Christianity and so strike a blow against the Muslims.

Portugal and took the lead in seeking a direct ocean route to the Indies. By 1500, a new kind of ship known as the caravel made long voyages possible. The caravel combined square sails with the triangular lateen sails used by Muslims. The invention of new navigation instruments also aided exploration by sea. The most important devices were the astrolabe and quadrant, which enabled sailors to determine latitude more accurately. The expeditions of and Spain opened an active period of exploration. Their voyages of exploration eventually led to the European colonization of America.

Reaching the tip of Africa. During the early 1400's, Portuguese explorers concentrated their attention on the west coast of Africa. Prince Henry, a son of King John I of Portugal, became known as Henry the Navigator. He never went on a voyage of exploration himself. But he encouraged and sponsored many expeditions. Henry wanted to increase Portugal's trade along the African coast. He wished to discover the source of the gold that Muslim traders had carried north from central Africa for centuries. He also hoped to find the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John. For hundreds of years, travelers had claimed that a man known as Prester John ruled a vast kingdom in Asia. Explorers traveling to Asia found no evidence of this kingdom, so later reports placed his empire somewhere in Africa.

Henry's crews sailed farther and farther south along the African coast. By the time Henry died in 1460, they had traced the coast as far south as Sierra Leone. During these voyages, the Portuguese collected gold dust and African captives who were sold into slavery. After 1500, when the settlement of the Americas created a demand for slaves, other Europeans began to sail to the west African coast to join in the slave trade.

During the late 1400's, the Portuguese became increasingly hopeful of reaching the southern end of Africa. They believed that such a discovery would reveal a way of sailing to India. In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias set out to find a route around Africa. As Dias sailed along the continent's southwestern coast, a violent storm blew his ships south of the tip of the continent. He then turned east and sailed into the Indian Ocean in early 1488 without sighting the tip of Africa. After turning north again, Dias reached the east coast of Africa. His crew, however, then forced him to return to Portugal. On the return voyage, he saw a point of land jutting from the continent's southern tip. The Portuguese named it the Cape of Good Hope because its discovery indicated hope that a sea route to India had been found.

Columbus reaches America. As the Portuguese searched for an eastward sea route to Asia, looked west. Columbus, a sea captain from Genoa, Italy, developed a plan to reach Asia by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. He was convinced that his plan would work. However, he underestimated the distance between western Europe and Japan—and he did not know that a large land mass lay in the way. Columbus could not persuade the Portuguese to give him command of a westward expedition. In 1485, he went to Spain. He eventually persuaded Queen Isabella to support his plan. The Spanish queen gave him three small vessels: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.

Columbus and his crew left Palos, Spain, on Aug. 3, 1492. After a stop at the Canary Islands, off the west coast of Africa, the expedition headed westward across the Atlantic. The crew sailed for more than a month without seeing land. Finally, on October 12, they sighted an island.

Columbus landed on one of the Bahamas. He also visited two other islands—Cuba and Hispaniola (now shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Columbus believed he had reached the Indies, and so he called the people he met Indians. He began his return trip in January 1493 and reached Palos in March.

The voyage around Africa. News of Columbus's discoveries caused much excitement in Spain. But the Portuguese did not believe that Columbus had reached the Indies because he did not return with spices or other Asian products. They remained convinced that the best route to Asia was to sail around Africa.

In 1497, King chose the navigator Vasco da Gama to sail all the way to Asia. On July 8, da Gama set out from , Portugal, with four ships. Instead of sailing close to the West African coast, he swung out into the Atlantic to find favorable winds. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope on November 22 and then sailed into the Indian Ocean. At Malindi, in Kenya, he found an experienced Arab pilot, Ahmad Ibn Majid, who agreed to show the way to India.

Da Gama reached Kozhikode on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. Kozhikode's Hindu ruler had no interest in the goods da Gama brought to trade. The Muslim merchants there considered him a possible business rival. But he obtained some gems and spices, including pepper and cinnamon, to take back to Portugal to prove he had reached Asia. Da Gama made a second voyage to Kozhikode in 1502. He arrived with a fleet of 20 ships, bombarded the town, and established Portuguese rule there. The Portuguese called the town Calicut, a variation of Kalikat, the town's Arabic name.

Exploring the . Columbus made three more voyages across the Atlantic from 1493 to 1504. He explored Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. He also visited the coasts of and Central America. Columbus always believed that he had been in or near Asia. However, people gradually realized that he had come upon lands previously unknown to Europeans.

In 1497, John Cabot, an Italian navigator, became the first European to visit the northeast coast of North America since the Vikings. Sailing in the service of King Henry VII of England, Cabot landed on the east coast of Canada. Cabot's voyage helped lay the foundation of English claims to North America.

Other explorers began to visit . In 1500, two explorers independently reached the area where Portugal would later establish its colony of Brazil. One of the explorers was Vicente Yáñez Pinzón. Pinzón was a Spaniard who had commanded the Niña on Columbus's first voyage. Pinzón explored the mouth of the . The other explorer to reach Brazil was Pedro Álvares Cabral, a Portuguese captain. Cabral was sailing west in the Atlantic on his way to India.

Amerigo Vespucci, a merchant and navigator born in Italy, also traveled to the Americas. He sailed along the eastern coast of South America from 1499 to 1504. He was the first person to refer to the lands he had visited as a "New World." In 1507, a German geographer placed a Latin version of Vespucci's first name—that is, America—on a map of the newly found southern continent. This name was later applied to North America as well.

In 1513, the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa led an expedition across . Balboa traveled from Panama’s Atlantic coast to its Pacific coast. He became the first European to see the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. His finding helped prove that the New World was indeed a huge land mass between Europe and Asia.

Magellan's globe-circling expedition. In 1518, the Portuguese navigator persuaded King Charles I of Spain to sponsor a westward expedition to the Spice Islands, now part of Indonesia. The king agreed to sponsor Magellan’s expedition because the Portuguese controlled the route to Asia around Africa. If Magellan succeeded, Spain would have its own route to Asia. At the time, Magellan did not know how large South America was.

Magellan sailed from Spain on Sept. 20, 1519, with five ships. After reaching the northeast coast of Brazil, he sailed southward. He arrived at Puerto San Julián, Argentina. He spent the winter there and farther south at Puerto Santa Cruz, Argentina.

Magellan set sail from Puerto Santa Cruz on Oct. 18, 1520. Three days later, the ships entered a passage now known as the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America. On November 28, three of the five ships sailed out of the strait into the Pacific Ocean. One of the other two ships had been wrecked in a storm, and one had turned back to Spain.

In the Pacific, the explorers sailed for more than three months without sighting any land except two uninhabited islands. Food ran out, and the sailors ate oxhides and rats to stay alive. In March 1521, Magellan reached the island of , where he was able to gather supplies. He then sailed to the Philippine Islands. There, he became involved in a conflict among the native people. Magellan was killed in a battle on April 27, 1521. After Magellan's death, the expedition abandoned another ship. The remaining two vessels sailed to the Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia). One ship, the Victoria, then sailed west. Magellan's lieutenant, Juan Sebastián del Cano, commanded the ship. The Victoria crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. Badly damaged, the ship reached Spain on Sept. 6, 1522. It had completed the first trip around the world.

Spain's conquests in the New World. During the early 1500's, Spanish explorers pushed across most of Central and South America. They carried with them smallpox and other diseases that were unknown in the Americas. Native Americans had no resistance to these diseases. As a result, thousands sickened and died. The Spanish explorers established colonies in the new lands. Royal officials, Roman Catholic priests, and settlers arrived soon after the explorers. The Spaniards typically forced the Indians to work for them. The Spaniards brought sugar cane, wheat, and other new plants to the Americas. They also introduced cattle, horses, sheep, and other domestic animals. They took back to Europe many plants that were unknown there, such as corn and potatoes.

Hernán Cortés commanded one of the most important Spanish expeditions in the New World. Cortés left Cuba in 1519 with more than 600 men. He sailed to the Mexican state of Yucatán, which was a center of Maya civilization. Cortés moved along the coast of Mexico and then inland to Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the capital of the Aztec Empire. Along the way, he met an Indian woman named Malinche, whom the Spaniards called Doña Marina. Malinche, who knew both the Maya and the Aztec languages, served as an interpreter for Cortés. By 1521, Cortés had subdued the Aztec and taken control of their empire. Mexico then became a base for Spanish exploration of Central and North America.

Other Spanish expeditions explored and conquered much of South America. From 1527 to 1529, Sebastian Cabot, a son of John Cabot, explored the continent. He sailed up the Río de la Plata and the Paraná and Paraguay rivers in Argentina and Paraguay. Cabot was looking for a "white king" who was supposedly rich in silver. Other explorers searched for a fabulous golden kingdom in South America, especially in Colombia and Venezuela. This kingdom was usually called , which means "the gilded."

In 1532 and 1533, the Spanish explorer conquered the Inca. From their home in , the Inca ruled a huge empire. It included parts of Argentina, Bolivia, , Colombia, and . From 1535 to 1537, , a member of Pizarro's party, explored South America. He traveled through parts of Bolivia and Argentina and crossed the Mountains into Chile. , another veteran of Pizarro's expedition, also explored the continent. In 1541 and 1542, he sailed from the Andes Mountains down the mighty Amazon River to its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil.

During the 1500's, Spaniards explored much territory that became part of the United States. In 1513, Juan Ponce de León sailed from Puerto Rico and landed on the east coast of Florida. He then sailed around the southern tip of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. He next explored the southwest coast of Florida before returning to Puerto Rico.

In 1539, led an expedition of more than 600 people. De Soto sailed from Cuba to the west coast of Florida. In search of gold, he traveled through the southern United States, including Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The explorers found no gold, but they became the first Europeans to reach the Mississippi River. After de Soto died of fever in 1542, the survivors sailed down the Mississippi. They eventually reached Mexico by way of the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out from Campostela near the west coast of Mexico. He hoped to find the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola. These supposedly rich and flourishing cities were thought to lie north of Mexico City. Coronado traveled through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. He found no important cities. But Coronado’s and de Soto’s expeditions gave Europeans a good idea of the width of North America.

The search for a northern passage. During the 1500's, the known sea routes to Asia were long, and they were controlled by Spain and Portugal. As a result, other European nations tried to find alternate, shorter routes. Some explorers looked for a Northwest Passage—that is, a waterway that would allow ships to sail through or north of North America to reach Asia. Others looked for a Northeast Passage north of Europe. However, none of the explorers found a Northwest or Northeast passage. The search continued for centuries.

In 1524, King Francis I of France sent Giovanni da Verrazzano to North America to find a passage to Asia. Verrazzano, an Italian navigator, explored the east coast. He sailed from about Cape Fear in North Carolina to Newfoundland. But he did not find a passage.

Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, also failed to find a passage on two voyages from 1534 to 1536. However, he became the first European to see the St. Lawrence River in Canada. His voyages helped establish French claims to the region.

Several English explorers searched unsuccessfully for a Northwest Passage in North America. From 1576 to 1578, Martin Frobisher made three voyages. He reached what is now called Frobisher Bay in northeastern Canada. In 1585, John Davis, another English navigator, discovered and explored Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada. He also found Cumberland Sound in northeastern Canada. English merchants sent three expeditions in search of a Northeast Passage from 1553 to 1580. However, these expeditions got only as far as the Kara Sea north of Russia before they turned back. Willem Barents, a Dutch navigator, looked for the Northeast Passage during the 1590's. He sailed farther north than any other European had in a recorded voyage. Barents explored Spitsbergen and other islands in the Arctic Ocean.

Linking the globe. By 1600, the Spanish had explored Central and South America and parts of North America. Spain had established numerous colonies there. Spain tried to claim all of North America. But the French and English set up their own colonies and explored much of the continent themselves. Meanwhile, Russians moved east to explore Siberia and Alaska.

During the European Enlightenment, a historical period from the late 1600's to the late 1700's, the goals of exploration began to change. Expeditions of the 1500’s and 1600’s focused on trade, religious missions, and colonization. By the 1700’s and into the 1800’s, exploration focused increasingly on science. However, European rulers did not support scientific expeditions simply to increase knowledge. Science offered the promise of more accurate maps, the discovery of new and valuable resources, and international prestige. European explorers gradually filled in the outlines of the areas unknown to them. They mapped the Pacific Ocean, worked their way through the interiors of Australia and Africa, and reached the Arctic and Antarctic. Finally, in the 1900's, they raced to reach the North and South poles.

The French and English in North America. During the 1600's, the French and English founded colonies in Canada and the United States. The French and English, like the Spanish before them, unknowingly introduced smallpox and other new diseases into the areas. As before, many Indians died from these diseases. The French and English also traded with the Indians for furs, such as beaver and fox. Traders learned much about the land from the Indians, who acted as interpreters and guides.

Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer and geographer, charted the Atlantic coast. He mapped it from Cape Breton Island in Canada to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. In 1608, he founded the city of Quebec as a fur-trading post. Over the next eight years, he traveled extensively and explored the rivers and lakes of the region. In 1609, Champlain became the first European to reach Lake Champlain, the lake in New York, Vermont, and Quebec that now bears his name.

The French also explored the Mississippi River. In 1673, Louis Jolliet, a fur trader, and Jacques Marquette, a Roman Catholic priest, reached the river. Starting near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, they paddled canoes south to where the Mississippi meets the Arkansas River. In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, led an expedition down the Illinois River. He began near Peoria, Illinois, and traveled down the Mississippi to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire region drained by the Mississippi for France. He named it in honor of King Louis XIV. Colonists founded the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. By the end of 1670, English settlements existed in 12 of the 13 original colonies.

England also claimed much of eastern Canada. England based this claim in part on a voyage of the English navigator Henry Hudson. Hudson was looking for a Northwest Passage. In 1610, he sailed through a strait in northeastern Canada into a large body of water he thought was the Pacific Ocean. It was really the huge bay now known as Hudson Bay.

Crossing North America. During the 1700's, French and British explorers pushed westward across the northern parts of North America. They also discovered the northern limits of the continent.

In 1738 and 1739, the French-Canadian fur trader Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Vérendrye, and his sons explored Manitoba and North Dakota. In 1742 and 1743, two of the sons, Louis-Joseph and François, traveled as far as Montana and Wyoming. From 1770 to 1772, the British explorer Samuel Hearne explored the land north of Churchill, Manitoba. Hearne went as far north as the Coppermine River, which flows into the Arctic Ocean.

Alexander Mackenzie, an agent of a fur-trading company called the North West Company, further explored northern North America. In 1789, he traveled north from the western tip of Lake Athabasca in Alberta to the mouth of the river now named after him. In 1792 and 1793, he journeyed from Lake Athabasca across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

Two U.S. Army officers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, began an important expedition to the Pacific Northwest in 1804. In May of that year, they set out from St. Louis and traveled up the Missouri River. They spent the winter with Mandan Indians near Bismarck, North Dakota. There, they met Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who agreed to be their interpreter. The following spring, the expedition continued up the Missouri and crossed the Rockies. Once past the mountains, the explorers pushed to the Columbia River. They followed the river to the Pacific Ocean, reaching it in November 1805. Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis in 1806. They brought back valuable information about the land, plant and animal life, and peoples they encountered on their journey.

Although their expedition was successful, it had little impact on Americans back home. Lewis and Clark’s journals remained unpublished for many years, and the materials they collected became lost. Only in the 1900’s did Americans rediscover and begin to appreciate the importance of this expedition.

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Notes

Works Cited

Robinson, Michael F. "Exploration." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.