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The Europeans 4 Come to North America en squinted as he went below deck. He was touring the replica of a 17th- Bcentury sailing ship, and he was having a hard time seeing in the dim light. When his eyes adjusted to the lighting, he noticed how short the sleeping bunks were. My head would be touching my sailing mate’s feet, he thought. As he looked around, he did not see where a sailor could find any space away from the other sailors on the ship. Ben also realized there was no running water on board. It was one thing to spend a summer weekend camping on an island with no showers and no toilets. It was quite another to spend weeks, and maybe even months, at sea with no showers and toilets. He tried to imagine what it would have been like to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in this ship 400 years ago, without a sure destination. He felt the huge waves rolling Figure 4.1 Countries such as Spain, Portugal, England, France, the vessel back and forth, day after day. He and the Netherlands had sailing ships similar to the one imagined the crew trapped in the Arctic pictured here. For many European adventurers, the 16th ice while looking for a Northwest Passage. and 17th centuries were exciting times of exploration to unfamiliar lands. He saw the hold at the beginning of the expedition – full of supplies and goods for crew members suffered from scurvy. Their trading, but also crawling with mice and rats. teeth fell out and their joints ached. Many He imagined how awful living conditions died. Perhaps several weeks on a small ship were near the end of a voyage, long after in the middle of the ocean would not be as all the fresh fruits and vegetables were much fun as Ben first thought. eaten. Without enough vitamin C, most 52 People and Stories of Canada to 1867 • Chapter 4 A Mi’kmaq story The Mi’kmaq warriors took up their weapons and A young Mi’kmaq woman had a strange dream. prepared to kill what they thought were bears on In it, she saw a small white island moving through the moving island. They were surprised when they the great waters. On this floating island were realized that the bears were actually white-faced trees and living beings. One figure, a male, stood men, and the island was a large boat. One man, apart from the others. He was dressed in white dressed in white, stood apart from the others and rabbit skins and had hair on his face. made signs of friendship. The next morning she told her dream to one When the boat landed, the Elder brought the young of her Elders, who was unable to woman to the man in white. The Elder asked her if interpret its meaning. Not this was the man in her dream. “Yes,” she replied. long afterward, the woman saw what looked like a small island moving through the water toward her village. Figure 4.2 For thousands of years, peoples of As you read, think about different backgrounds have worked, fought, and traded with each other. In this chapter, • what made the Renaissance so you will investigate some of the earliest important to the people of Europe meetings between the Aboriginal peoples and the history of the world of North America and the Europeans who • why Europeans were so keen explored and claimed these lands as their on finding another route to Asia own. You will also find out why Europeans • how it became possible for Europeans to sail far beyond Europe and the wanted to expand their empires, why this Middle East was a good time for them to expand, and why Europeans came to North America. The Europeans Come to North America 53 The Norse in North America Who is who? Viking, Norse, Scandinavian: These terms are As early as 800 CE, the Norse were on the different ways of describing people from northern move. Overcrowding and political unrest Europe. Their raids on the rest of Europe earned in Scandinavia led some people to search them the name Viking, which is based on a for new lands. Others were sent away as Norwegian word for “pirate.” However, many Vikings were farmers, not pirates. punishment for crimes they had committed. In around 870, some of these emigrants landed in Iceland where they built a colony. about years earlier from a merchant named They were a hardy and independent people. Bjarni Herjolfsson. He landed at a place he called Helluland (meaning “land of the flat Eric the Red stones”), believed to be Baffin Island. He Around 982, a man named Eric the Red also explored present-day Newfound land was exiled to Iceland for a crime he had and Labrador. He named the most fertile of committed in his homeland. Soon, he was these stopping points “Vinland.” Leif took in trouble with the law again, and took to a shipment of lumber back to Green land, the seas, looking for a place to build a new made his fortune, and settlement. He landed in a place he named never returned. Greenland, even though it was treeless, cold, and wintry. He thought that more people would come to live there if the land sounded like it was a warm and fertile place. Soon Eric the Red (so named because of his red hair and beard) was joined by more than 300 new settlers from Iceland. The settlement on Greenland would survive for nearly 500 years. From Greenland came the Norse settlers who would explore North America. Leif the Lucky Leif Ericsson (son of Eric the Red) set sail from Greenland. He was searching for a tree-covered island he had heard Figure 4.3 Little is known of the Norse ships that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean a thousand years ago. Most hist orians believe Leif Ericsson and others travelled in a one-masted ship called a knarr. Knarrs were about 16–17 metres long and 4–5 metres wide. 54 People and Stories of Canada to 1867 • Chapter 4 Figure 4.4 viKiNg ExplorAtions. vikings explored North America around 1000 CE. Thorvald the Luckless They also found out that the land was Thorvald, Leif’s brother, did return to already inhabited. In the first recorded Vinland, however. Thorvald arrived with encounter with Aboriginal peoples of supplies and 30 men who were determined Labrador, the Norse stumbled across nine to build a colony there. They were men sleeping under boats. They killed eight impressed with the pastures, the trees, of them, but one escaped and returned with the fish, and the wild fruit. others to fight the intruders. Thorvald was wounded and died as a result of this skirmish. The Sagas Those who survived returned to Greenland. Much of what we know about Norse exploration and settlement comes from the Sagas. These are The Vinland settlement stories that were passed on from generation to In about 1012, a group of approximately generation. At first, the stories were told orally. 160 Greenlanders sailed to Vinland to Later, the stories were written down. For many years, no one knew if the stories were true. establish a permanent colony there. However, archaeologists have found things that Although they traded with Aboriginal can be read about in the Sagas. Some of the Sagas peoples, the two groups sometimes fought are actually fun to read. In one, we learn that Leif’s mother-in-law was named “Thorbjorg the ship- and even killed each other. After a while, chested.” We also find out that Leif’s father and the Norse decided to leave Vinland and grandfather spent time in exile for murder. return to their homeland. The Europeans Come to North America 55 L’Anse aux Meadows For a long time, scholars believed that the Norse had built a settlement in the place we now call Newfoundland. Many other people, however, thought this was just a story. Then, in 1960, archaeologists uncovered an ancient Norse settlement in Newfoundland. This settlement is called L’Anse aux Meadows. It proved, for the first time, that Vikings had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in North America around 1000 ce, 500 years before any other Europeans would try. Is L’Anse aux Meadows the land that Leif named Vinland? No one knows for sure, although there Figure 4.5 Artifacts such as these brooches and cloak are several theories. pin have allowed historians to identify where the Norse explorers landed in the New World. Theory 1: The vin in Vinland refers to wine, or grapes. Since no one has ever grown grapes as as crowberries, partridgeberries, and blueberries, far north as Newfoundland and Labrador, Vinland would make good wine. must be located in a yet-to-be-discovered place Theory 4: Like father, like son? Greenland was farther south. named by Leif Ericsson’s father, Eric the Red, even Theory 2: L’Anse aux Meadows is Vinland. though it was treeless, cold, and wintry. He thought Vin refers to pastures, of which New- that more people would come to live there if the foundland and Labrador have plenty. land sounded like it was a warm and fertile place. Theory 3: Vin does refer to wine, Perhaps Leif Ericsson named L’Anse aux Meadows or grapes. The Norse thought “Vinland” because he thought people would settle the wild berries growing in there if they believed the place was warm enough abundance in the area, such to grow grapes. Figure 4.6 Today, the historic site of L’Anse aux Meadows features buildings reconstructed to look like those from 1000 CE.