E uropeans Explore the New World

The fact that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus is a popular misconception – the first explorers, who sailed to North America from Europe, were the Vikings or Norsemen.

In the late 900s, Eric the Red founded a settlement west from Greenland. In 1001, his son Leif Ericsson came to the shore of Newfoundland.

The Viking's sagas of Ericsson's trip describe a land in which Ericsson found grapes, wheat and trees. He called this place Vinland. But because of problems with the American Indians the Vikings sailed away from Vinland.

In 1963, the ruins of some Norse houses dating from that era were found at L'Anse-aux-Meadows in northern Newfoundland. In 1966, Leif Ericsson was officially declared by the US Congress to be the discoverer of the New World.

Next attempt to reach the New World was made by Europeans in the 15^th century.

At that time Europe began to recover from the centuries of decline – the cultural revival known as the Renaissance awoke European's intellectual curiosity and raised economic activity. The 15^Ih century also witnessed rapid political change in many European countries – due to conquest and marriage previously diffused countries got centralized political power. In England Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty, France was united by the successors of Charles VII, the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile promoted the creation of a strongly Catholic Spain.

The 15^lh century also brought significant technological changes – the printing press was invented to make information more accessible than ever before, the new navigational instruments were constructed to enable oceanic sailors to reach exotic places. For example, astrolabe allowed the sailors to estimate their position in the ocean by measuring the relations of the sun, moon, or stars to the horizon.

In 1477, the printed version of Marco Polo's "Travels" appeared and gained enormous popularity in Europe. In this book Polo described the 13^th century China and reported that this nation was bordered on the east by the ocean. This book made many Europeans believe that China could be reached via ocean and direct trade with India and China could increase the nation's wealth.

Thus the European explorations of the 15^th and 16^lh centuries were made possible by technological advances and the financial might of the new powerful European nations.

The first country to sponsor exploratory voyages was Portugal – the Portuguese were the first to establish trading posts in Geneva and in 1498, Vasco da Gamma finally reached India. The Portuguese earned immense profits by transporting African goods swiftly to Europe.

Spain was the next country to finance sea voyages. Queen Isabella, envious by Portuguese success, agreed to sponsor a voyage of Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sea Captain.

Columbus, like other experienced sailors of his time, believed the world to be round. He thought that Japan was only 3,000 miles from the southern European coast, so it would be easier to reach the East by sailing west.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus sailed west from the port of Palos in Spain with three ships under his command – the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria. On October 12, after a voyage of ten weeks he landed on an island in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador and claimed for the King and Queen of Spain. As Columbus was sure that he had reached India, he called the inhabitants of the region Indians and the islands of Carribeans – the West Indies. Later Columbus made three more voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, but by the end of his life in 1506, he believed that he had approached China and India from the west and died ignorant of the greatness of his own discovery.

Columbus, of course, never saw the mainland United States, but the first explorations of the continental United States were launched from the Spanish possessions that he helped to establish.

In 1499, the Spanish began to explore the land from the south.

Amerigo Vespucci, employed by Spain and later by Portugal, made a journey to a "New World" and wrote a widely popular account of his voyages, which was printed in 1504. Up to that time Europe, Asia and Africa were known as three parts of the world and it seemed clear that Amerigo Vespucci proved the existence of the fourth part. Some years later a German professor suggested calling the fourth part "America", after Amerigo Vespucci. According to his suggestion the name "America" was at first applied to Brazil, later to the South America and later still to the whole of the New World.

Task 2. Study the schemes and talk about causes of exploration and motives for it.