Download European Explorers - Effingham County Schools

European Explorers
The Founding of America
Early Exploration
• The first European to
set foot on North
America was Leif
Erickson, a Viking
Explorer, in the year
1000.
• In the 15th century,
the European Age of
Discovery began.
• Europeans believed
only Europe, Africa,
and Asia existed in
the world.
Silk Road
Age of Discovery
• Europeans were interested in trading with
the Far East, which included India, China,
and Japan.
• This area was also known as the Indies,
and it contained highly prized goods such
as silk, spices, teas, and gems.
• Muslim traders controlled the land and sea
routes by which these goods were
supplied to the west.
Age of Discovery
• The Age of Discovery began because
Europeans wanted their own trade routes
to the Indies. This started a race between
several European countries for better
trade routes to the Indies.
Christopher Columbus
• Italian-born explorer
• He believed the world was round, unlike many
other people during his lifetime.
• He received financial support from King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to
discover new trade routes to the Indies. He was
to conquer in the name of Spain.
• On October 12, 1492, after six weeks at sea, the
crews of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria
spotted land. They called the island San
Salvador.
Columbus’ First Voyage
America
• Columbus never knew he had discovered new
territories. He believed he had found a trade
route to the Indies.
• Amerigo Vespucci accompanied Columbus on
one of his voyages, he realized they were on
territories that Europeans had not yet
discovered.
• In 1507, a Swiss cartographer put the new land
on the map and called it “America” after
Vespucci.
Christopher Columbus and
Amerigo Vespucci
Line of Demarcation
• In 1493, Pope Alexander VI divided the rights to
the New World between Spain and Portugal.
• The Line of Demarcation was drawn north and
south between the two poles 400 miles west of
the Azores Islands.
• All lands to the east belong to Portugal, thereby
protecting trading routes around Africa. All lands
to the west belonged to Spain.
Line of Demarcation
Treaty of Tordesillas
• Portugal was not happy, believing that the
division was in favor of Spain. In 1494,
Spain and Portugal renegotiated the Line
of Demarcation and they signed the Treaty
of Tordesillas, moving the line 700 miles
further west.
Spain
• Spain came to the New World for God,
Gold, and Glory.
• God- They wanted to convert the natives
to Christianity.
• Gold- The explorers, the king, and queen
of Spain wanted to get rich off of the
explorations
• Glory-The explorers wanted to become
famous by conquering new lands for Spain
England
• The English explorers came to the New
World for mercantilism. They wanted to
make money for the “mother country” off of
the raw materials found in the Americas.
France
• France’s explorers’ reasons for coming the
New World was much like Spain’s
• French explorers were looking for fame
and glory; however, some came to look for
a new place to live or the colonize the New
World.
Europe
Hernando de Soto
• Hernando de Soto
was from Spain.
• He was the first
European to explore
the interior part of
Georgia in 1540.
• Many natives were
killed because of his
cruelty to them, and
they also died from
Hernando de Soto
• European diseases
that de Soto and his
men had and the
natives had no
immunity to them.
• De Soto kept records
of his exploration of
Georgia and this is its
first recorded history.
De Soto’s Exploration
The Impact of European Explorers
on Native Americas
• The European Explorers met the
Mississippian Indian Culture.
• The Europeans almost wiped this culture
out with diseases, that the natives did not
have immunity against, and with cruelty.
• The Spanish started many missions along
the barrier islands of Georgia. They used
this missions to try and convert the natives
to Christianity.
Spanish missions