Exploration

1. Exploration

2. Spain: Francisco Pizarro • Conquest of the Inca’s • Pizarro led the Spanish against large Incan Armies and defeated them. • He captured the Incan Capital of Cusco.

3. Spain: Juan Ponce de Leon • Explored the Florida and is responsible for naming it as such. • He believed in the legend of the Fountain of Youth. • Some argue he wasn’t looking for it and the legend was attached to him after his death. • Some say he was searching for the waters to cure his ailments. • The legend was known in Europe for many years. • He stated that he was informed by an older Indian woman.

4. Spain: Hernando de Soto • Explored the southeastern United States and reached the Mississippi. • He was searching for gold and a route to China.

5. Portugal: Ferdinand Magellan • Organized the first expedition which successfully travelled around the world. • He only made it to the Philippines as he was killed in a battle against the natives.

6. Portugal: Pedro Cabral • Explored the northeast coast of South America. • He is credited with the discovery of Brazil.

7. France: Jaques (Pere) Marquette • Followed Lake Michigan to Green Bay down the Fox River and portaged to the Wisconsin River and would reach the Mississippi River.

8. France: Samuel de Champlain • Explored in Canada • Founded Quebec • Explored the Great Lakes • Governor of New France

9. France: Jaques Cartier • First to Explore Canada and named it as such. • Explored the Gulf of St Lawrence. • Looking for the markets of Asia.

10. England: Sir Francis Drake • Circumvented the World • Went to the West Indies, Panama, and Peru. • Made it around South America to California and the Pacific Ocean.

11. England Sir Walter Raleigh • Sailed to South America looking for a city of gold. • Explored North Carolina and Virginia (Failed Roanoke Colony)

12. England: John Cabot • First European since the Vikings to visit North America.

13. England: Henry Hudson • Explored the Hudson River and Hudson Bay

15. England’s first attempt to settle North America came a year prior to its victory over Spain, in 1587, when Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored a settlement on Roanoke Island (now part of North Carolina). • By 1590, the colony had disappeared, which is why it came to be known as the Lost Colony

16. The English tried again to establish a colony in 1606. They called it Jamestown. • Jamestown was funded by a joint-stock company • Joint-stock company = A group of investors who bought the right to establish New World plantations from King James I. • The company was called the Virginia Company, from which the area around Jamestown took its name.

18. The settlers, many of them English gentlemen, were ill-suited to the many adjustments life in the New World required of them • The colony only survived because Captain John Smith imposed harsh martial law. • His motto was, “He who will not work shall not eat.” • Things got so bad for the colonists that during the starving time (1609 and 1610), some resorted to cannibalism, while others abandoned the settlement to join Indian tribes

19. The colony would have perished without the help of a group of local tribes called the Powhatan Confederacy, who taught the English what crops to plant and how to plant them. • In 1614, Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief, married planter John Rolfe, which helped ease tension between the natives and the settlers.

20. Images of Pocahontas

21. Jamestown’s prospects brightened considerably once John Rolfe introduced the cash crop of tobacco in 1611, which local Indians had been growing for years. • Tobacco was a huge success in England, and its success largely determined the fate of the Virginia region. • Because the crop requires vast acreage and depletes the soil (and so requires farmers to constantly seek new fields), the prominent role of tobacco in Virginia’s economy resulted in rapid expansion.

22. As new settlements sprang up around Jamestown, the entire area came to be known as the Chesapeake (named after the bay). That area today is comprised mostly of Virginia and Maryland.

23. The Powhatan hoped that alliance with the English settlers would give them an advantage over enemy tribes. • The English forgot their debt to the Powhatan as soon as they needed more land to grow tobacco. • After numerous conflicts, the Powhatan Confederacy was eventually destroyed by English “Indian fighters” in 1644.

24. Many who migrated to the Chesapeake did so for financial reasons. • Overpopulation in England had led to widespread famine, disease, and poverty. • Chances for improving one’s lot were minimal. • Thus, many were attracted to the New World by the opportunity provided by indentured servitude. • In return for free passage, indentured servants promised 4-7 years’ labor, after which they received their freedom.

25. Indentured Servants Indentured servants became the first means to meet this need for labor. In return for free passage to Virginia, a laborer worked for 4-7 years in the fields before being granted freedom. The Crown rewarded planters with 50 acres of land for every inhabitant they brought to the New World.

26. Throughout much of the 17th century, indentured servants might also receive a small piece of property with their freedom. • Indenture was extremely difficult, and nearly half of all indentured servants – most of whom were young, reasonably healthy men – did not survive their period of servitude. • Still, it was popular. More than 75% of the 130,000 Englishmen who migrated to the Chesapeake during the 17th century were indentured servants

27. Population of Chesapeake Colonies: 1610-1750 Naturally, the colony began to expand. This expansion was soon challenged by the Native Americans (particularly the Powhatan)

28. American democracy got an early start in the Chesapeake. • In 1619, Virginia established the House of Burgesses, in which any property-holding, white male could vote. • That year also marked the beginning of slavery in the colonies.