European Impact on Early America

1. European Impact on Early America Mr. Beward HIS 108

2. The Beginnings • Long before Columbus, America lived in the fantasies of Europe • The vast unknown beyond the sea played a major role in the mythology of ancient Greece • The west, toward the sunset, was supposedly an earthly paradise • Vision of America as a new Eden still colors the image of the American people • Norse discoveries of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are the earliest that can be verified • Erik the Red and Thorvald Eriksson sighted the coasts of Newfoundland about AD 1001

3. The Expansion of Europe • Age of discovery coincided with opening of the modern period in European history • Reasons for expansion • Revival of learning and rise of the inquiring spirit • Rise of trade, towns and the modern corporation • Decline of feudalism and the rise of national states • Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation • Old sins • Greed • Conquest • Exploitation • Oppression • Racism • Slavery

4. The Genesis of Exploration • Age of discovery influenced by ancient understanding of geography • 6th century BC—Pythagoreans taught earth as a sphere • 3rd century BC—Earth’s size computed nearly correctly • All of this accepted by Renaissance universities on the work of Aristotle • MYTH: Earth is flat • FACT: No informed person believed that the earth was flat

5. Navigation • Renaissance saw progress in the art of navigation • Mariners still used the astrolabe and cross-staff to sight stars and find latitude • Seeking across the open seas remained a matter of extreme reckoning • A ship’s master set course along a given latitude and used the angle of the North Star

6. Trade, Towns and Nation-States • Towns were center of growing trade that broadened horizons of feudal Europe • Moved either overland or through the eastern Mediterranean • Importing medicine, silks, precious stones, perfumes and rugs • Also purchased the spices—pepper, nutmeg and cloves—used to preserve food • Created a merchant class and corporations • Trade was both chancy and costly • Taxes and Muslims caused Europeans to look for all-water trade routes • Kings and queens began to sponsor voyages—currencies, trade laws and lack of trade barriers

7. The Voyagers • Prince Henry the Navigator leads the way • 1422—mapping the coast of Africa • 1446—reaching Cape Verde • 1460—reaching the equator • 1482—reaching the Congo River • 1488—Bartholomeo Diaz at the Cape of Good Hope • 1498—Vasco da Gama to India

8. Christopher Columbus • Came from the school of Portuguese seamanship • By the 1480s he became an experienced seaman • Hatched a scheme to reach the Indies by sailing west • Won the support of Spain’s Ferdinand and Isabella • Raised much of his own money for the voyage • 10-12-1492—lands in the Bahamas • Moves down the Bahamian Cays to Cuba to Haiti and the Dominican Republic • His discoveries caused the Treaty of Tortesillas between Spain and Portugal • Line west of the Cape Verde Islands with everything west of the line belonging to Spain

9. Columbus, Part 2 • 1493—a second voyage leads to violence, deaths and slavery for natives • Moved out along the Caribbean Sea, found the Lesser Antilles, explored Cuba and discovered Jamaica • 1498—Found Trinidad and explored the northern coast of South America • 1502—sailed the coast of Central America

10. Columbus’ Aftermath • He never thought he discovered anything beyond outlying parts of Asia • Knowledge that any land mass lay between Europe and Asia came slowly to the Europeans • America actually name for another Italian—Amerigo Vespucci • His voyages began in 1499—after Columbus • In 1507, a young geographer Martin Waldseemuller asserted that Vespucci found America before Columbus • As a result, there were recommendations to name the new fourth continent for Vespucci—hence America • Name of the continent was entrenched before anyone could question it and it became too late