Presentation. 6th grade. Geographic discoveries. The discovery of America

Geographic discoveries. The discovery of America

History of the first explorers

and the Discovery of America

The first explorers and the discovery and the subsequent colonization of America, the New World

The Discovery of America

The Discovery of America involves the voyages of discovery of many famous and courageous explorers of America who undertook the 3000 mile journey from Europe to North America across perilous,

unchartered seas.

These adventurous men were searching for:

New trade routes

New enterprises and riches

New lands to build an empire for their mother country

Many were looking to spread Christianity among

indigenous peoples

Refer to the French in America and the Spanish

in America

Discovery of America - The Naming and Origin of the Name

An important part in the history and Discovery of America was the facts behind the name. What was the origin of the name?

The name 'America' derives from the Latin version of the first name of the early explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.

But who was responsible for the naming of the New World?

The man responsible for naming the land, and the origin of the name, was a German called Martin Waldseemuller. Martin Waldseemuller was working on a world map, based on the work of Ptolemy. Martin Waldseemuller had read of the voyages of discovery made by Amerigo Vespucci and realised that the New World was two continents.

Martin Waldseemuller named the new continent

after Amerigo Vespucci.

Martin Waldseemuller printed a wood block map, called "Carta Mariana", with the name "America" spread across the southern continent of the New World.

Martin Waldseemuller printed and sold 1000 copies of the map across Europe. The name stuck, and when the second huge land mass of North America was discovered the names North and South America were applied to the two continents. In 1538 a world map was produced by Gerardus Mercator which was the first to include the names of North America and South America

on the two continents.

The Discovery of America –

The Geradus Mercator World Map

The Discovery of America –

Close-up view of Mercator's Map showing the names given

The discovery of America is an event

as a result of which for the inhabitants of the Old World (Europe) a new part of the world became known – America, consisting of two continents.

Christopher Columbus made four expeditions to the New World, which equipped the Spanish Catholic kings in the hope of opening a shorter western route to trade with India.

Expedition 1

The first expedition of Christopher Columbus (1492–1493) consisting of 91 people aboard the ships “ Santa Maria ”, “ Pinta ”, “ Nina ” left the Polos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, turned from the Canary Islands West (September 9) crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the subtropical zone and reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas archipelago, where Christopher Columbus landed on October 12, 1492 (the official discovery of America). October 14-24, Christopher Columbus visited a number of other Bahamas, and on October 28-December 5, he discovered and explored a portion of the northeast coast of Cuba. December 6, Columbus reached Haiti and moved along the north shore. On the night of December 25, the flagship “Santa Maria” sat on the reef, but people escaped. Columbus aboard the ship “Nina” on January 4-16, 1493 completed the survey of the northern coast of Haiti and returned to Castile on March 15.

Expedition 2

The 2nd Expedition (1493–1496), which Christopher Columbus headed already in the rank of admiral and vice-king of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 vessels with a crew of over 1.5 thousand people. On November 3, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominic and Guadeloupe, turning to the North-West – about 20 more Minor Antilles, including Antigua and the Virgin Islands, and on November 19th – the island of Puerto Rico and approached the northern coast of Haiti. March 12-29, 1494 Columbus, in search of gold, made an aggressive campaign into Haiti, and crossed the Cordillera-Central ridge. From April 29 to May 3, Columbus with 3 ships passed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, turned from Cape Cruz to the South and on May 5 reached Jamaica. Returning to Cape Cruz on May 15, Columbus walked along the southern coast of Cuba to 84 ° west longitude, found the Jardines de la Reina archipelago, the Zapata peninsula and the island of Pinos. On June 24, Christopher Columbus turned east and surveyed August 19-September 15 the entire southern coast of Haiti. In 1495, Christopher Columbus continued the conquest of Haiti; March 10, 1496 left the island and on June 11 he returned to Castile.

Expedition 3

The 3rd Expedition (1498-1500) consisted of 6 ships, 3 of which Christopher Columbus himself led across the Atlantic Ocean at about 10 ° north latitude. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, discovered the mouth of the western arm of the Orinoco delta and the Paria peninsula, initiating the discovery of South America. Coming then to the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered the island of Margarita on August 15 and arrived in the city of Santo Domingo (on the island of Haiti) on August 31.

In 1500, Christopher Columbus was allegedly arrested and sent to Castile, where he was released.

Expedition 4

Expedition 4 (1502-1504). Having obtained permission to continue the search for the western route to India, Columbus, with 4 ships, reached Martinique on June 15, 1502, on July 30, Honduran Bay and opened the Caribbean shores of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama from August 1, 1502 to May 1, to Urab. Turning then to the North, June 25, 1503 crashed near the island of Jamaica; help from Santo Domingo came only a year later. Christopher Columbus returned to Castile on November 7, 1504.

Disaster From a Hurricane

Columbus sailed again from Cadiz in May 1503, with four vessels and reached an island, probably St. Lucia, in June. Although he had been ordered not to touch at San Domingo, he was compelled to do so because of the condition of one vessel. Ovando, who had been sent to supersede Bobadilla, ordered him off. Columbus obeyed, but not before he had sent a warning to Ovando advising him to detain the Spanish fleet in harbour because a storm was approaching. Ovando ignored the warning, and more than twenty of his thirty-two vessels were wrecked by a hurricane. Columbus rode out the hurricane with the loss of only one man.

The great sailor discovered Honduras and cruised along the isthmus of Panama.

The ships became riddled with  teredo worms , and at last Columbus was obliged to run his two remaining ships on a beach in Jamaica to prevent them from sinking. The sailors lived in huts on the beached ships’ decks while news of their plight was sent to Ovando.

At last help was sent to Columbus from San Domingo. He was a sick man when he reached Seville in November 1504, to find that his friend the Queen was dead.

Columbus was unable to get to court until the following May, and found that the King was indefinite about the restitution of his rights. A doomed man, Columbus survived until May 20, 1506, when he died at Valladolid in Northern Spain. Columbus never realized that he had not sailed in Asiatic waters. He died in the knowledge that he had achieved a remarkable feat of navigation and that he had opened up rich new lands for the profit of his patrons. Not for many years could the value of his discoveries be fully appreciated. The greatest and most determined of all pioneers, Christopher Columbus did more than any other man can ever hope now to do –

he discovered a new continent.

COLUMBUS LEAVING THE OLD WORLD on the famous voyage which discovered the New. This illustration is an impression by the artist Balaca of the scene at La Rabida as the expedition embarked. La Rabida is a short distance downstream from the port of Palos at the mouth of the River Tinto on the southeastern coast of Spain, from which the expedition set out for the unknown

The European pioneers of America can be considered:

The first people who settled in America are Native Indians who crossed there about 30 thousand years ago from Asia along the Bering Land.

In the 10th century, around 1000, the Vikings led by Leif Eriksson. L’Ans-o-Meadows has remnants of a Viking settlement on the continent.

In 1492 – Christopher Columbus ( Genoese in the service of Spain ); Columbus himself believed that he had opened the way to Asia (hence the names West Indies, Indians )

In 1507, the cartographer M. Waldzemüller proposed that the open lands be called America in honor of New World researcher Amerigo Vespucci – this is considered the moment from which America was recognized as an independent continent.

There are reasonable grounds to believe that the continent was named after the English patron of arts Richard Amerike from Bristol, who financed the second transatlantic expedition of John Cabot in 1497,

and Vespucci took for himself the nickname of the continent already called. In May 1497, Cabot reached the shores of Labrador, becoming the first officially registered European to set foot on the North American continent. Cabot made a map of the coast of North America – from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. In the Bristol calendar for that year we read: “… on the day of St.. John the Baptist [June 24] found the land of America by merchants from Bristol, who arrived on a ship from Bristol with the name “Matthew” (“metik”) “.

The Colonial Period (I)

The discovery of America took place in an age when the medieval dogmatic system of thought was giving way to a more liberal spirit of philosophical speculations and to the growth of a rich middle class.

The British settled the eastern part of North America in the 1600s. In 1606 a group of London merchants formed a joint stock company known as the Virginia Company of London. They asked King James I of England to allow them to plant a colony in Virginia. The King gave them a charter for a settlement in the new world. So Virginia  joint-stock company  sent promoters there to find gold. The first English colony – Virginia – was established in Jamestown in 1607. Those were hard times for settlers. But by April 1608 only 53 of 197 Englishmen who landed in Virginia survived. The rest died either in Amerindians attacks, or of diseases,

but most people died of starvation (stories reached England about settlers who were so desperate for food that they dug up and ate the body of an Amerindian they had killed during the attack.) Yet new settlers continued to arrive. The Virginia Company gathered homeless children from the streets of London and  convicts  from London’s prisons and sent them out to the colony. Such emigrants were often unwilling to go. But for some English people Virginia had one great attraction – plentiful land, and a poor man could hope for a farm of his own to feed his family.

Military governors ran the colony like a prison camp. But it was not discipline but tobacco that saved Virginia. The possibility of becoming rich by growing tobacco brought wealthy men to the colony. They used the so called “ indentured servants ” on their plantations. These workers promised to work for an employer about seven years for food and clothes. At the end – if they were still alive – they became free and got a small piece of land to work for themselves.

In 1619 there was an important change in the life of settlers.

The Virginia Company allowed a body called the  House of Burgesses  to be set up. In it the representatives from the various small settlements met to advise the governor on the laws the colony needed. Few of them were realized, but the Virginia House of Burgesses was the start of an important tradition in American life – that people should have a say in decisions about matters that concern them.

In the same year the first black Africans were brought to America to work in the tobacco fields. Unlike the white servants their indenture was for life –

in fact, they were slaves.

By 1624 when the Virginia Company ran out of money the English government made itself responsible for the Virginia colonists. The hardships toughened the survivors. The first society of English people overseas had put down living roots into the American soil.

One more important group of settlers arrived in 1620 in Massachusetts – they are known as  the Pilgrim Fathers .

The Pilgrim Fathers

The Protestant Reformation, as you know, began in 1517 and reached England some twenty years later.

A lot of  dissenting  minorities appeared who were more ascetic in the practice of their new faith than the Church of England. Of these, the plain-living Puritans were the most  overt  and became the most oppressed. They experienced discrimination in England. In 1609 in search of religious freedom, 35 Puritans left the country for Holland. But after ten years, concerned with losing their cultural identity, the Puritans began to seek a better place to live. For this they looked to America where the first successful English colony – at Jamestown, Virginia – had been established in 1607.

In the summer of 1620 the  Puritans  and another 66 settlers sailed to North America in a small-sized ship named the  Mayflower. It  was hardly ideal for ocean sailing. The ship was overcrowded that is why the infectious disease carried off several of the passengers. Besides, the voyage itself had seen tensions build up between the Puritan minority and the non-Puritans who made up three-quarters of the settlers. Eventually on December 25 th  the “Mayflower”  fetched up  at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in Native Americans’ territory. Later the second successful English colony was founded at Plymouth.

December was a bad time to start a settlement and the colonists faced a lengthy series of challenges, from diseases, famine and internal conflicts to sabotage and uncertain relations with the indigenous people. Several colonists made it clear that they would not be bound by any of the Old World’s rules or any rules at all. Fortunately, 41 of the settlers had a greater sense of discipline and responsibility. They drafted the  Mayflower Compact  which laid down the basis of government and ensured rights for all the settlers. There were three strong personalities among the Pilgrims who saw to it that the Compact was observed – John Carver, the 1 st  governor of the colony, Yorkshire-born William Bradford who became second governor and remained at this post for 35 years, and Lancashire-born Myles Standish chosen as military captain for the new colony – his quick, determined action saved the colonists

when they were attacked

by the local natives.

But happily, there were friendlier Native Americans who helped those Pilgrim Fathers who survived the harsh winter. They showed them how to sow maize and how to raise crops as the seeds brought from England were of little use in their new environment. The natives acted as guides through the forests and taught the colonists woodcraft, trapping, hunting, how to make maple sugar, moccasins and birch-bark canoes. They also introduced the colonists to the turkey, which was native to North America. But for these Indians, the Pilgrims might never have survived. The survivors showed they had learned the lessons well. In the autumn of 1621, the settlers produced their first successful harvest and in gratitude, celebrated their first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the United States in 1863, and has been observed on the fourth Tuesday in November ever since, with the turkey as a  centrepiece  of the festivities.

By 1622 the Pilgrim Fathers had built a fort to protect themselves.

It also served as a meeting place to discuss issues of government within the new colony. Over the next few years, as life for Puritans became more uncomfortable in England, more and more made the journey across the Atlantic.

By 1630, their numbers were such that the Puritans were able to establish the  Massachusetts Bay Company  and the town of Boston, which was to grow as a major port.

In the end the Puritans founded many colonies that thrived and their success depended on fishing, shipbuilding, trade and farming. But it was the establishment of the first two successful English settlements – in Jamestown, Virginia (1607) and at Plymouth in 1620 – that has become a central theme of the United States history and culture.