Exploration

The Vikings were bold seafaring people from Scandanavia. Between 700 and 1000, their population grew steadily and food was scarce. This caused the Vikings to turn their long boats west in search of new lands. In the mid-800s, they settled in Iceland.

From there, the Vikings pushed even farther west. In 982, a red-haired, great bearded explorer named Eric the Red sailed to an island he called Greenland. Actually Greenland had more ice and harsher climate than Iceland, but Eric hoped the pleasant-sounding name of Greenland would attract farmers.

In 1001, Eric's son, Lief Ericsson set sail to investigate reports of yet another new land. Lief's crew sailed west and south. In time, they came to a place where wheat and grapes grew wild. Lief named it Vinland or Wineland.

Viking sagas, or stories of brave deeds, described Vinland as a mild plentiful land. According to sagas, Lief returned to Greenland, but one of his friends, Thorfinn Karlsefni (KAHRL sehf ne), decided to build a settlement in Vinland. He took a group of about 150 settlers with him.

For many years, historians wondered whether the Viking sagas were true. Then, in the 1960s, archaeologists discovered the remains of a Viking site in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows site in New Foundland. It proved that the Vikings were the first Europeans to settle in North America.

The Vikings left North America around 1013. No one is sure why they left, but sagas tell of fierce battles with the Skraelings, the Viking name for Eskimos. The next European voyage to the Americas did not take place until 1492.

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MARCO POLO(By Kyle Crowe)
Marco Polo was born in 1254 in Venice and was an Italian traveler and explorer. He was the first European to cross the entire continent of Asia and leave a record of what he saw and heard.

His father, Nicolo Polo, was a merchant. Marco's mother died when he was 15 years old. Marco Polo's father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were members of the Venetian Republics merchant aristocracy. In 1260 the two brothers left their families, including the six year old Marco, and embarked on the first great Oriental trading expedition of the Polos. From Constantinople they sailed across the Black Sea to the Crimea. Marco Polo served as a government official while over there. His father and uncle served as military advisers to Kublai Khan. Having passed nine years in the Orient, the returning travelers arrived there in 1269.

Two years later, he made a second journey. The route led from modern day Akka, Israel, to the Persian Gulf, northward through Iran to present-day Amu-Darya, up the Oxus the Pamir to present day Xinjiang Uggur Autonamous Region, and finally across the Gabi Desert. Marco Polo was 21 years old when the Venetian travelers finally arrived in 1275 at the summer palace of the most powerful emperor the world had ever known. The Great Khan received them with marks of special favor and enrolled Marco among his attendants of honor. Finding him a wise and trusted official, the emperor entrusted him with important governmental affairs during the 17 years he remained in the imperial service. For three years he was governor of the great city of Yangchow.

The Polo's left China in 1292, they had left with a Mongol Princess as escorts traveling to Iran by sea and land was difficult, two of the three Persian nobles died on the route to Iran. Eventually the princess was safely delivered, not to Arghom, because he died, but to his son and successor. During their journey Kublai Khan had died. They went along the east coast of the Black Sea, and past Costaninople. They returned to Venice in 1295 after being gone for 24 years.

In 1298, Marco Polo served as a captain of a Venetian galley participating in a battle between the fleets of Venice and Genoa. He was defeated and taken prisoner by the Genoese. While he was in jail he sent for his travel notebooks and dictated them to a fellow prisoner, a scribe named Rustigielo of Pisa, the work of what he saw and heard while he traveled. Marco Polo died in 1324. He was 70 years old. When he died he said, "I didn't tell all I saw, because no one would have believed me."

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CRUSADES(By Alvin Davis)
What Was It?

The crusades where a series of religious expeditions from western Europe to the east in the 12th and 13th centuries that aimed to free the holy places in Palestine from Muslim control there and establish and maintain Christian rule there.

How Many?

There were eight or nine crusades the number is uncertain.

Background

The first crusade resulted in the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 the crusade was led by Louis IX of France he died fighting the Muslims near the city of Tunis in 1270.

How Did They Start?

They arose out of a feudal clerical society of 11th century Europe which was geared to war witch the church had been struggling to impose peace on a quarreling baronage.A great religious revival, emanating mainly from the Burgundian abbey of Cluny, was sweeping over Latin Christendom.

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FERDINAND MAGELLAN(By Nakia Moreno & Adriana Sanchez)
The first circumnavigation of the globe was lead by Ferdinand Magellan. He was born in the spring of 1480 to a family of lower nobility. Educated in the Portuguese court, Magellan believed he could get into the Spice Islands by sailing west. He knew he would have to sail around or through the new world to do so. Magellan though the world was much smaller than it actually is. Snubbed by the Portuguese King, Magellan easily convinced the teenage Spanish King (Chalres I), to back his expedition financially.

When Magellan set the bows of his five small vessels toward the west, they were equipped to combat every misfortune that human foresight could envision. The captain general who led the fleet from San Lucar was a man of contradictions: despite his burning ambition and burning blood, he was in middle age; a failure. A battle scarred veteran of numerous campaigns for his native Portugal, he undertook his greatest voyage in the name of Spain. A roughened porvicial, whose manners sparked the ridicule of the sophisticates fo the Portuguese court, Magellan nonetheless inspired the confidence of the greatest cartographers of his age. Magellan quickly convinced a young, ambitious Spanish king that he alone held the key to a world wide empire. Magellan's conquest of unknown oceans was the crowning achievement in the age of discovery.

Ferdinand Magellan led his fleet through a heroic yet torturous drama that included two mutinies, the desertion of his supply ship, and a 9,000 mile pacific crossing that saw his crews dying daily, and the living surviving by eating rats and boiled leather. In the Phillippines, with the vast unknown behind him and his goal in reach, the captain general faced the grim certainty that his route to the Spice Islands would never work. A man of cool calculation, he precipitated his own end with an irrational act born of desperation and religious fervor. Although Ferdinand did not live to complete his voyage, he will always be remembered for it. Through mutiny, famine, hurricanes, faulty charts, hostile natives, inevitable deterioration of men and ships, the three year voyage was completed by 18 of the original 265 men. Magellan fell upon a distant island, but will always be credited with the first circumnavigation of the world.

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BARTOLOMEU DIAS (By David Medina)
Bartolomeu Dias died at sea, May 29 1500. His goal was to open a sea route from Europe to India, however, he first had to find the southern tip of Africa.

Dias was a cavalier of the royal court, superintendant of the royal warehouse and sailing-master of the man-of-war "Sanchristova", when King John II appointed him as head of an expedition, on October 10, 1486. This expedition was to sail around the southern tip of Africa. Its chief purpose was to find the country of the Christian African King Known as Peter John, with whom the Portuguese wished to enter friendly relations.

After ten months of preparing, Dias left Lisbon the letter part of July 1487 with two sailing ships and a supply ship. The supply ship was commanded by Dias' brother Pedro Dias. There were also 6 slaves on board, four of whom were black. The slaves were to be sent to shore at suitable spots to explain to the natives the purpose of the expidition.

Dias sailed first towards the mouth of the Congo, discovered the year before by Cao and Behaim. Then Dias followed the African coast, entereing Walfisch Bay and probably erected the first of his stone columns near present Angra Pequena. From Port Nolloth, he lost sight of the coast and was driven, by a strong storm which lasted 13 days, far beyond the cape to the south. After thirteen days they turned north and landed in the Mossel lgoa Bay, which Dias named after the commander of the accompanying vessel, Rio Infants. It was only on his return voyage that he discovered the cape, to which, according to Barros, Dias named Cabo Tormentoso. King John, in view of the success of the expedition, is said to have proposed the name it has had ever since, Cape of Hope. In December 1488, Dias returned to Lisbon and proposed the name after an absence of sixteen months and seventeen days. He had shown the way to Vasco da Gama who in 1497 he accompanied, but in a subordinate position, as far as the Cape Verde Island.

In 1500, Dias commanded a ship in the expedition of Cabral; his vessel however, was one of those wrecked and sunk . This is how Dias died, on May 29, 1500 not far from the Cape of Good Hope.

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VASCO NUNEZde BALBOA (By Chris Acosta)
Born in Jerez de los Caballeros (1475-1519)
Balboa was a member of the trading expedition organized by the Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas. Balboa set sail for the New World in 1500 as part of this expedition to the north coast of Columbia. In 1513, Balboa led an expedition west and on September 25th sighted the Pacific Ocean. He had discovered the Pacific Ocean and named it "The South Sea."

Vaco Nunez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer who ventured to the Americas. He was a son of a poor noble man. Balboa settled on an island of Hispaniola, now known as Santo Domingo. Balboa was unsuccessful as a farmer. To escape from his creditors, Balboa hid away in a ship of the expedition commanded by Martin Fernandez de Encisco, going to the mainland. Here he found the colony of Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. Balboa was more successful as a conquistador than he was as a farmer. Balboa's efforts to settle in Panama led to the first crossing of the American continent. Balboa, now a Spanish conquistador, went along with other conquistadors like: Hernando Cortes, who defeated the Aztecs; Francisco Pizarro, who sacked the Inca Kingdom; Hernando DeSoto, who discovered the Mississippi River; and Francisco Vasquez de Cornado, who discovered the western United States. During this time these people often ravaged the Indian population and the lands of the Americas. They were fierce and ruthless fighters. King Ferdinand II of Aragon appointed Predrarias as Governor of the Pacific Coast of Panama. Balboa found a settlement in Acla. Afterward, Balboa led several important expeditions. Balboa was a brave and solid man during the 16th century with enriching explorations in the United States and around the Americas. After all these historic happenings Balboa was beheaded in Acla of false charges of treason. I believe all explorers deserve credit and respect for where we are right now.

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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (By Leo Flores & Silver Trevino)
Columbus, an Italian-Spanish navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean searching for a quicker route to Asia but he was made famous for making landfall, instead of the Caribbean Sea. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. He entered the trade of his father, a weaver, as a young man.

When he first became interested in sailing and navigating is unknown he may have started off as a commercial agent in his youth. His first trading voyage was in the mid 1470's to Kihios, in the Aegean Sea. In 1476 he had joined a convoy bound for England where it is said that it was attacked by pirates. Columbus's ship was sunk but he swam to a shore from a country called Lisbon where he lived with his brother and worked as a cartographer. He married the governor's daughter from the islands of Port Samto. They had a son named Diego, an only child born in 1480.

Columbus came up with the theory by studying many maps and charts that the earth was 25% smaller than originally thought and made up mostly of land. He figured that it would be quicker to travel west to reach Asia. Portugal refused giving him funding to make the trip so he moved to Spain where at first they were optimistic but his perseverance finally paid off the Spanish King granted his requests and funding. While Columbus was in England, now divorced, he found a new mistress, Beatriz Enriquez which became the mother of his second son, Ferdinan.

Columbus's upcoming expedition consisted of the Santa Maria a decked ship about 30 meters long under his command. Also the Nina and the Pinta, two small ships each about 15 meters long, which were commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon and his brother Vicente Yanez Pinzon the fleet sailed from Palos de la Frontera. The fleet sailed from Palos de la Frontera, Spain on Auust 3, 1492 carrying perhaps 90 men. Three days out the mast of the Pinta was damaged, forcing a brief stop at the Canary Islands. On Sept. 6 the three vessels again weighed anchor and sailed due west. Columbus maintained this course until the three vessels again weighed anchor and sailed due west Columbus maintained this course until October 7, when, at the suggestion of Martin Pinzon, it was altered too southwest. Meanwhile, the experienced crews grumbled about their foreign commander's failure to find his way until signs appeared that they were approaching landfall.

Before dawn on October 12 expedition landed on Guanahani, a Bahama island the islanders were different and uncomprehending. Before them he claimed that by right of conquest their island now belonged to Spain. Columbus renamed it San Salvador or Holy Savior, in the next few weeks other landing were documented including Cuba which was renamed after the Spanish princess Juana and Espanola later corrupted to Hispaniola now the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And the whole time Columbus thought he was in Asian waters.

The Santa Maria was wrecked off the cost of Espanola, a fort was built from salvaged materials and garrisoned with fewer than 40 men. The Nina and Pinta continued homeward in January 1493. After many storms, Columbus finally reached Palos de la Frontera, Spain. He was met by monarchs who confirmed the honors guaranteed by his contract, on honor included the noble title.

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HERNANDO CORTES (By Andy Flores & Raul Garza)

Hernando Cortes accomplished many things throughout hiis life. He was born in 1485 and died in 1547. Hernando Cortes was born in Spain's Extremadura province. In 1499, he entered the University of Salmanca. At the age of 19, Cortes first sailed for the new world. In the year of 1511, Cortes arrived and settled on the island of Cuba as a secretary to Diego Velaquez and later became a rancher. In 1518, Cortes was named captain of the expedition for the conquest of the empire on the mainland. In 1519, Cortes and his soldiers sailed to the Yucatan Penisula and march inland to Tenochtitlan. During 1520, Cortes and his soldiers were forced out of Tenochtitlan. During the year of 1521, Cortes conquered the Aztecs; not knowing at the time that he had just begun three centuries of Spanish domination in Central America. This was one of his greatest accomplishments. In 1528, Cortes found a very important hospital in Mexico City. Right after his accomplishment, he returned to Spain on the request of King Chalres.

In 1530, Cortes returned to New Spain settling in what would be his home for some time in Cuernavaca, Mexico. During this time in Cuernavaca, he discovered and accomplished many things. During 1533, Cortes would make his last expedition in hope of discovering new land. During this time he came upon the land which is now Baja, California. This voyage opened many opportunities and maybe is one of the causes we now live in the U.S.A. In 1540, Cortes returned home to Spain for the last time. Cortes died in 1547, in a small town near Seville, Spain.

Duirng his lifetime Hernando Cortes accomplished many great things. He was truly one of the greatest explorer who ever lived.

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FRANCISCO PIZARRO (By Ashley Reed)
Pizarro was born in 1475 in Trujillo, a small town near Caceres, Spain. He spent his childhood living with his grandparents in one of Spain's poorest areas. In 1502 Pizarro traveled to the Caribbean with the governor of a Spanish colny there. Pizarro took part in the expidition to Columbia in 1510, three years later he accompanied Vasco Nunez de Balboa in a journey that resulted in the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. During the years of 1519-1523, Pizarro served as mayor of the town of Panama. He enlisted the help of two friends to form an expidition to explore and conquer the land in 1523.

In the year 1526, Pizarro sent Almagro back to Panama for support for a second expidition. After seven years of difficulty and dissappointment, the adventurers started the conquest of Peru. Pizarro also spent a year conquering coastal settlements of Peru. When he got there he met with representatives of Atahuallpa, the Inca Emperor. Atahuallpa accepted an invitation to visit the Spanish commander and arrived attended by crowds of unarmed Incas. Meanwhile, Pizarro's followers were armed and waiting. Atahuallpa regretted trusting Pizarro. Atahuallpa refused to convert to Christianity and also refused to accept the Spanish ways of life. Pizarro conquered the Incas and had Atahuallpa killed.

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AMERIGO VESPUCCI (By Cynthia Gonzalez)
When Amerigo Vespucci was born in 1454, in the wealthy city of Florence seemed the very center of the world to the people. Located in north central part of the Italian peninsula, it sat on a trade route that stretched from the Indies in the Far East to England in the northwest. Amerigo heard a great deal about these Indies. Gold ,silk and wonderful spices came from there. He learned that "the Indies" was what Europeans called the countries of the Far East.

As he grew, Amerigo came to understand how important this trade was. Not only did Florentines enjoy the luxuries of the Indies themselves, but many of them also made their living by trading the goods all over Europe.

Then they sold the cloth to the English and other Europeans. Florentine artisans imported gold from the Indies and turned it into exquisite jewelry that was priced all over Europe. Plants in the east were used in making glass, soap and medicine. Even though all this trades took place, no one from Florence or any other part of Europe actually saw the Indies. The Muslim Turks who controlled the middle east wouldn't let their old enemies, the Christian city in the Middle East, and now Europeans couldn't even go there. They had to pay terribly high prices to the sultan for the goods that came through his lands. Europeans badly wanted to find another route to the Indies-especially Florentines, because they relied on trade.

Two hundred years earlier, Marco Polo, an Italian merchant, had gone all the way to china during a time when the Turks had not controlled the Middle East. After 25 years of traveling, he came home and wrote about the richly dressed people he'd seen there, and about their marble bridges and luxurious palaces. Europeans thought if they could just find a way to these riches, they would become rich themselves.

Amerigo's father, Anastagio Vespucci, was a notary, and he worked for Lorenzo de' Medici, a very rich merchant who headed Florence's government. (Florence was a city-state, which ruled itself and belonged to no kingdom.) There were other Vespuccis in Ognissanti as well. Their houses pressed up against each other in a tumble of stone balconies and turrets. Most of the vespucci were merchants dealing in wine or olive oil or wool. Some were bankers. Like other Florentines, they loved art and learning, poetry and music.

Anastagio Vespucci was interested in geography and astronomy as well business. He also enjoyed reading ancient Greek and Roman authors. The Greeks and Romans had known more than the people who lived after them, he told Amerigo. It was the Florentines who named the eight hundred years after the fall of the Roman empire the "Dark Ages." During these Dark Ages, people did not value learning and forgot much that the Romans and Greeks had known. Now the people of Florence were rediscovering this ancient knowledge. These years of rediscovery were later called the Renaissanace ( which means rebirth.)

Anastagio Vespucci and his brother Giorgio, a teacher and Dominican monk, got excited whenever they heard news of a Roman statue being dug up somewhere. They pooled their money and bought old documents and maps. They studied Greek astronomy.Amerigo's mother, Elissabetta, was quiet different. Like most women of Florence, she'd been given no schooling, and frowned when Amerigo asked question. Besides, she favored her own son, Antonio.From the time Amerigo was small, he new the oldest brother in a Florentine family was special. It was the oldest son who inheirted most of the family wealth and his father's tifle or position.

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HENRY HUDSON (By Randy Herrera)
Henry Hudson was an English explorer and sea captain. He made four voyages in an attempt to discover a northern passage between Europe and Asia. Hudson explored the Artic and the coast of North America. This is where he discovered three waterways which were later named after him. They are: the Hudson River, the Hudson Bay, and the Hudson Strait. No one knows anything on Hudson's life except for the period from 1607- 1611. Hudson evidently was a shipmaster of experience, a married man, and the father of three boys.

Though the Muscovy Company was frustrated they were however satisfied that the north east passage did not exist. Then in 1609, the Dutch India Company hired Hudson to lead an expedition. His orders were to set sail in April 1, 1609 in order to search for a passage by the north. Around the north side of Nova Zembla. The Halfmoon traveled as far south as what is now South Carolina. He then turned north and briefly explored Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay. He traveled up to what became known as the Hudson River, to the site of Present-day Albany, New York. Holland based it's claim to land in North America on Hudson's third voyage which took place in 1610. A group of English merchants formed a company that provided Hudson with a ship called "The Discovery". He crossed the Atlantic and arrived just off the northern coast of Labrador. The Discovery then reached a body of rough water, later named the Hudson Strait, which led into Hudson Bay. Hudson again thought he had come to James Bay. Again he failed to find the outlet he was after. Ice forced the men to spend the winter there. The crew was their as well as his son, John. John suffered from cold, hunger, and disease. In spring of 1611, Hudson was prepared to set sail for the outlet, but the crew refused and sent him with some royal crew members adrift. The mutineers sailed back to England, and their report gave proof there was a route. Hudson arrived a couple of months later and England based it's claim to the region of the Hudson Bay, on Hudson's last voyage. Exploration of the region led to the establishment of the Hudson Bay company as a fur trading firm in 1670.

European merchants and geographers believed that ships could get to the Orient by sailing north, northeast, or northwest. They thought such a route would be shorter than any other. The Arctic was unexplored. Hudson hoped his voyage would take them across to the coast of Japan and China. He sailed northeast along the coast of Greenland and reached Spitsbergen. These islands lie only 700 miles from the north pole. Then he followed its whale haunted northern coast until forced to give over his purpose and return to England; arriving there in September. On his return trip to England, he told about seeing giant whales as big as the ship, which led to English and Dutrch whaling near Spitsbergen. On April 22, 1608, Hudson tried again to find a northern route, but ice blocked the way.

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HERNANDO DeSOTO (By Angela Martinez)
Hernando DeSoto was a Spanish adventurer and explorer in the New World. He was born in Barcarrota, Spain. DeSoto organized an expedition at his own expense to explore the Spanish region of Florida in 1537, with the permission of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1539, DeSoto's company of about 600 men landed on the west coast of Florida prepared to search for a rich empire. He discovered the Mississippi River in 1541, crossed it and explored territories that are now part of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and northern Texas. The DeSotos were a family of minor nobility, and little wealth. His father sent him to the port city of Seville with a letter of introduction to a noble man named Pedro Arias Davila. Hernando was granted an interview with Colonel Pedrarious, commander of the expedition and new governor of Panama. On the 11th of April 1514, Hernando DeSoto sailed from Spain leaving behind his boyhood, voyaging toward adventures that would be among the most remarkable in history. The world he was entering taught him some hard lessons.

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JOHN CABOT (By Albert Gomez & Marco Salinas)
Very little is known about John Cabot's life. No one knows where John was born. Both Venice and Genoa claim that he was born there. Cabot had a wife named Mattea. His chip Matthew was named after her. It was 50 tons but fast and able. The crew was only 18 people. The crew and Cabot left on May 20, 1497 headed for Dursey Head, Ireland. He sailed due west to Asia, he thinks. He landed in America's east coast on June 9, 1497. He went on land to explore for sometime. He probably left on July 20, headed home. A year later he was rewarded a patent for a new voyage. This time he had five ships. One of the ships had to go to an Irish port because of damage. Nobody knows where Cobot landed or about the expedition. He made a voyage to North America looking for a north-west passage in 1508. John Cabot has been described as one of the leading cartographers of his time. He drew a world map which was recovered in 1843 by Von Mantius in Bavaria. The map was purchased by the French in 1844 and is exhibited in the Geographical Department of the Biblioteque Nationale at Paris.

John Cabot's voyage was one of many that Europeans made to North America during the 1500s. England, France, and the Netherlands all envied Spain's empire in the New World. They also wanted a share. Soon, they also outfitted voyages of discovery.

Throughout the 1500s, European nations valued the riches of Asia more than land in North America. They saw North America as a barrier to these riches. But they did not want to use Magellan's long ratite for a northwest passage, through North America.

When John Cabot explores for England confident that he had reached Asia on his first voyage, the Italian sea Captain John Cabot set sail from England in 1498 on a second voyage. Onboard his five vessels were a year's supply of food and many goods to trade with the Great Khan, the ruler of China.

Cabot explored the eastern coast of North America. Many think that he headed for Nova Scotia so perhaps present day Maine. No one can be sure, for Cabot never returned. Even though he did not find Asia or the Northwest passage, he led the way to explore out of the North Atlantic.

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LINKS

This page was constructed by Mr. Whalen's 6th Period American history class.