Chapter 2

Europeans Explore the Americas

• Find Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal on your world map.

• Then, find India and China on the map.

• How can people take a boat from Spain to India? Draw lines to show possible routes.

• The first Europeans to come to the Americas were probably the Vikings. They came in A.D. 1000. They tried to start colonies but were not successful because they got in a war with the Native Americans and lost. People quickly forgot about America.

• By 1400, Europeans were interested in traveling, but nobody knew about America. European explorers had new technology that they could use to travel in the open seas far away from land such as the astrolabe and the compass. They were also learning to build better ships, They wanted to use this technology to go to new places.

• In the late 15th century, an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus moved to Spain. He wanted to sail a ship to India, but he did not plan on sailing his ship east. Instead, he planned on sailing it west.

• Columbus believed that the earth was round. If the earth really was round, then it might be easier to get to India by going west instead of east. He did not know that America was in the way.

• Columbus was going to sail on the open ocean, far away from land. He was going to use the navigational instruments and techniques Europeans had learned from the Moors.

• Columbus had tried to convince wealthy Italian families to give him the money for ships, but they would not. So, he had moved to Spain and was trying to convince Queen Isabella to give him the ships.

• In 1492, Columbus succeeded. Isabella gave Columbus three ships.

• Columbus took those three ships west. Columbus and his crew traveled for weeks without seeing land. Finally, they saw land. They believed it was India, but it was really a new place. It was the Bahamas. The Bahamas are islands near America.

• Columbus had found part of the Americas by accident. Because he believed it was India, he called the people “Indians.” Other Spanish explorers started coming to the “New World.” They soon realized that it was not India, but they continued to call the people there “Indians.”

• Draw a line from Spain to the Bahamas. This line shows Columbus’s voyage.

• In 1499, an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci took a ship up and down the east coasts of “the New World.” He learned that “the New World” was a very large place. He made excellent maps and wrote books about his voyage. People started calling the new lands “the land of Amerigo.” Today, these lands still bear his name.

• On your world map, draw a line showing where Amerigo Vespucci went.

• After learning about America, European explorers did not stop trying to find a new way to get to Asia. They kept on trying to find a way to go through or around the Americas, but they did not know how big it was.

• An Englishman named John Cabot tried to go through Canada. He learned a lot about Canada, but could not find a way through. Canada became part of England.

• Mark on your maps were Cabot went. Show the parts of the Americas that became English.

• A French explorer names Jacques Cartier also looked for a way through America. He traveled through the St. Lawrence River and found the Great Lakes.

• Mark your map to show where Cartier went and which parts of the Americas became French.

• La Salle was another famous French explorer. He went up the Mississippi while looking for a way through America. He did not find a way to India, but he did make all the land on the Mississippi River part of France.

• Mark your map to show where La Salle went and which parts of the Americas became French.

• In 1519, a Spanish man named Ferdinand Magellan was the first to find a way around the Americas and travel west to India. He took a ship around South America and sailed across the Pacific. He proved that the earth was round and showed people that the Americas were very big.

• By 1550, Europeans had divided up the Americas but the Spanish controlled the most. They controlled Mexico, nearly all of Central and South America, the western half of the area that is now the United States, and even Florida.

• Mark your map to show where Magellan went. Show which parts of the Americas became Spanish.