Other Nations Explore

Chapter 3, Lesson 4

Chapter 3, Lesson 4Lesson Objectives

Describe the aims, obstacles, and accomplishments of European explorers.

Trace the routes of the explorers and identify the areas they claimed.

Vocabulary

• Northwest Passage• mutiny

The Northwest Passage

• By the early 1500’s, Spain had become a vast and wealthy empire.

• European rulers still needed to find a shortcut to Asia in order to gain wealth and power.

• Explorers searched for a sailing route through the Americas they called the Northwest Passage.

• The search for the Northwest passage lasted for hundreds of years.

Verrazano and Cartier

• The French king, Francis I, sent Giovanni de Verrazano to search for the Northwest Passage in 1524. He explored the Atlantic coasts of North and South America.

• In 1534, the French king sent Jacques Cartier to look for the Northwest passage. Cartier claimed the St. Lawrence River and the lands around it.

• This gave France a firm claim to lands in North America.

Hudson’s Voyages

• Henry Hudson made four voyages in search of the Northwest Passage beginning in 1608.

• On his first three voyages, Hudson was sailing for the Dutch East India Company, located in Holland, which is now called the Netherlands.

• He discovered a river he named the Hudson River and claimed it for the Dutch.

• His last voyage was sponsored by an English company. He discovered Hudson Bay and claimed it for England.