First Contact

Section 1.5

• Columbus’s voyages to the Americas established contact with American Indians and led to European colonies and an exchange of goods and ideas.

• Scandinavian sailors known as Vikings were the 1 st Europeans to visit North America.

• Viking leader Leif Eriksson accidentally sailed to the coast of Canada around 1000 CE.

• The Vikings never established a permanent settlement, and most Europeans did not know of the discovery.

• Born in Italy, Columbus became a master sailor.

• Like others, he was interested in sailing to Asia.

• Unlike everyone else CC was convinced that Asia lay west across the Atlantic Ocean.

• Columbus convinced the Queen of Spain to finance (pay) for the voyage.

• Columbus’s goals – Find a westward route to Asia.

– Spread Catholicism.

– Find treasure (gold).

• In August of 1492, CC sailed west with 3 ships, toward the unknown.

• On October 12 th the crew spotted land.

• Columbus believed that he was in the East Indies off the coast of Asia.

• In reality, he was in the Caribbean.

• When he met the inhabitants, he called them “Indians”.

• Columbus explored the Caribbean, discovered a little gold, and then sailed back to Spain.

• Columbus made 3 more trips and established permanent settlements in the Caribbean.

• When CC died, he believed he was in Asia, no idea that this was a totally different land.

• These settlements were economic failures, and soon CC began warfare with, and the enslavement of the Indians.

• On his 1 st trip, CC brought took Indian slaves back to Europe.

• The Queen was against Indian slavery, and ordered it illegal.

• However, the Queen was far away from the Caribbean, and this law was largely ignored.

• The trade of ideas, materials, goods, animals, and diseases between Europe and the Americas is called the Columbian Exchange.

• These drastic changes brought positives (new sources of food) but also brought devastation (untold number of Indian deaths due to smallpox).