Transcript First Contact - Thomasville High School
First Contact
Section 1.5
Main Idea
• Columbus’s voyages to the Americas established contact with American Indians and led to European colonies and an exchange of goods and ideas.
Vikings
• 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.
Christopher Columbus
• 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.
Spain Lends a Hand
• 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.
“Land! Land!”
• 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.
Spanish Settlements
• 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.
Indian Slavery
• 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.
Columbian Exchange
• 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).