International Trade

Social Studies > McGraw Hill > United States History > CH2T1

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The first Europeans to reach North America were Vikings from what is now Norway, under a leader named Leif Ericson. In about the year 1000 they established a settlement in what is now Newfoundland, but the settlement was soon abandoned.

In 1492 the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing on behalf of the king and queen of Spain, sailed west from Spain in search of a route to Asia that would be faster than the traditional route around Africa. Trade with Asia was very attractive to Europeans, so there was great interest in finding a better route. Columbus was unaware, however, that the continents of North America and South America blocked his path to Asia. When Columbus and his crew made landfall in what is now the Bahamas, they thought they had reached islands near India off the coast of Asia. For this reason, they called the people living there Indians. After Columbus returned home from the New World, he later made three more voyages to Central and South America.

Soon, other explorers came to explore the New World. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers came to North America in search of gold. Juan Ponce de Leon was the first European to reach what is now the United States when he and his crew landed in Florida. Within a few years, Hernando de Soto was sent to settle this area. He traveled through much of what is now the southeastern states and was the first European to reach the Mississippi River. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explored what is now the American Southwest. Amerigo Vespucci, for whom the Americas are named, was the first European to sight the mouth of the Amazon River.

Other European explorers continued Columbus’s quest to find a sea route to Asia. John Cabot, whose voyage was financed by England, landed in Canada. Cabot returned to England to report finding rich fishing areas. The Italian Giovanni da Verrazano, in the service of the French King Francis I, explored the Atlantic coast of North America. He was the first European to enter New York Bay. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain established the first permanent French settlement in Canada when he founded a fur-trading post named Quebec. The Dutch, also in search of a way to reach Asia, sent English ship captain Henry Hudson on this quest in 1609. He sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in New York, claiming land on which the Dutch started a colony called New Netherland the next year.

Wherever the Europeans claimed land in the New World, they established settlements and spread their culture. Their influence, including language, customs, and foods, is visible today.

19 September. Continued on, and sailed, day and night, twenty-five leagues, experiencing a calm. Wrote down twenty-two. This day at ten o'clock a pelican came on board, and in the evening another; these birds are not accustomed to go twenty leagues from land. It drizzled without wind, which is a sure sign of land. The Admiral was unwilling to remain here, beating about in search of land, but he held it for certain that there were islands to the north and south, which in fact was the case and he was sailing in the midst of them. His wish was to proceed on to the Indies, having such fair weather, for if it please God, as the Admiral says, we shall examine these parts upon our return. Here the pilots found their places upon the chart: the reckoning of the Nina made her four hundred and forty leagues distant from the Canaries, that of the Pinta four hundred and twenty, that of the Admiral four hundred.