Explorers of the New World
Leif Ericson
Around the year 982 Eric the Red sailed to Iceland. He landed on the coast of Greenland.
He founded the first colony there. His son named Leif Ericson began exploring the area. He
reached the North American mainland around the year 1000 and called it Vinland. Later
archaeologists uncovered the remains of his settlement at the extreme northern tip
of Newfoundland. In 1965 a map dated from around 1440 was found. This Viking map showed
parts of northeastern Canada.
Marco Polo |
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Marco Polo and his two uncles visited Cathay, later called China. They lived at the court
of the Emperor. When he went back to Italy, Polo wrote a book about this travels in the
Far East. After the invention of Gutenburg's Printing Press in the year 1436 this
book became one of the first to be published. Men became fascinated by Polo's descriptions
of the Orient. Men began searching for sea routes to China, Japan, and the East Indies.
Some of these men believed that the sea to the east of China and India was the same sea
that was west of Europe. One map maker named Paolo Toscanelli even drew a map showing
Europe with the Indies to the west rather than the east.
Prince Henry
Prince Henry spent his entire fortune funding many voyages of exploration as well as
projects in navigation, ship design, astronomy, and mapmaking. His
expeditions included the islands of the Azores,
Madeira, and the Cape Verde Islands, and the African coast as far as present-day Sierra
Leone.
Bartholomeu Dias
King John II , Prince Henry's nephew, continued funding expeditions down the coast
of Africa. King John II chose Dias to led a group close to the southern tip. A storm
blew him past the southernmost tip of land. After 13 days Dias was able to turn east, but
found no land. He then turned north and sighted the Mossel Bay, around the cape. On his
return trip Dias saw the Cape of Good Hope for the first time in May of 1488.
Christopher Columbus |
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Christopher Columbus dreamed of becoming a sailor. At age 14 he made his first voyage on
an Italian ship. Columbus also read books about the world such as the one written by Marco
Polo. Columbus wanted to reach the Indies by sailing west. He tried to raised the money
for this expedition in Italy and Portugal, but no one would give him the ships he needed.
Finally Columbus went to the king and queen of Spain. They gave him three ships; the Nina,
the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, as well as a crew and the money he needed to make the
trip. On October 12, 1492 Columbus reached the land. He had not found the Indies. He was
really in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands he discovered were off the coast of North
America; San Salvador then Cuba which Columbus called Juana. Columbus went back to Spain
and showed everyone the gold and other goods he had found. Columbus sailed back to the New
World three more times.
Vasco da Gama |
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King Manuel I of Portugal picked da Gamma to head a new expedition that would continue
where Dias had stopped. On November 22, 1498 da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope. In May
he landed at Calicut (now Kozhikode) on the southwest coast of India. da Gama brought back
many trade goods from the Indies. Although Da Gama's route was much longer than the
earlier trade routes which traveled overland, sea travel was cheaper. He also did not have
to worry about bandits stealing the goods. This is why other Portuguese sailors followed
Da Gama's route. Soon the Portuguese became masters of the Europe to Indies trade route.
Magellan proved through his explorations that the Earth is round. He established the first route to the East that involved sailing to the west. This passage went around the tip of South America. Magellan sailed for the Spanish king Charles I.
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