02/14/2013

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – Americanhistory in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

Generations of schoolchildren have been taught thatChristopher Columbus discovered the New World. Infact, the second Monday in October is celebrated as anational holiday, Columbus Day, to honor the Europeanexplorer.

But October's page on the calendar also has a lesserknown observance. October ninth is Leif Erickson Day.Leif Erickson was a Norse explorer who sailed aroundthe northeastern coast of what we now call NorthAmerica about one thousand years ago. He and hiscrew returned to Greenland with news of a place hecalled "Vinland."

Following his explorations, a few settlements were built.Experts digging in eastern Canada in the nineteensixties found the remains of a village with houses likethose in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. But the Norsedid not establish any permanent settlements in North America.

Today, as we relaunch our series, we begin with the story of early Europeanexplorers in North America.

In the eleventh century, Europe was beginning a period of great change. Onereason was the religious wars known as the Crusades. These were militarycampaigns by Christians to force Muslims out of the Holy Land in the MiddleEast. The Crusades began at the end of the eleventh century. They continuedfor about two hundred years.

One effect of the presence of European armies in the Middle East was toincrease trade. This trade was controlled by businessmen in Venice and othercity-states in Italy. The businessmen earned large profits by supplying thewarring armies and by bringing goods from the East into Europe.

When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with them somenew and useful products. These included spices, perfumes, silk cloth andsteel products. These goods became highly valued all over Europe. Theincreased trade with the East led to the creation and growth of towns alongthe supply roads. It also created a large number of rich Europeanbusinessmen.

The European nations were growing. They developed armies andgovernments. These had to be paid for with taxes collected from the people. By the fifteenth century, European countries were ready to explore new partsof the world.

The first explorers were the Portuguese. By fourteen hundred, they wanted tocontrol the Eastern spice trade. European businessmen did not want tocontinue paying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices. Theywanted to set up trade themselves. If they could sail to Asia directly for theseproducts, the resulting trade would bring huge profits.

The leader of Portugal's exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son of KingJohn the first. He was interested in sea travel and exploration. He becameknown as Henry the Navigator.

Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciencesinvolved in exploration. He built an observatory to study the stars. Portuguesesea captains sailed their ships down the west coast of Africa hoping to find apath to India and East Asia. They finally found the end of the African continent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope.

It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade.They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China.

Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was anew kind of ship. It could sail more easily through storms and winds.

Other inventions like the compass allowed them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used theseweapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders.

The other European nations would not let Portugal control this spice trade forlong, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provideships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian named ChristopherColumbus.

Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west acrossthe Atlantic Ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed theworld was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of anothercontinent -- and another huge ocean -- between Europe and East Asia.

Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, fourteenninety-two, in three ships: the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. ByOctober twelfth, the sailors stood on land again on an island that Columbusnamed San Salvador.

He explored that island and the nearby islands of what are now known asCuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia,which was then called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians.

Columbus left about forty men on San Salvador island to build a fort from thewood of one of the ships. He returned to Spain with birds, plants, gold -- andpeople captured from the land he explored. Columbus was welcomed as ahero when he returned to Spain in March of fourteen ninety-three.

Columbus sailed again across the Atlantic to the Caribbean five months later. He found that the fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire. Columbusdid not find any of his men. But this time, he had many more men and all theanimals and equipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola.

Seven months later, he sent five ships back to Spain. They carried Indians to be sold as slaves. Columbus himself also returned to Spain.

Christopher Columbus made another trip in fourteen ninety-eight. This time hesaw the coast of South America.

But the settlers on Hispaniola were so unhappy with conditions in their newcolony, they sent Columbus back to Spain as a prisoner. Spain's rulerspardoned him.

In fifteen two, Columbus made his final voyage to what some by then werecalling the New World. He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returnedhome two years later.

During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for that passage to the Indies. He never found it. Nor did he find spices or greatamounts of gold. Yet, he always believed that he had found the Indies. Herefused to recognize that it really was a new world.

Evidence of this was all around him -- strange plants unknown in eitherEurope or Asia. And a different people who did not understand any languagespoken in the East.

Columbus' voyages, however, opened up the new world. Others laterexplored all of North America.

You may be wondering about the name of this new land. If ChristopherColumbus led the explorations, then why is it called "America"? The answerlies with the name of another Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci.

He visited the coast of South America in fourteen ninety-nine. He wrotestories about his experiences that were widely read in Europe.

In fifteen seven, a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemueller, readVespucci's stories. He decided that the writer had discovered the new world, and thought it should be called America in his honor. And so it was.

Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World. They alsowanted to spread Christianity, which they considered the only true religion.

The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon. He landed inNorth America in fifteen thirteen. He explored the eastern coast of what is now the state of Florida. He was searching for a special kind of water that Europeans believed existed. They believed that this water could make oldpeople young again. Ponce de Leon never did find the fountain of youth.

Also in fifteen thirteen, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean. In fifteen nineteen, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexico. His army destroyed the ancient empire of the Aztec Indians.

That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage around theworld. And in the fifteen thirties, the forces of Francisco Pizarro destroyed theInca Indian empire in Peru.

Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north as what is now the American state of Kansas and then west to the Grand Canyon. About the same time, Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.

Fifty years after Columbus first landed at San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area of America.

The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe, and the world. But other nations refused to accept Spanish claims to the NewWorld. Explorers from England, France and Holland were also sailing to NorthAmerica. That will be our story next week.

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