The Search For An Alternative Route

In prehistoric times, the ancestors of American Indians migrated from Asia via a then-existing land bridge across the Bering Strait; they were probably hunters following herds of animals or mariners fishing for sea mammals. Their migrations continued southward down the continents, with various peoples adapting to new environments as necessary.

A second group, Norwegian sailors called Vikings, probably reached America about the year 1000. Viking sagas suggest that Leif Ericson or his son was the first European to set foot on the North American continent at a place the Norsemen called Vinland, which may have been south of Newfoundland, though its site is the subject of controversy. Repeated fights with natives, called Skraelings, ended their visits around 1010. Before the Little Ice Age, Norwegian Vikings sailed as far north and west as Ellesmere Island, Skraeling Island and Ruin Island for hunting expeditions and trading with the Inuit groups who already inhabited the region. Between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, colonial powers from Eurasia dispatched explorers in an attempt to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of Asia. In 1493 to defuse trade disputes, Pope Alexander VI split the discovered world in two between Spain and Portugal; thus France, the Netherlands, and England were left without a sea route to Asia, either via Africa or South America.[7] The British called the hypothetical route the "Northwest Passage". The desire to establish such a route motivated much of the European exploration of both coasts of North America.

The Fall of Constantinople was a siege in which the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Mehmed II attempted to capture the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople which was defended by the army of Emperor Constantine XI. The siege lasted from Thursday, 5 April 1453 until Tuesday, 29 May 1453 (according to the Julian Calendar), when the city fell to the Ottomans. The event marked the end of the political independence of the millennium-old Byzantine Empire, which was by then already fragmented into several Greek monarchies.

The loss of the city was a massive blow to Christendom; the Pope called for an immediate counter-attack in the form of a crusade, but when no European monarch was willing to lead the crusade, the Pope himself decided to go; his early death eliminated the possibility of a counter-attack. With Constantinople beneath his belt, Mehmed II had acquired a great, rich city albeit one in decline due to years of war. The Capital allowed the Turks to establish a permanent supply base in Christian Europe. Further advances into Hungary and the principalities bordering the two kingdoms would have been difficult, if not impossible, without the harbors of Constantinople bringing in supplies and serving as a fortified center from which to administer the empire and strategy. In addition to the military and political benefits bestowed upon the Turks with its capture, it also brought the trade in Eastern Spices through Muslim intermediaries into a declining period. Europeans would continue to trade through Constantinople into the 16th century but high prices propelled the search for an alternative route. An increasing number of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch ships began to attempt to sail to India via the southern tip of Africa. Indeed, had Columbus not believed that he would reach Asia to negotiate trade rights by sailing west--the mission as he presented it to his patron, the King of Spain--he would not have found the New World.

European explorations of the New World started in earnest within a half century of the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453, when importing merchants felt the squeeze of high tariffs on the flow of trade goods coming westward on long caravans. The Portuguese charted a route around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, but bad weather, pirates, and long months at sea hampered the efficient flow of goods. Any nation that could discover a far shorter route to the East with a Northeast or Northwest Passage over the top of the world could claim a monopoly and reap enormous fortunes.

Late in the 15th century, Christopher Columbus's four voyages to the Caribbean kicked the race into high gear. Various Spanish expeditions soon claimed most of Latin America and vast stretches of land in the southern and western regions of what much later would become the United States. In 1534, on a quest to find the Northwest Passage, the French navigator Jacques Cartier launched the first of three voyages to the northern wilderness he misnamed "Canada," the Mohawk word for "village." He returned with kidnapped Indians, a shipload of fool's gold, and tantalizing stories of the New World. His voyages gave France its claim on the vast northern country, where each year the French now came to fish the Grand Banks and trade for pelts.

Almost five hundred years later in Europe, a new spirit of curiosity was sparked by the Renaissance and trade with the distant Indies and China. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor seeking a new route to the East Indies, sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean, finding land probably at what he called San Salvador on October 12, 1492. News of his voyage opened the door to an age of exploration, with other Europeans following in search of riches. The name "America" was given to the continents in 1507 by the German geographer Martin Waldseemüller, who derived the term from the name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512). When writing about his own travels to the New World in 1499, Vespucci claimed to be the first to recognize that the Americas were continents previously unknown by Europeans.

The fame of what Columbus had done was soon spread through Europe, and adventurers flocked to the New World - some for honor, some for enterprise and others for gain. In general, however, the great object of pursuit was gold and other precious commodities, as will become more evident in the progress of our history.

Two Englishmen, John Cabot and Sebastian, his son, were the first discoverers of the continent of America. They sailed in May, 1497, under the patronage of Henry VII., of England. They saw the continent a year sooner than Columbus, and two years before Americus Vespucius. In this and subsequent voyages, they also discovered the islands of Newfoundland and St. John, and coasted as far south as Virginia, claiming the country in behalf of the king of England, by virtue of these discoveries.

In 1501, the king of Portugal sent out a fleet of discovery under the command of Gaspar Cortereal. He sailed along the shores of North America six or seven handred miles; but he appears to have thought more of money than anything else; and not finding gold, he seized on fifty of the native Indians, carried them home and sold them as slaves. Emboldened by his success he made a second voyage, but did not live to return. The general belief is that he lost his life in attempting to secure another cargo of slaves; and that Labrador was the theatre of his crime and its punishment. This, however, is not quite certain.

The French, too, engaged in attempts to make discoveries. What they did, however, was at first principally about the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the islands of Newfoundland and Cape Breton. By the year 1505 or 1506, they were quite familiar with this region, and Denys, of Honfleur, had drawn a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As early as 1508 the French had become much engaged in the fisheries on the northeast coast of the present United States, and, as if to follow up the wicked example of the Portuguese and involve the first settlers in cruel wars, had carried away to France some of the natives. They appear also to have meditated the establishment of colonies in the New World.

One of the most remarkable voyages of discovery was made in 1524. Francis I., king of France, sent out to America one Verrazani, a Florentine, who, with a single vessel, the Dolphin, after a long voyage of fifty days, and a terrible storm, reached North Carolina, whence, sailing northward, he explored the coasts of New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, and returned to France. He also paid some attention to the coasts of Florida. In 1534, the same king sent James Cartier to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland. In a second voyage, this navigator sailed up the St. Lawrence as far as Montreal, to which he gave its present name. He also learned of the Indians something of northern New York and Vermont. He claimed possession of Canada in behalf of the French.

Though the French were early attracted to Florida, the Spaniards were before them. Ponce de Leon, a voyager with Columbus, having become disaffected towards him, proceeded from Porto Rico, in March, 1512, to make discoveries by himself. He found a new region, on the sixth of April, to which he gave the name of Florida, on account of its florid or blooming appearance. The king of Spain, in whose name Leon claimed the country, appointed him the governor of it, on condition of his establishing a colony there. In attempting to effect a settlement he met with many remarkable adventures; and finally his people were attacked by the Indians and driven away, and he was himself mortally wounded.

In 1520, two slave ships were fitted out at St. Domingo, which proceeded to the coast of South Carolina, and, having decoyed the native Indians on board, suddenly set sail and carried them to St. Domingo. It is not surprising that the savages of the continent, from one end of it to thc other, became suspicious of white men.

In 1540, Ferdinand de Soto made a tour through Florida, northward to Georgia, and thence westward, across the Cherokee country and Alabama, to the country of the Chickasaws, where he spent the winter. In the spring of 1541, he discovered and crossed the Mississippi, and travelled in Arkansas and Missouri. He died in 1542, and his companions passed through Louisiana to Mexico. The details of this expedition are full of interest. The Indians of these regions, at this period, were numerous, and their manners and customs present much that is curious.

We have already seen that the English, through the Cabots, had established large claims in the new continent. In 1584, Queen Elizabeth sent out the celebrated and accomplished Sir Walter Raleigh, on a voyage of discovery. He entered Pamlico Sound, and explored the coasts northward. The queen bestowed upon this whole region the name of Virginia.

Among the discoveries of minor importance, made towards the close of the sixteenth century, were those of Bartholomew Gosnold, an Englishman. In a voyage to Virginia, as the whole coast was then called, he discovered and named Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Elizabeth Island; he attempted to form a settlement on the latter, but without success.

The 1610s were a pivotal decade in exploration. The names of explorers from this period, such as Henry Hudson, Samuel de Champlain and Walter Raleigh, are still known today. Before 1610, Hudson had already explored the coast of Greenland and Norway. His third voyage, in 1609, took him to the New World. Sailing on behalf of the Dutch, Hudson explored the coast of North America, from present-day Nova Scotia south to Chesapeake Bay and sailed up what would become known as the Hudson River.

On his fourth voyage, starting in 1610, Hudson sailed up to Iceland, along the coast of Greenland, down to the northern coast of modern-day Quebec and into what is now known as Hudson Bay. The long journey forced Hudson and his crew to winter there. When it became apparent in the summer of 1611 that Hudson wanted to go further into the New World, instead of returning home, his crew mutinied. Hudson, his son and loyal crew members were set adrift in a small boat without food or water. The great explorer and his companions were never seen again.

Further south, Samuel de Champlain was exploring the New World for France. Prior to the 1610s, Champlain had founded the city of Quebec, discovered the lake that now bears his name and built up the fur trade with the Native Americans. In 1613, Champlain returned to the New World after a three-year absence and became the first European to explore the Ottawa River. Two years later, Champlain became the first European to explore the Great Lakes.

Explorers also ventured to South America, where several made their names. Walter Raleigh began the 1610s as a prisoner. Once a favorite of the English queen Elizabeth I, Raleigh had attempted to establish a colony in the New World in the 1580s, the ill-fated Roanoke settlement. Raleigh also explored the Orinoco River of South America, part of the Spanish New World possessions, and was convinced of the existence of Eldorado, a mythical city of great riches. However, Raleigh had little luck in the reign of Elizabeth's successor, James. Raleigh was imprisoned in 1603 for treason and spent 13 years under arrest.

In 1616, Raleigh was released from the Tower of London, but not pardoned. Assuring James that conflict with the Spanish could be avoided and with James' permission, Raleigh sailed for the New World in search of treasure. The gold mines Raleigh had discovered on his trip to present-day Venezuela in 1595 had convinced him that he would find riches in the New World. However, the expedition was a failure. Raleigh's men found no gold, but, under the command of his lieutenant, Lawrence Kemys, attacked a Spanish settlement. When Raleigh returned to England, the Spanish demanded that he be executed for the attack. James conceded and Raleigh was beheaded in October 1618.

In the Southern hemisphere, during this decade, the coast of western Australia was explored for the first time by a European. The Dutch explorer Dirck Hartog left a pewter plate behind in Australia, scratched with the details of his visit of October 1616. The plate was found in 1696 by another Dutch explorer and sent back to Holland, where it is now at the Rijksmuseum. Also, at the southern tip of the Americas, Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jakob Le Maire explored and named Cape Horn, after the birthplace of Corneliszoon Schouten, as a better route to the Pacific Ocean.

Robert J. Starszak. Uniting the States. History Magazine. October/November 2006.

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