Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

Atlantic Ocean. Columbus reached

Central and South America as well as

the islands that are now called the West

Indies. He never reached Asia, but his

trips inspired many others to follow.

Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal did

what Columbus had set out to do: he

found a western sea route to Asia. He

followed the South American coast

southward from Brazil. In 1520 he

passed around the tip of South America

into the Pacific Ocean. Magellan died,

but his crew kept sailing west. They

went past the southern tip of Africa back

to Spain. This was the first voyage

around the world.

Later Voyages

In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian working

for England, reached Newfoundland, in

what is now Canada. In 1535 Jacques

Cartier of France sailed from the Atlantic

Ocean into Canada on the Saint

Lawrence River.

In 1610 the Englishman Henry Hudson

sailed into the large bay in Canada that

is now called Hudson Bay. Hudson was

trying to find a water route through

North America to the Pacific Ocean.

People called this unknown route the

Northwest Passage. The first explorer to

find this passage was the Norwegian

Roald Amundsen—in 1906.

John Cabot landed in what is now Newfoundland

in 1497. He was one of the first

Europeans to land in North America.

Hudson Bay in Canada and the Hudson

River in the United States were named for

the explorer Henry Hudson.

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Americas, Exploration and Settlement of the 103

 

Settling the Land

The riches of the Americas attracted

many early settlers, or colonists. Some

worked on their own, while others

worked for European trading companies.

Both groups wanted to make money

selling valuable things back to Europe.

Gold and silver were the most valuable

products of South America andMexico.

Further to the north, the furs of animals

were the most valuable products.

As Europeans began settling the land,

they met many Native Americans. Their

relations were often friendly. But Native

Americans grew angry as Europeans

took over more land.Wars between settlers

and Native Americans killed thousands.

Many more Native Americans

died from smallpox and other European

diseases.

Meanwhile, European settlers began to

grow the crops that Native Americans

grew, including corn, potatoes, pumpkins,

squash, peanuts, and tobacco.

Europeans also brought plants like sugarcane

and coffee to the Americas and

found that they grew well there. Some

Europeans set up large farms and sold

their crops back to Europe.

Some of the first European farmers captured

Native Americans and forced them

to work as slaves. African slaves eventually

replaced them. The Portuguese

brought in Africans to work as slaves

starting in 1502. The English were

active slave traders also. The slave trade

did not end until the 1800s.

Spanish Colonies

The earliest Spanish settlements were in

theWest Indies. The Spanish set up

Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola

in 1496. It was the first capital

of Spain’s colonial empire, called New

Spain.

In 1513 Vasco de Balboa traveled across

Central America. He became the first

European to view the Pacific Ocean

from the Americas. Six years later

Hernan Cortes made his first attack on

the Aztec Empire in Mexico. In 1533

Francisco Pizarro took Peru away from

the Inca people. The Spanish stole gold

and silver from the native empires and

shipped it back to Spain.

Spain’s colonial empire became the

biggest in the Americas. At its peak it

included the largest Caribbean islands,

all ofMexico and most of Central

America, large sections of South

The Roman

Catholic

church sent

many missionaries

into

Spanish, Portuguese,

and

French colonies.

Their task

was to convert

the Native

Americans to

Catholic

Christianity.

Francisco Pizarro conquered

what is now Peru and founded

the city of Lima there.

104 Americas, Exploration and Settlement of the BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

America, Florida, and the southwestern

quarter of what is now the United States.

English Colonies

The important English colonies were on

the Atlantic coast of North America. In

1607 merchants from the Virginia

Company founded Jamestown. This was

the first permanent English settlement

in North America.

Other English settlers soon founded

Plymouth Colony andMassachusetts

Bay Colony in New England. These

colonies were unusual. The people who

started them had reasons besides making

money. They wanted freedom to practice

their own forms of Christianity. They

could not find this freedom in Europe.

The English settled other parts of the

Americas, too. Starting in 1670, the

English traders of the Hudson’s Bay

Company set up trading posts in

Canada. In the Caribbean Sea, England

had settlements on several islands. The

largest was Jamaica, which England

seized from Spain in 1655. The English

settled Belize in Central America in

1638. Scattered settlements in South

America united to form British Guiana

in 1831.

French Colonies

France’s settlements in North America

were known as New France.Most of

these settlements were in what is now

Canada. The French explored widely,

made friends with Native Americans,

and built forts and trading posts. The fur

trade became the basis of New France’s