Week 2
European Discovery & Exploration of the Americas

Introduction | Learning Objectives | Required Reading | Instructor's Notes
Additional Resources | Assignments
 

Introduction

You may not like that guy Columbus, but you must admit that the chain of events set in motion with his initial contact in the Caribbean is the one continuous thread in the geographic evolution of North (and South) America. Chapter 2 in your text puts this event in context, addressing the topics listed below. Your assignment this week, and every week, is to read the chapter, to read the Instructor’s Notes section on this page, and to take a short online quiz at the end of the week. An additional assignment this week is to exchange ideas online about the tragedy of “The Columbian Exchange.”

Learning Objectives top

Upon successful completion of this learning module, you will be able to:

  • Understand something of the pre-contact world of the Americas, that world that was changed forever after 1492.
  • Understand the motivations and the events that fueled the European Age of Discovery and the encounter with the Americas.
  • Virtually re-create the Columbus voyages and the subsequent voyages of exploration that were of significance in the unveiling of the North American landmass.
  • Appreciate and reflect up on the Columbian Exchange – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Required Reading top
Instructor's Notes top

Topics to be covered in this module:

  • Native peoples and aboriginal landscapes
  • Pre-Columbian contacts with the New World
  • Europe in the 14th Century – beginning of an “Atlantic Outlook”
  • World geography according to Columbus
  • The Columbus Voyages – the “Encounter”
  • The tragedy of “The Columbian Exchange”
  • Competing nations – Atlantic exploration in the 16th century


Native Peoples and Aboriginal Landscapes

Given the lack of written records, there exist a number of uncertainties about the origin, the distribution, and the population of indigenous people in the Americas prior to European contact. It is generally believed that the first stage in the “peopling” of America began with the diffusion of peoples from Asia, across the Bering Land Bridge which existed during the Pleistocene Ice Ages when sea level was lower. There is considerable range of opinions as to when this began; but the consensus is that it was 15,000 to 20,000 years before present.

There is also a considerable range of opinions on the number of Native Americans in the new world, and your book briefly addresses this issue. A more detailed discussion of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas is found in the Atlantic Monthly article “1491” listed below under “additional resources.”

What we do know for sure about the Native Americans prior to 1492 is that they had formed an incredible diversity of rich cultures throughout North America, which you can see colorfully illustrated on the Map of Pre-Contact Cultural Areas (Note: Be sure to click on all the little red dots for additional information – this is optional).

Pre-Columbian contacts with the New World

I won’t give this topic much attention here, because if I get started, I may never finish. I think it is great fun to speculate about those who may have come to the shores of America before Columbus. Certainly the Norsemen hit upon the coast of present day Newfoundland and Labrador, and there is some evidence of a Chinese voyage to our west coast several decades before Columbus. My favorite candidates are the Basques from northern Spain, who were probably fishing for decades in the cod-rich waters of the Grand Banks (Map); but, like any good fishermen, they kept it a secret!

Europe in the 14th Century – beginning of an “Atlantic Outlook”

Your text offers a model (Figure 2.2) of the process of exploration, and discusses a variety of “push” factors that explain why, in the 15th century, Western Europe began to look away from the Mediterranean, and more towards the west – i.e., the birth of an “Atlantic Outlook.” This was the beginning of what is commonly known as the Age of Exploration -- the next three centuries in which sailors, soldiers, settlers and missionaries extended their influence around most of the globe. My simple-minded summary of the motives for exploration is as follows:

Trade and the desire for wealth: trade was controlled by Venetian and Muslim traders. European countries wanted to avoid the Italians and Muslims, and bypass them to get to the silk, spices, and other luxury items in Asia. With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks, the overland route to the Far East was essentially closed, all the more reason to find another route – go by sea around Africa or westward into the Atlantic.

Religious Motives: Christianity is a missionary religion. With Europe Christianized, they wanted to spread the Gospel to the rest of the world. Spain, a world power beginning in the 15 th century, completed the Reconquest in 1492. This had been a five hundred year struggle to restore Christianity to the peninsula, and their crusading Christian zeal was at an all-time peak!

Gold, Glory, and God: This is the name of a famous book by the historian Paul Wellman on the Spanish conquest of the Americas . These motivations were all jumbled together. For the Spaniards in particular, after five centuries of crusading against the power of Islam, it was hard to turn off that energy; the Americas provided a convenient outlet to continue the “tradition." And, of course, there was always the possibility of new wealth; and finally, never underestimate the lure of adventure for a bunch of hyped-up young men.

Technological Advances: There were advances in ship construction (bigger, faster, and sturdier) and there were new navigation aids, such as a new compass (in the 1300s they had used a magnetized needle floating on a straw in a bucket of water). The astrolabe was used to determine latitude; longitude was less accurate. And, sailors had developed considerable understanding of the pattern of winds and ocean currents (so can you, if you take courses in Physical Geography at Portland State University ).

Knowledge of Geography: Yep, more Geography - in the 15th Century maps were still crude and inaccurate. Early explorers like Marco Polo added to geographic knowledge, but it was still limited. By this time, most people knew the earth was round - they just didn't know that the Americas existed. In fact, myth and fantasy contributed much to the Atlantic Outlook, the search for non-existent places such as Atlantis. See the review of an interesting book – Phantom Islands of the Atlantic - for more information on this.

Decline of Fertility in the Mediterranean Sea: Centuries of landscape change, primarily due to deforestation, had contributed to a decline in fishing in the Sea; hence, fishermen, in particular those on the Atlantic coast had begun to go farther in search of productive fishing grounds.

World geography According to Columbus

Your text does a pretty fair job of describing the “Worldview” of Christopher Columbus. An important point to remember is that the writings of the Ancient Greeks had only recently been bought into the knowledge base of Western Europe . Columbus relied heavily on the work of Ptolemy and other Greek Geographers as he concocted his theory for sailing west to reach the Far East – a theory that was wrong in some important details, and had an unexpected outcome. You should be aware of his “Small Earth” hypothesis.

The Columbus Voyages – the “Encounter”

A good connection to physical geography is the circulation of the atmosphere in the North Atlantic Ocean – the Hadley Cell and the Trade Winds. While old Christopher didn’t comprehend the theory, he certainly was familiar with the Trades, as were all mariners of the time; and this was his highway across the ocean. Also, go to the Columbus Navigation Homepage and read the information, with maps, on the four voyages. This will give you a pretty good sense as to the extent of his discoveries.

The Tragedy of “The Columbian Exchange”

Refer to your assignment for an online discussion this week.

Competing Nations – Atlantic exploration in the 16th century

By this time you are probably worn out with all this reading and all this clicking. Here, I simply ask you that you finish reading Chapter 2, as assigned, and have a good understanding of the state of geographic knowledge of North America by the end of the 16th century. This map, from the archives of the University of Texas, is an interesting old-fashioned rendition showing the voyages of discovery from these years. Click on the map and it will expand so as to become readable.

Additional Resources top

(Note: This section is not required, but you are certainly encouraged to give these links some time and attention.)

Bering Land Bridge
Animation from Instaar at University of Colorado
(http://instaar.colorado.edu/QGISL/bering_land_bridge/)

Bering Strait Theory
A Native American Viewpoint
(http://www.native-languages.org/bering.htm)

Ptolemy Map of the World
(http://www.empereur.com/ptolemy.html)

“1491” – Atlantic Monthly Article, by Charles Mann, March 2002
This link takes you to the online journals in the PSU Library; you should be able to find it from there.
(http://wq5rp2ll8a.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=WQ5RP2LL8A&S=T_AZ&C=A&N=100&B=1800)

The Pristine Myth: Landscape of the Americas Prior to 1492
Scholarly article by the geographer, William Denevan
(http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/pristinemyth.html)

1492: An Ongoing Voyage
Library of Congress Exhibit
(http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/Intro.html)

Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Empire
University of Calgary
(http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html)

The Naming of America
(http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html)

The Story of the Conquistadors
BBC History Pages
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/conquistadors_01.shtml)

Age of Exploration
Narrative and maps, courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum (no, not the Seattle Mariners)
(http://americanhistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A//www.mariner.org/age/earlynav.html)

Course Notes – Valparaiso University
(http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/geo/courses/geo466/topics/mid_ages.html)

Assignments top
  1. Review the materials.   Do the Required Readings (including Instructor's Notes) and look through the additional resources.
     
  2. Informal Writing Assignment (20 points).   Complete the "Columbia Exchange Activity" which is on your weekly Lesson schedule.
     
  3. Quiz (10 points).   Complete the Week 2 Quiz - these are available from the "Assessments" link.   The weekly quizzes will be available from early Thursday morning through the following Monday at 11:55 PM.   DON'T MISS IT.