How and Why Europeans Came to the Americas
What did explorers take to and from the Americas during the Age of Exploration?
Introduction
A team of scientists search a sunken ship on the ocean floor. The ship has been there for centuries. How did it get there? What objects will the scientists find?
This ship may be one of many that set sail across the Atlantic in the late 1400s and in the 1500s. Europeans wanted spices and silks from Asia, but only a few countries controlled this trade. To share in this business, other countries began sailing unknown seas, looking for their own routes to Asia. What they found instead were the American continents.
You have learned about the first people to settle in North America. In this lesson, you will learn how and why Europeans set out for these lands, which they called the New World. Of course, this was not a new world to the Native Americans who had lived there for thousands of years. Also, other groups, such as the Vikings, had previously come to the Americas, but they did not create lasting settlements.
Christopher Columbus was one of the explorers who sailed to North America looking for a route to Asia. He set out on his expedition in 1492. Other explorers followed Columbus and sailed to the Americas. They used navigation tools to help them cross the ocean and brought back items of value.
Sometimes, ships were lost at sea. Scientists studying sunken ships look for artifacts that tell us about the explorers’ expeditions. They use tools such as sonar, which uses sound waves, to detect sunken objects and a grid to create location references.
As you read this lesson, picture yourself examining the objects on a sunken ship. What clues would these objects give you about how and why Europeans came to the Americas?
Vocabulary
Think about taking a trip to a new place. In the space below, describe:
• where you would go
• why you would want to go there
• what tools you would use to get there
• what tools you would use to navigate around the destination
Then discuss your trip with a friend. What would it be like to travel without the tools you described? What would motivate you to take a journey into the unknown?
Vocabulary Activity
For each vocabulary term, write a description in your own words. Use complete sentences.
Vocabulary Term Description
Age of Exploration
the Americas
astrolabe
cash crop explorer
Examine objects from an explorer’s ship. Then categorize artifacts as navigation tools, motives for exploration, or new products from the Americas.
Directions: Exploring a Sunken Ship
1. Team up with your partner. You and your partner will be underwater research scientists retrieving artifacts from a sunken ship.
2. Select roles and complete a dive. Take turns switching roles between the diver and the research scientist.
• Divers: You will dive in and retrieve an artifact. Discuss the questions on the back of the artifact.
• Research scientists: You will find the section in which the artifact is discussed. Read that section with your partner and complete the Activity Notes.
3. After each dive, check your work and return the artifact to where you found it. Continue until you have found all the artifacts and completed all of your Activity Notes.
Directions: Categorizing Artifacts
1. With your partner, use evidence and reasoning to categorize your assigned artifact. Consider all three categories around the room. If called on, explain which category matches your artifact and justify your choice.
2. Complete your table. Use what you learned from the text to categorize all of the artifacts.
3. Debrief as a class. Come to a conclusion as a class and check your answers.
1. Ocean Crossing
The European Age of Exploration began in the late 1400s when countries looked for new trade routes to Asia. In the late 1400s and in the 1500s, explorers crossing the Atlantic needed a way to stay on course. They had no landmarks to guide them in the open sea. They used astrolabes to find their position.
An astrolabe is a circular piece of metal with marks around its edges. A bar attached to it can be rotated about the center as a pointer. A sailor would hold the astrolabe by a loop at the top and then tilt the bar so that it lined up against the sun, the North Star, or another known star. He would measure the latitude of his ship by measuring the angle of the star above the horizon (where Earth and the sky meet). The angle would tell him how far north or south the ship was from the equator. Astrolabes enabled explorers to sail accurately by day or night.
2. Directions
European explorers used another tool for figuring out direction—a compass. People still use this tool today. A compass has a magnetic needle balanced on a small metal post, which the needle can spin freely on. The needle’s point is attracted to the powerful magnetic field that lines up close to the North Pole. So, the compass needle always points north.
During the Age of Exploration, if a ship’s navigator knew which direction was north, he could find the other directions. South is the opposite of north. When facing north, east is to the right, and west is to the left. A compass did not tell the navigator where he was, but it did show which direction the ship was heading, even when it sailed through fog or in total darkness. Without this tool, it may have taken Europeans much longer to reach the Americas.
During the Age of Exploration, navigation tools helped explorers sail across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Explorers used an astrolabe to find their position in the open sea.
Explorers used a compass to figure out cardinal directions and more accurately map their routes.
Where did you find this artifact? Explain how it was used by explorers.
Draw what you imagine the middle of this compass might look like according to the reading. Explain why this tool was important to explorers.
3. Maps
There are many types of maps. Nautical charts, which map the ocean, show such features as rocky shores and safe ports. Navigational maps show wind and ocean currents. European explorers carried these maps and maps of the places to which they journeyed.
Mapmakers in Europe got new information from sailors, explorers, and scientists. They added these details to their maps. In the 1400s, mapmakers knew that the world was round, but before Columbus sailed, they did not know about the Americas. No one realized how wide the Atlantic Ocean was. For centuries after Columbus’s trip, maps of the Americas still had many blank spots because they had not been explored yet by Europeans. They showed places that remained unknown. Often, maps also had drawings of imaginary sea monsters, such as undersea dragons or serpents.
This map is very old. How did mapmakers hundreds of years ago get their information about the world?
This is a map from the Age of Exploration. Complete the map by drawing both North America and South America.
Why do you think only part of the eastern coastline of North America and South America was drawn?
4. Claimed Lands
During the Age of Exploration, European rulers wanted to spread their power to the Americas. Sometimes they paid for explorers’ ships and crews. These explorers carried flags or banners to honor their kings and queens. Spanish ships often flew a flag that showed a cross. Their flags also had the letter F for King Ferdinand and a Y for Queen Ysabel (Isabella in English). Once explorers reached a land unexplored by Europeans, they planted a flag to claim, or take, that land for their country.
Flags have always been symbols of the power of countries and their rulers. And more power was what King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella wanted for both themselves and their country. Gaining more land and natural resources in the Americas would strengthen their kingdom of Spain.
5. Religious Beliefs
Christianity began in the Middle East. It spread through Europe almost 2,000 years ago during the time of the Roman Empire. Later, Europeans spread this religion to other parts of the world.
In the 1500s, explorers from Europe were Christians. Many carried a Bible with them. The Bible contains the stories and teachings of the Christian faith and has two parts. The Old Testament contains writings from the Jewish religion, while the New Testament contains writings by the followers of Jesus Christ.
Originally, Christians in Europe belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, but beginning in the early 1500s, some joined Protestant churches. Many believed that all people should share their beliefs. Catholic rulers sent priests and armies to other lands, including lands claimed by explorers. Part of their mission was to convert people to the Catholic Church.
Columbus and his sailors planted the flags of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella when they arrived in the Americas. They planted them to claim the land for Spain.
European explorers brought along Bibles to convert people to Christianity. This one was written in Latin and published in 1455.
Fill in the speech bubbles to show the perspectives of Columbus and a Native American in this drawing.
Columbus’s perspective
How did explorers help spread Christianity?
Native American perspective
6. Wealth
Europeans measured wealth in gold and silver. They made their most valuable coins from these metals. In the late 1400s, Spain had just fought a costly war. So, its king and queen wanted to increase their country’s supply of gold and silver. They hoped that the explorers they sent to the Americas would bring back these precious metals.
In parts of Mexico and South America, the Spanish found gold and silver. They enslaved native peoples to work in gold and silver mines. The Spanish turned the gold and silver ore from the mines into bars, coins, and other valuable objects. Ships carried these riches back to Spain.
7. New Foods
Some of the most valuable things explorers found and brought back were new foods. These are natural products, not artifacts. Historical records tell us about them. For example, native peoples from all over the Americas grew different types of corn. They roasted it, boiled it, popped it, and ground it into flour. The explorers liked this new food. It was as healthful and had as many uses as wheat, but its seeds were bigger and tastier.
New foods from the Americas changed what people ate around the world. Some vegetables that came from the Americas include potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, and squash. Fruits such as tomatoes and pineapple were first grown in the Americas too. As these foods spread, people began to eat a more healthful diet. Populations grew in many places in Europe.
Do you like chocolate? Cacao, from which chocolate is made, was also first grown in the Americas. Native peoples there used cacao in drinks and in medicines.
This gold doubloon was used in Spain as currency until the 19th century.
Native peoples in the Americas introduced European explorers to corn and to beans in cacao pods. Corn became especially popular in Europe.
Why did the Spanish enslave Native Americans to work in gold and silver mines? Why were the mines important to Spain?
Draw and label six new foods the Spanish brought back from the Americas.
8. Cash Crops
Early explorers saw a tall, leafy plant called tobacco, which grew throughout the Americas. Native Americans dried its leaves. Some smoked the dried leaves in pipes or cigars, and others chewed tobacco or inhaled it as a powder, which Europeans called snuff. In most tribes, few women used tobacco, but many men were addicted to it. They thought tobacco was good for their health. Tobacco was part of religious and peacemaking ceremonies for many tribes.
Explorers took tobacco back to Europe. Some Europeans thought it was a medicine, and many became addicted to it. Tobacco grew quickly in popularity and was in great demand. It grew well in the Americas, so European settlers would plant large fields of tobacco there and sell the crop to Europeans. Tobacco became a valuable cash crop. The money earned from tobacco sales helped buy goods from Europe.
Tobacco is an American cash crop that many Europeans soon became addicted to. Tobacco farmers grew crops in the Americas and shipped them back to Europe to be sold.
Hands-On Activity Notes
Circle the category that best fits each artifact. Give evidence from the text to support your choice.
Artifact Category Evidence
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Motives Products Technology
Summary
In this lesson, you read about artifacts that might have been found on ships that sank during the Age of Exploration. These objects give us clues about how and why Europeans came to the Americas.
These artifacts include navigation tools that sailors at that time used. These tools helped guide explorers as they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The artifacts also help explain why explorers set out for the Americas. They wanted to spread Christianity while gaining new lands and wealth for themselves and their countries.
You also read about the valuable cargo of American plants that explorers brought back to Europe. People in Europe soon began to eat new foods, such as corn and potatoes. As tobacco became popular, it was grown as a cash crop to be sold to Europeans for large profits. The Americas were rich with resources, and the explorers were determined to bring many of them back home to Europe.
Show What You Know
In a well-written paragraph, develop a claim that answers this question: What was the biggest motive for European exploration?
Provide at least two pieces of evidence from the reading, the activity, or outside research.