Early Exploration of the US and North
Carolina

Part One
• The Start of Exploration
• Christopher Columbus
• Other Explorers
• Impact of Native Americans
Part 2
• The Columbian Exchange
Part 3
• Exploration and North Carolina

• Renaissance Period same time as Age of Exploration
• Question previous ideas and concepts
• Rebirth
• Scientific Method instead of Faith and God
• European nations hoped to find new trade routes, spread Christianity, gain wealth, build empires
• GOD, GOLD, GLORY
• Vasco Da Gama and Henry the Navigator of Portugal lead the way by exploring a path around Africa to the
East Indies

• Was he the first to discover the Americas? (Leif
Erickson 11 th Century))
• Hoped to reach Asia by sailing West through
Atlantic Ocean
• Italian who sailed for Spain (Queen Isabella and
King Ferdinand paid for his voyage)
• 1492, Columbus set sail with 3 ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria
• 10/12: Thought they found India (Actually the
Caribbean)

• In the New World, Columbus called
Native peoples “Indians” thinking that he was in the Indies
• Natives wore gold jewelry (gold in the
New World)
• Columbus’ 2 nd voyage discovered
Puerto Rico

• Many followed the route of Columbus
• Amerigo Vespucci (named the Americas)
• Ferdinand Magellan discovers passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific

• http://www.history.com/videos/mysteryroanoke#mystery-roanoke
• http://www.phschool.com/atschool/ahon/hist ory_interactive/mvl-
1021/common_player.html
• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/ki ds/history-kids/christopher-columbus-kids/

• Treated as a source of labor on plantations and encomiendas
• Explorers felt it was their duty to convert
Natives to Christianity (uncivilized people)
• Native Americans population drops rapidly due to diseases from Europe
• European colonies need new labor source
• 1517, 4,000 African slaves were brought to the Caribbean

• Changing the World through global interaction
• What is the Columbian Exchange?
• How did it impact Europe?
• How did it impact the Americas?
• How does it effect present day culture?

• Imagine you were a Sailor with Columbus.
How would you interact with the Natives when you first met them? Remember why you are exploring (the 3 G’s).
• Would you treat them well?

• Exchange of goods, people, plants, diseases, culture, and ideas between the Old and the
New World
• What are some possible goods?
• What do they mean by people?

• 5 things that were transferred from the Old
World to New World:
• 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
• 5 things that were transferred from the New
World to Old World:
• 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

• Diseases (Small Pox), Livestock, Banana,
Coffee, Grapes
• Corn, Avocado, Pumpkin, Tobacco, Peppers

• New crops were grown in the Old World
• Lead to new foods and economic resources.
Change in culture from different foods
• Irish would not have had potatoes if not for
Columbian Exchange and Italians would not be using Tomatoes for their sauce
• Native Americans brought back for slaves
• People left Europe to gain wealth in the Americas
• New diseases spread but not nearly as bad as in the Americas

• New crops grown in the Americas. Food, economic resources, and culture change
• Horses, cattle, chicken change type of farming and food in the New World
• Native Americans killed by European diseases that
Europeans were immune to
• Slavery brought to New World to work on large farms (plantations)

• Beginning of Globalization…what is globalization?
• Process by which the world becomes more familiar and in sync with the rest of the world
• Without the Columbian Exchange would chicken be a main food item?
• How did new crops affect economies? Then and now?
• Has some of our ancestry been affected?

• Write 3 Possible ways the Columbian
Exchange has impacted our world today:
• How would life be different if the exchange never took place?

• Explorers named their findings or new colonies after themselves, cities in their homeland or their king or queen.
• North Carolina was named after King Charles I and
King Charles II of England. The name "Carolina" comes from the Latin word "Carolinus," meaning
"of Charles."

About this time (1400s) there lived in Italy a boy by the name of Christopher Columbus. He lived at Genoa, a small seaport town on the Mediterranean Sea. When not at school Columbus was generally found standing about the wharves, watching the great ships come and go and listening to the marvelous stories told by the sailors.
Genoa at this time was a very rich town and sent ships to all parts of the known world. The little boy drank in all the wonderful stories the sailors were so fond of telling, and thus learned much of the far away countries.
“I shall be a sailor,” he would say to himself as he listened; and then, like all other small lads, he longed to grow big and strong.
His parents were poor but wise and tried to give him a good education. He was taught to read and write, and when old enough his father sent him away to school, where he could study arithmetic, drawing and geography.
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He was only fourteen years old when he made his first voyage upon the great blue sea with some traders bound for the East Indies. From that time on, his life was like that of all sailors, I suppose, full of adventures, narrow escapes and marvelous experiences.
When thirty-five years old, he went to Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. He was a quiet, dignified, thoughtful man. His hair had grown white, and he had here and there on his face lines of care and trouble. The stories of sea-gods and wind-gods had long ceased to satisfy him. He said there must be something different from this. And so, year after year, he pondered upon the shape of the earth. He read every account of travels, every story of adventure, every theory of the earth’s size and shape that he could find. “It is easy enough to guess about these things,” he would say, “but there must be some natural law, some real fact, that, if discovered, would give us the true knowledge.”

Questions
1. Where did Christopher Columbus live as a young boy?
2. According to this brief sketch, what language did
Columbus study at school?
3. How old was Columbus when he made his first voyage
“upon the great blue sea”?
4. Lisbon is the capital city of what European country?
5. Imagine that you are Columbus, growing up in a coastal trading town. Might you be drawn to sailing? Why or why not?

John II, then king of Portugal, was convinced that these notions of
Columbus, as the people were pleased to call them, were not so absurd as they seemed. “The man knows what he is talking about, I believe,” said he. “I will get his plans, pretend to favor them, pretend to be willing to aid him— then we’ll see who will have the honor of the first expedition, Columbus, the
Genoese wool-comber’s son, or John II, King of Portugal!”
And so this mean King led Columbus on to tell his reasons for believing the earth to be round. When he had learned all, and had stolen the maps and charts which Columbus had made, he secretly sent out a vessel and ordered the captain to follow closely the route that Columbus had marked out.
This was a mean trick, and no wonder it did not succeed. A great storm arose. The waves rolled high and tumbled and broke above them mountains high. The thunder rumbled and the lightning flashed. Terror-stricken, the sailors turned homeward. A more miserable crew never sailed back to Lisbon than this crew sent out by King John II.
Columbus, disappointed with the King, took his little son, Diego, with him, left the country, and went to Spain.

Questions:
1. Who reigned as king of Portugal at this time?
2. What did John II do with the maps and charts of
Columbus?
3. What happened to the vessel that was sent out by John
II?
4. Where did Columbus take his son when he left
Portugal?
5. Imagine that you are Christopher Columbus, trying to find a financial backer for your voyage. How might you react to John II’s actions? Explain.