THE VIKINGS More than 500 years before Columbus Norse or Scandinavian seamen known as Vikings had sailed to the coast of North America One of them Leif Eriksson landed in 1000 on the coast of what was probably Newfoundland and called it Vinland His followers tried to live there but constant battles with Native Americans made them give up after a few years Leif Eriksson spies the New World However the first European explorers of the New World were not looking for new places for people to live The sailors who arrived from Spain France England Portugal and other countries were actually seeking a sea route to the Orient India China Indonesia the Spice Islands and their neighbors produced highly desirable goods such as silks jewelry and spices The Italian adventurer Marco Polo had helped introduce these lands and their products to Europe in the 13th century But the routes Marco Polo pioneered leading eastward were often blocked by hostile forces or controlled by groups that demanded high taxes 6
For the first time Europeans were building ships that were large and seaworthy enough to sail into the uncharted waters to the west Christopher Columbus an Italian whose voyage was paid for by Spain was one of the first explorers to try to reach the Orient by sailing west In 1492 he landed on an island in the Bahamas Thinking it was India he called the indigenous people he encountered Indians Columbus made several more voyages the last in 1502 to 1503 visiting present-day Hispaniola Cuba which he thought was Japan and Jamaica He died in Spain in 1506 still believing he had reached the Far East After ten long weeks at sea Christopher Columbus lands in America in 1492 7
One of Columbus’s goals had been to find precious metal The queen of Spain had promised him 10 percent of all he could bring back Some of the native people he met wore tiny gold ornaments in their ears In the rivers of Hispaniola the sailors saw small amounts of gold When Columbus returned to Spain he exaggerated writing that he had seen many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold On his next voyage finding no gold he took many Native American slaves instead Some were sent by ship to Spain but they did not survive the voyage Columbus’s voyage was met with friendly indigenous people bearing gifts for the newcomers 8
The Spaniards forced hundreds of natives to work in Hispaniola agricultural fields or in the mines which yielded a little gold after a great deal of digging The Spaniards were harsh masters and within two years the native population had been reduced by half down from about 250,000 A gold nugget PONCE DE LEON SPOTS U S MAINLAND The first European to sight the mainland of the North American continent was Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León on March 27 1513 He named the land La Florida or Land of Flowers in Spanish For the next 50 years Spain tried unsuccessfully to establish a colony in Florida Juan Ponce de León 1474-1521 9
