- Marco Polo's account of his travels to China in the 1300s stimulated new east-west trade routes between Europe and Asia. This, along with advances in printing technology, helped spread new ideas. - Europeans like Columbus began exploring west across the Atlantic in search of new trade routes to Asia in the late 1400s. Columbus made four voyages but did not realize he had discovered a new continent. Others later took credit for this discovery, with mapmakers naming the new lands "America" after Amerigo Vespucci. - European powers like Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands established colonies in North America during the 1500s-1700s for economic and religious reasons. The early colonies struggled but

1. The Opening
New World
How the Americas influenced European
Culture and How Europeans Changed
America

2. Europe Prior to the Renaissance
Europe in 1300 was fragmented, made up of
numerous small kingdoms, but relatively unified by
faith. The Church in Rome tried to control doctrine.

3. Marco Polo
In the 1300s, a manuscript account
of a journey to China, written by
Marco Polo (left) was read by many
scholars and merchants in Europe.
While some are still uncertain that
Polo ever actually traveled to China,
many were excited by his
descriptions of the great wealth of
the Chinese cities and the cities of
the Middle East. Ships from the
Italian port cities now began to
engage in trade with ports on the
eastern Mediterranean, purchasing
goods and information from Asia
and the ‘silk road’ trade.

4. New Trade and Trade Routes
Polo’s account of his journey to China stimulated new east-
west trade. The Italian cities benefited from this trade because
it used the old eastern Mediterranean route of ancient times.

5. New Technology Boosts Learning
In the 1400s, a group of enterprising businessmen
perfected moveable type in a new printing press,
which further revolutionized the spread of
information in Europe.

6. Portolanos for Sailing.
Portolanos were special maps that contained navigation
lines – set routes for reaching specific ports or harbors.
These were useful only in known waters.

7. The Unknown Hemisphere.
Since there was no specific record of the migration of Asians to
“North America” about 60,000-100,000 years earlier, even
educated Europeans were unaware of its existence.

8. Native American Cultures
Over thousands of years, numerous Native American cultures
developed, ranging from small nomadic groups cities in South
and Central American, and in the “Mississippian” mound
communities near the rivers in mid-North America.
10-20,000 natives lived at the mound city of Cahokia
in the 1200-1300s. The city and its corn-culture was
abandoned for unknown reasons.

9. Pre-Columbus Ties Across the Oceans
There is little doubt that there
were many contacts between
the inhabitants of the
“American” continents and the
inhabitants of the Euro-
African land mass prior to the
15th century. In addition to
scattered references in
ancient writings, experiments
by various anthropologists
have suggested possible
ways in which this occurred.
In the early 1970s, Thor Heyerdahl, a Scandinavian explorer, used a
reed boat constructed in ancient Egyptian fashion to cross the
Atlantic (boats of similar design have long existed in South America).

10. Evidence of European Exploration
Scandinavian records show that several voyages
were made from northern Europe across the Atlantic
between the 10th and 13th centuries.

11. Evidence of European Habitation
Archaeologists have found remains of Norse
settlements in Greenland and Newfoundland.

12. Columbus
By the 1480s, several
ship captains speculated
on the possibility of
reaching Asia by sailing
west and across the
Atlantic. Cristobal
Colon, (Columbus) was
an Italian seaman who
tried to interest England
and France in such a
venture.
Columbus’s idea was feasible only if the Earth was about 15,000
to 18,000 miles in circumference, an estimate reached by one
group of Greek scholars. Fifteenth century ships could not be
provisioned for more than about 3-4 months at sea.

13. 1492 – The First Voyage
In 1492, Columbus
persuaded the King and
Queen of newly united
Spain to pay for a three-
ship expedition across
the Atlantic. In October,
after weeks at sea,
Columbus’s sailors
sighted land to the west.
Columbus assumed he
had reached Asia.
While exploring these islands of “India,” Columbus found large
numbers of natives, little gold or conventional riches, and few of
the trade goods that Europeans wanted. But he returned to
Spain convinced he had opened a new route to Asia.

14. Four Voyages and Claims to “New
Lands”
After four explorations of the the islands (i.e. the
Caribbean), Columbus still did not realize that he was on
the doorstep of a continent unknown to Europe. Others
eventually realized it, and one of them took the credit.

15. Americus and America
Americus Vespucci, another Italian sailor, claimed to have
explored the coast of a new continent in the south in 1500-
1501. Although no evidence of his voyages have ever
been found, mapmakers called the new lands “America.”
Spain claimed the rights to these new lands based on
Columbus’s voyages and the explorations after him.
In a 1507 publication briefly
describing Vespucci’s voyages, the
German geographer Waldseemuller
wrote “I see no reason why anyone
should justly object to calling this
part ... America, after Amerigo*
[Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of
great ability.”
* Rendered in Latin as Americus

16. Conquistadors
Most of exploration of the New World for Spain was carried
out by conquistadors – literally conquerors -- men who had
helped conquer much of Spain from the rule of Islamic
caliphs in the 1400s and now sought to gain land, wealth
and fame in the new lands across the ocean.

17. John Cabot
Yet another Italian seaman, Johan Cabotus, was paid by
England to duplicate Columbus’s exploration. Sailing
across the Atlantic from further north in 1498-99, Cabot
explored the shores of what would become eastern
Canada and New England, giving England its own claim.

18. New World as Unspoiled Utopia
Some early explorers, like Walter Raleigh (right) and his half
brother Humphrey Gilbert thought the New World offered a
chance to create a new society free of the Old World’s vices.

19. Promoting Colonies
Early attempts by England to establish
colonies failed. A colony at “Roanoke”
on the Carolina coast failed when most
of the settlers returned to England after a
difficult winter. The group left behind
simply disappeared. Plans for other
attempts collapsed for want of funds.
Richard Hakluyt, an English promoter of
colonies, collected accounts of English
explorations and published these in the
1580s in an attempt to maintain
momentum for a colony supported by
the government.

20. Pilgrims-Puritans
Two groups of potential
colonists were the Pilgrims
and the Puritans. The
Pilgrims were a Protestant
group who had emigrated
to Holland, but were
considering a further move
to American because they
found the Dutch culture too
“liberal.”
The Puritans were a much larger group. Their leaders were
largely gentlemen with some wealth and influence in English
society. They believed the Church of England was “too Popish.”
Neither the Puritans nor the Pilgrims believed in the tolerance of
other faiths (or each other).

21. Jamestown
The first successful English colony was Jamestown, a purely
economic venture by young English gentlemen who hoped to find
land and wealth in “Virginia.” With charter from King James I,
they landed in 1607 and built a fort along the James River. Few
had any experience in exploration or living off the land.

22. Colonizing New England
In 1620, the Pilgrims, having returned to England from
Holland, obtained a charter to establish a colony near
Virginia. Their leaders deliberately sailed to New
England instead to create a separate community in
what is now southern Massachusetts.

23. Cultural Exchange
The Pilgrims would not have
survived in the New World
without the aid of the local
Native Americans aided
them. Because English
seed did not at first thrive in
the soil of New England, the
Pilgrims had to obtain food
from the natives, and also
learn to cultivate local food.
The Pilgrim-native relationship was an example of “cultural
exchange.” The Pilgrims learned to grow maize (corn), squash,
pumpkins, and beans from the Algonquians and also were
allowed to hunt game on their lands. In return the Pilgrims
exchanged trade goods (cloth, tools, etc.) for furs trapped by
the natives.

24. The Dark Side of Exchange
 Because they feared the natives might try to destroy
them if they knew the extent of their death rate, the
Pilgrims hid the graves of many who died in the first
year.
 The microbes (germs) from Europe devastated native
populations in New England – with small pox, diphtheria
and other European illnesses killing thousands.
 Early colonial villages were built in the open fields left
by tribes wiped out by disease (Springfield, Deerfield,
etc.)

25. The “City Upon a Hill”
The Puritans, another
Protestant group,
carried out a well-
organized colonization
of what is now
Massachusetts, between
1630 and 1645. Entire
communities that were
supplied and supported,
established Boston and
several nearby villages.
Once again, the object
was to create a separate,
“Godly community of
Saints.”

26. Non-British Colonies
By the late 1600s, other
Europeans were coming to North
America in larger numbers. The
Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam
was seized by the British in 1664
to eliminate a fur trade rival. In
1682, William Penn (right)
obtained permission to create the
Pennsylvania Colony as a haven
for Quakers. But within 50 years
large numbers of German
families came to Pennsylvania to
establish farms

27. Middle Colonies
 New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware
and Maryland were the “middle colonies.”
 Their population was mixed – Dutch, Swedish,
German, Scots, British
 Religion was also mixed – Puritan, Church of
England, Presbyterian, Mennonite, Catholic.
 Economies were a mix of trade, farming, and
early industry.

28. Trade Routes
Colonial traders made fine profits from the
complex trade routes between the Americas and
the Old World, but resented trade laws.

29. Mercantilism
 The colonies would be regulated by
imperial government to control trade
 Certain companies in Britain were granted
monopolies to trade in certain goods (eg.
Hudson Bay Company controlled interior
fur trade).
 Colonies not allowed to create industries
that would compete with those at home.

30. Shipbuilding
Colonial ports could build
ships, but the government
regulated which parts of
the world those ships
could trade with – eg.
Sugar could only be
bought from British sugar
colonies.

31. From Indentured Labor to Slavery
Slavery increased as the
number of indentures
from Britain declined

32. Slavery and Freedom
The increase in slavery sparked protests

33. Anti-slavery Movements
In the 1700s, John Woolman
became one of the first colonists
to protest the existence of slavery,
and argue that it should be
forbidden under British law.