Age of Exploration: 1000 AD - 1616 | America | United States history | Discovery Voyages | Columbus

Leif Erikson arrived in Newfoundland briefly around 1000AD, but the longer-lasting Norse outposts are in Greenland and Iceland. Thus, the first contact between Europeans and native North Americans occurs between the Norse and the Inuit in the middle ages.

As early as the 14th century, Spain and Portugal are connecting with islands out in the Atlantic Ocean. Spain is active in the Canary Islands.

Meanwhile, Portugal expands this early into the Madeira Islands. By 1440, Portugal has expanded to the Azores Islands. The Azores are a big step in exploration, because they are so far out in the Atlantic Ocean.

By 1482, Portugal has explored the west coast of Africa. Tragically, this will be the beginnings of the African slave trade.

In 1492, Columbus sails to the canary islands and then shoots straight west across the expanse of the Atlantic ocean, in an attempt to reach India. He lands on San Salvador in the Bahamas.

Columbus returns the next year in 1493, sailing near Hispaniola--modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic--and Cuba. There are about 1 million natives on the island of Hispaniola at this time.

In 1497, the English commission John Cabot to sail directly west from England. He sights Newfoundland in Canada.

Also in 1497, Vasco da Gama clears the Cape of Good Hope around Africa, and navigates the eastern coast of Africa, finding an alterative route to India.

Columbus returns for a third voyage in 1498, and he sights the northern coastline of the South American continent.

Amerigo Vespucci, whose name--Amerigo--will christen the newly discovered continents, sails along the northeastern coast of South America in 1499.

Spain continues to dominate exploration. Ponce de Leon explores the eastern coast of Florida in 1513, and Balboa reaches Panama in the same year for Spain. Balboa will be the first European to see the eastern edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Cortes passes north of the Yucatan peninsula and lands in Mexico. there he encounters the mighty Aztec Empire in 1519, a civilization of millions. The Spanish find cities in Mexico bigger than the cities in Europe.

France enters the American exploration theatre in 1524. Verrazano sails up the Atlantic coast, the homeland of many Algonquian nations.

Cabeza de Vaca of Spain travels along the Gulf region from western Florida to near Galveston, Texas. He then spends time in the Texas interior of North America in 1528, moving among the native peoples there.

Further south, Spain conquers another powerful Native American civilization, the Incas. Francisco Pizarro brings Peru into the Spanish Empire in 1533.

Spain has established sugar colonies in the Caribbean. African Slaves are imported from West Africa to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.

1535: The Frenchman Cartier sails directly west from northwest France across the Atlantic. He explores the lower St. Lawrence River in the north.

Spain is now active on the Pacific side of the American continents. In 1539 de You Oh-A sights the Pacific coastline of Mexico and Baja California.

Spain's reach into the interior of North America spreads wider. Between 1539 and 1542, de Soto travels widely through the future southeastern united states. His long journey begins in Florida and goes westward across the Mississippi River.

On the other side of north America, Coronado is simultaneously exploring the southwest between 1540 and 1542, finding the great pueblo civilization of the southwest.

1565: The Spanish form the colony of St. Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement in the future united states.

By this time, many native American populations are crashing from smallpox, even before any direct contact is made with Europeans.

Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony at Roanoke in North Carolina in 1585. In a few years, the colony will vanish with only the word "Croatoan" scratched on a tree, a reference to a local native nation.

In 1588 Spain loses much of its fleet--the armada--in a thwarted invasion of England, and Spain's sea power dominance is now in question. England and France begin to find new openings.

France is finding its niche in the northeast. Samuel de Champlain explores the north between 1603 and 1609, pressing further down the St. Lawrence. His journey takes him to the the lake in New York State that bears his name. On the New York side of the St. Lawrence is the powerful Iroquois Confederacy. On the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence is the Huron nation.

English Jamestown is established in 1607.
French Quebec is established in 1608.

The Englishman Henry Hudson sails up the river in New York State that bears his name in 1609. The following year, 1610, Hudson explores the great Canadian bay that also bears his name.

The French also advance further into the north. Between 1615 and 1616, Champlain continues further into Huron country in Canada, sighting Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.
Film by Jeffrey Meyer
Satellite images from Microsoft Bing

[theskycavedin]

It's actually a misconception that Columbus thought he was going to "India" like the modern country. He was trying to get to "the Indies" which is what Europe called India, Indochina, Indonesia, and almost every other place in the east except for maybe China. So Columbus thought he was in "the Indies" and the name "Indian" referred to a broad range of people at the time, and he thought these people were in that range. So it wasn't really a misnomer when it was introduced as a term.

[mattschlegel]

I hate this misconception. Columbus didn't think he was in India, he thought he was in "The Indies" which later was referred to as the "East Indies." Specifically he thought he was in some small islands that are now part of modern Japan.

[alstar]

Actually the slave trade had already been going on for centuries, to the east. The west Atlantic slave trade was small by comparison.

[nilsb.]

Sure, Hudson was english but I'm still a bit bummed that the Dutch weren't mentioned. It was them after all, he sailed for. That's also why our favourite city on the Hudson was once called New Amsterdam.

[KC_FlightChief]

Can you imagine a time where explorers were setting off to explore the unknown.. I feel like it’s comparable to us exploring the cosmos, it had to have felt the same way for them.

[Julsran]

I remember learning all this in the late 60's and early 70's in middle and high school.

[EdinburghFive]

The Norse voyages to Newfoundland should be shown despite the fact they did not settle there for very long. Over the nest nearly five centuries of Norse occupation in Greenland, the Norse certainly sailed westward for various resources and to trade with the Dorset. They likely sailed into the Gulf of St Lawrence and maybe a bit farther south. The Norse did sail into the eastern arctic Baffin Island and Labrador and thus the map should reveal this within the first minute of the video.

[dLimboStick]

1:36 Correction: beginnings of European involvement in the African slave trade. Slavery was happening in Africa long before Europeans arrived, and it continues in Africa to this day.

[westtex]

Good to see to map clouded in unknown areas. If only 1 European nation was doing a lot of exploring in a given time, would knowledge of those new coastlines they found quickly propagate to other European nations, or would it be held secret by the exploring nation? Would the other nations still have a more clouded perspective until their own explorers reached it?

[elizabethstatom]

The graphics reminded me of the start of the computer game "Civilization". Great visual aid.
I like your vids.
More on topic: when looking at the great works left by ancient civilizations (Gobekli Tepe, Sumer, etc) I find it hard to believe the Europeans were the first to sail around the globe, especially with the similarities of symbols, monolithic structures, pyramids, and un-explainable high tech stone work found in so many places. No boats? No way.

[frankrosati]

Columbus never wrote in his journals that he was in India. He referred to the inhabitants as "indiginos" (indigenous) which was shortened to "Indios" and that was Anglicized into Indians. If Columbus thought that he was in India, he would have referred to the inhabitants as Jindus (The Spanish "J" being pronounced as an English "H").

[automaticmattywhack]

With his video of the early European colonies in North America and this one, it's a full semester of high school American History.

[jamesboekbinder]

Great - these videos really help to organize the events coherently while you learn about them. Thx!!!

[kyles]

I learned more in 9 minutes than I did in my entire school year on this subject.

[jessbawoke]

Awesome presentation of the timeline. Thank you, wish we could show this in ALL the schools.

[Blisnis]

these videos are awesome man. Thanks for the info.

[MemoryPallace]

Thank you for the visual you did a pretty good job

[nickphillips]

Interesting video. I especially liked having parts of the map 'blacked-out' until those regions are explored. Thank you

[Celticcross]

Erik the Red was the first Norseman to reach Greenland and settled there, some went onto Nova Scotia, these were Scots Norse Gaels.. the very first I believe, settlement remnants left later were found, they were my Norse ancestors.

[rickintexas]

What a wonderful lecture. This definitely improves on what we were taught in school books in the 70s.