20 Chapter 1 Alien Encounters: Europe in the Americas
Columbus’s Great Triumph—and Error
Columbus was an intelligent and skillful mariner.
Having read carefully Marco Polo’s account of his
adventures in the service of Kublai Khan, Columbus
had decided that these rich lands could be reached by
sailing directly west from Europe. The idea was not
original, but while others merely talked about it,
Columbus pursued it with dogged persistence.
For much of the fifteenth century, European
sailors had been venturing far beyond familiar shores.
The great figure in the transformation was Prince
Henry the Navigator, third son of John I, king of
Portugal. After distinguishing himself in 1415 in the
capture of Ceuta, on the African side of the Strait of
Gibraltar, he became interested in navigation and
exploration. Sailing a vessel out of sight of land was
still, in Henry’s day, more an art than a science and was
extremely hazardous. Ships were small and clumsy.European Voyages of DiscoveryBefore 1500, European sailors seldom ventured far across open water. They preferred to hug the coastline,
like Vasco da Gama’s journey around Africa in 1497–1499. Columbus’s 1492 voyage across the Atlantic was extraordinarily daring. But his
successful example inspired others to try alternative routes westward: Cabot, in 1497, sailed across the North Atlantic to Newfoundland;
Verrazano, in 1524, sailed due west from the Azores to the Carolinas and the east coast of what is now the United States; Hudson, in 1610, took
a far northern route, skirting the ice floes of the Arctic, and “discovered” Hudson Bay. Such men were the superstars of their age; and like
superstars of all ages, they became free agents, selling their services to the highest bidder. Thus Columbus, an Italian, claimed Hispaniola for
his employer, the Spanish monarchs; and Hudson, an Englishman, claimed the Hudson River for the Dutch East India Company.ATLANTIC
OCEANHudson
BayGulf of
MexicoCaribbean SeaATLANTIC
OCEAN
PACIFIC
OCEANCape
Verde
Is.Equator São ToméAzoresBahamas
CubaJamaicaHispaniola
Puerto
RicoSt. Lawrence R.Madeiras
Canary Is.Lisbon
PalosBristolEnglish voyages
French voyages
Portuguese voyages
Spanish voyagesSPAINPORTUGALNEWFOUNDLAND ENGLANDFRANCEEUROPEAFRICANORTH
AMERICASOUTH
AMERICAFrobisherjourneys 1576 – 1578Cabot 1497
Cartier 1534Verrazano 1524Columbus 1492
Columbus 1493Cartier 1535, 1541La Salle
1679–1682Marquette &
Joliet 1673Dia
s 1(^488)
Gama 1497 –^14
99
De Soto
1539–1542
Coronado
1540–1542
Hudson 1
(^610)