2.29 America: a.d. 1501 to 1600

America

Back to to America: A.D. 1401 to 1500

North america

The far north and canada

It was mentioned earlier in this chapter that this century has been called the "Little Ice Age" because of an overall drop in temperature. Although the Thule Arctic Culture was probably little affected, the arctic glacier now extended well down on Greenland, destroying the agricultural base there, which had helped to support neighboring Iceland. (Ref. 224 )

Only 12 years after Columbus' first voyage to America, Breton fishermen were working the cod banks off Nova Scotia and soon were on the mainland, trading with the Indians for furs. Gaspar Corte-Real had discovered Newfoundland for Portugal and the French explorers Verrazano and Cartier initiated the "French Kingdoms of the North" to give needed revenues for the luxuries of the court of young Francois I. Giovanni de Verrazano (actually a Genoese) sailed all up the coast from Chesapeake Bay to the Strait of Belle Isle. Jacques Cartier followed in 1534, named the St. Lawrence River and then tried for a sea route to Asia, finding only auks, cod, herring, wolf fish, wapiti, elks, beaver and even a polar bear. Scurvy became rampant among his Frenchmen and the Hurons with whom they dealt. After that period for 50 years there were only trappers and traders, with trading posts at Quebec and Montreal. The name "Canada" is an Indian word meaning "village". (Ref. 39 , 122 , 150 , 222 )

The united states (see map on page 1009)

By 1600 there were probably 1,000,000 Indians, speaking some 2,000 languages, in the United States. (Ref. 8 ) New York state and the lower Great Lakes region were the lands of the Iroquois. Their village sites were built away from waterways and were sometimes fortified. They farmed maize and possibly beans and squash and hunted. Pottery was used for cooking and storing tobacco for their pipes. (Ref. 45 ) In 1845 settlers near Onandaga, not far from Lake Ontario, found a stone which was inscribed "Leo VI 1520" and this may indicate a Norse settlement proscribed by the then Pope Leo VI, some 14 years before the arrival of Jacques Cartier. (Ref. ) In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh sent Amandes and Barlow to found a colony at Raleigh, Virginia, but it was subsequently lost, as were two following attempts in 1587 and 1589 by John White on Roanoke Island.

The century ended without even a trading post belonging to Britain in the New World. (Ref. 222 )

Although there were the limited French and English efforts just mentioned, Spain owned America in this 16th century, as far as Europeans were concerned. After the Caribbean was ravaged by the dregs of Spanish civilization, as we shall note in the next section, it was the turn of the Gulf Coast of the United States. A first expedition, led by Ponce de Leon (who had been on Columbus' second trip), landed in Florida in 1513 claiming that region for Spain. In the 16th century "Florida" meant the entire area of present day Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and possibly more. Ponce may not have been the first Spaniard in Florida, as one early writer says that when- Ponce arrived at Charlotte Harbor on the Gulf side, a Spanish-speaking Indian greeted him. This native, however, may have escaped from a passing Spanish ship or come from the Antilles on his own.