AS405 History Of Western Civilization

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Bachelor of History and Civilization
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The History of American Exploration
The history of American expedition dates back to around 1000 C.E when the first
Europeans known as the Viking from Scandinavia led by Leif Eriksson set their foot on Canada
in the province of Newfoundland and established a temporary settlement (Kendall,2018).
Though it is believed that Christopher Columbus was the first European explorer to set his foot
in America, there had been previous explorers in the likes of Vikings who had traveled before.
This paper intends to discuss the biography of Europeans explorers to America the focus being
on the economic, environmental, social, and political that influenced the explorer to look for new
land and reason to why the expedition took place.
The Vikings of Scandinavia were the first European to set foot on North America as
discussed earlier, they came 500 years earlier before Christopher Columbus did his expedition.
Led by Leif Eriksson the Vikings first settle in the Greenland but due to the harsh climate of
Greenland and lack of woods (Turner, 2018). Leif Eriksson and the team decided to venture
westwards in search of woods. Leif and his crew first set foot at a place they called flat stone
land which was desolated land of mountain and glaciers. From there the crew sailed towards the
south and after two days sailing they reached the present day Newfoundland a province in
Canada.
The motivation for Viking exploration was essentially due influence of social factors.
Since most of the Vikings were pagans basically non-Christians the other Europeans countries
such as England invaded the Vikings lands almost kill everyone who refused to be baptized to
convert to Christianity (Booth, 2018). Due to fear of their life, it basically drove them away to
look for a new land. Another idea that leads the Viking to explore for new land is due to the
increase in population; it resulted in an increase in pressure to search for more lands. This made

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some of the Viking to travel westwards in search of the new farming land. Though the Viking
settled in North America for some time they were driven away by the natives Americans of that
time and eventually had to go back to Greenland.
The other European expedition to North America sponsored by Spanish and Italian
exploration was led by Christopher Columbus. This exploration by Christopher Columbus was to
search a westward route to China and Japan. Christopher Columbus was an Italian born in Genoa
but he lived in Portugal (Adams, 2017). Christopher was a learned person and knew that the
world was round unlike the ignorant who believe that the world was a flat surface. Due to this
fact he believes that by sailing westward you will appear to China which in turns you will come
back from the eastwards.
Christopher Columbus proposed to King John II about the idea of him traveling to China
through westward in which the king passed the proposal to his committee in which they failed to
the owner by declaring that China was too far (De Asúa & French, 2017). Being frustrated he opt
to look for support in Spain where he met King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of which at first
they refused the idea of Christopher exploring China. Christopher threatened to look for support
in France which essentially led to Spain monarchy accepting his exploration.
Christopher Columbus was handed ships and given crew member of about ninety people.
They first landed in the island which he essentially the name San Salvador by this time he
believed he was close to China and according to his map the island he encountered was in the
vicinity of Japan. On this island, the indigenous people Christopher found named them Indians in
which to the present days those island archipelagoes are called West Indies. The indigenous
people were identifying as the Tainos (Dikötter, 2018). Most of the indigenous were sail to Spain
as slaves and those who remained were forced to fly from their rich land and others were brutally

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killed especially those who refused to work as a slave. Due to this harsh condition, most of the
Tainos died and soon came to extinct.
The motivational behind Christopher Columbus exploration was essential to establish
Spain as superhorse among Europeans countries in terms of political establishment. Since
Portugal at that time was considered the best in sea exploration. Also, Spain at that time was
looking to bolster her economy in trading with countries from Asia such as China and Japan.
Christopher Columbus died at the age of fifty-seven in Spain and believing that he had explored
the Asian world.
From the two explorations, it can be seen that Christopher Columbus was not the first
European to settle in America rather it was the Viking of Scandinavia. It is also clearly the search
for new land and anxiety to discover new lands led to exploration in towards the westward.

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References
Adams, J. T. (2017). The epic of America. Routledge.
Booth, J. A. (2018). Understanding Central America: Global forces, rebellion, and change.
Routledge.
De Asúa, M., & French, R. (2017). A new world of animals: early modern Europeans on the
creatures of Iberian America. Routledge.
Dikötter, F. (2018). Cultures of confinement: a history of the prison in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America. Cornell University Press.
Kendall, J. (2018). Encyclopedia of the Atlantic World, 1400-1900: Europe, Africa, and the
Americas in an Age of Exploration, Trade, and Empires. Reference Reviews, 32(5), 26-
28.
Turner, F. J. (2018). The significance of the frontier in American history. Charles River Editors
via PublishDrive.