History of the USA. Early History of the American Continent. Native Americans

History of the USA

1. Early History of the American Continent. Native Americans

When the first Europeans came to North America there were about 10 million Indians north of present-day Mexico and they had been living there for quite a long time. The American Indians or the Native Americans arrived from Asia during the last Ice Age (20 000 – 30 000 years ago) crossing the land-bridge between Siberia and Alaska that is now under the Bering Strait.

The oldest documented Indian cultures in North America are:

1.  Sandia (15 000 B.C.);

2.  Clovis (12 000 B.C.);

3.  Folsom (8 000 B.C.).

The name “Indians” was first applied to them by Christopher Columbus who mistakenly believed that America was a part of the Indies in Asia.

The major Native American tribes are:

1.  Iroquois;

2.  Inuit;

3.  Algonquins;

4.  Cherokee;

5.  Apache;

6.  Navajo;

7.  Cree;

8.  Ojibwa.

When the Europeans started to arrive and settle in North Americans in the 16^th – 17^th c. they were in most cases heartily welcomed by the Natives. Unfortunately, the Europeans came to conquer and paid back with violence and atrocities. Very soon the number of the Native Americans started to decline and their life became miserable. ( + Read Unit 16, “Hello, America!”)

2. First Explorers and Colonisation of North America

1 000 (!) – the Vikings disembarked in America (archeologists found huts built in Viking style in Newfoundland, Canada). Leif Ericson, a Scandinavian raider, founded a temporary colony called Vinland (because vines were found there) but the settlement did not last due to the hostility of the local Indians (the Algonquins).

1492 (!) – Christopher Columbus, an Italian adventurer, sailed form Spain to find a new way from Europe to Asia. He believed that he had landed in India and called the people he met in America “Indians”. He made 3 more voyages to America funded by the Spanish Crown – in 1493, 1498 and 1502.

1493 (!) – Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator, made 4 voyages to North America without ever once seeing it! A contemporary mapmaker Martin Waldesmüller wrongly thought Vespucci had discovered the whole of the continent and in 1507 put his mane on the map (that’s why America is called America). When he learned of his mistake he took the name off but by then it had stuck J.

1497 – Henry the 8^th supported commerce and granted Bristol merchants a trade monopoly in the land that could be discovered. Bristol merchants hired an Italian Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) to lead the expedition. He sailed on the ship called “Mathew” with a crew of 18 men in search of a new route to Japan. Instead he reached the Canadian coast and called it “new found land” (Newfoundland).

1513 – Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer, discovered Florida and claimed the territory for Spain.

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian sponsored by France, discovered the New York Harbour and the Hudson River.

1534 – Jacques Cartier sailed along the St. Lawrence River and claimed the land for France. He made 2 more voyages to North America in 1535 and 1541.

1539 – Hernando de Soto (Spain) discovered the Mississippi River.

1540 – Francesco Coronado discovered the Grand Canyon and introduced horses to the Indians.

1565 (!)– Don Pedro Menendes de Aviles (Spain) founded the first permanent European settlement in North America at St. Augustine (Florida).

3. 13 Original Colonies

1607 (!) – the first permanent English settlement was founded in Virginia (1) and was called Jamestown. There lived 105 people but after a severe winter only 32 of them survived. (See the story of Pocahontas in Unit 16, “Hello, America!”)

1619 – 20 Africans were brought by a Dutch ship to Jamestown for sale as servants marking the beginning of slavery in colonial America.

1620 (!) – the Pilgrim Fathers (members of the Puritan Church who wished to purify the church of England by making it simpler and stricter) sailed on the ship “Mayflower” from Plymouth, England to North America persecuted by the English officials. They were called Pilgrims because of their wanderings in search of religious freedom. There were 101 of them. Right on the ship 41 of them chose the first governor and signed “Mayflower Compact" – agreement establishing the first local self-government in North America. This was an example for the other colonies. The Pilgrim Fathers explored the land around the Cape Cod Bay and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts (2). This was the second permanent English settlement in America.

The first American Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in Plymouth in 1621 (now 4^th Thursday in November, a public holiday in the USA when the Americans give thanks to God for the blessings they have enjoyed during the year). The Pilgrim Fathers were not prepared for the life on a new wild continent. Hard work, diseases, cold weather and bad food killed about half of them. In 1621 an Indian walked into the village of Plymouth and offered help. Later an Indian chief Massasoit brought food and gifts to the Pilgrims and taught them how to hunt, fish, grow crops which they had never seen before (corn, pumpkins, beans, squash). The Pilgrims decided to thank God for his kindness to them and to strengthen their friendship with the Natives. So they invited them for a holiday called Thanksgiving. Since then it has become one of the traditions of the USA (see more in Unit 15, “Hello, America!”)