chapter 2 new empires in the Americas section one European set sail the Vikings were from a land called Scandinavia if you're looking at the map here this is a large map of Scandinavia here it consists of Iceland Norway Sweden Finland and Denmark if you look at the bigger map here of Europe This is Scandinavia right here anyway the Vikings go from there and they will be the very first European group of people to make contact with North America not Chris for Columbus not the pilgrims it's the Vikings who'll be the first ones over to North America now they were known as Fierce Warriors and they developed this reputation of killing if they came to your area they raided countries throughout Europe and you know some fear of guidance people they ruin these big ships with big kind of dragon heads on them so it scared people when they arrived they traveled all over the place sometimes they were ruthless sometimes they killed people for no reason but other times they developed trading networks with people they would reach all the way into what we now known as Russia by sailing up rivers and such but trading with these different groups of people in 1000 A.D a viking named Leaf Erickson sailed from Norway all the way over to the North American Coast having been blown off course by a storm he wasn't trying to get to the shores of North America but he was kind of blown off now he was actually trying to get to a place called Greenland didn't quite make it but he did land in this area right here which is in today Canada but this is called Labrador and this part down here is called Newfoundland now if you look at the word Newfoundland right here the Vikings of course named it new found land that's why it's called Newfoundland today uh so it is believed you know the Vikings land in this area see where the red is and they will travel down the coast of North America too maybe even reaching as far south as New England now if you look at the name Leif Erickson it tells you a little bit about his Heritage because his father's name was Eric the Red now if you look at his last name and this is kind of traditional he is the son of Eric that's why his last name is Erickson so the Vikings will establish uh a settlement a North American settlement here at a place called Vinland which today was not Newfoundland um but there are numerous reasons why that didn't last um it's kind of isolated I mean there wasn't really many people there and they were constantly being attacked by Native Americans so that would prompt the Vikings to eventually give up any colonization of this land and head back over to Europe now a little Side Story here about the whole idea of Greenland and why it's called Greenland obviously there's the place called Iceland over in Scandinavia in Iceland you know his name is kind of misleading because Iceland is really quite green it's got lots of green grass highly active volcano-wise but lots of green grass whereas Greenland here not so much it's mainly ice and rock and dirt you know it's not very good for uh growing crops or anything like that but they named the Greenland so that if an Invader would want to conquer anything of the Vikings they would go to Greenland because there was nothing there not Iceland which was rich with great land the Vikings will not return to North America but people started becoming interested in that in exploring new lands one of those guys is a Portuguese man named Prince Henry and his nickname was the Navigator and he was responsible for advances that would make exploration more successful now he never went on an exploration Voyage himself but he wanted to have other people go do the exploring and so he is going to establish a school of navigation he also Builds an observatory he finances research by map makers and shipbuilders he brought in the best map makers the best shipbuilders not only to do those things but also to teach at the navigation School uh students to do those things as well he also paid for expeditions to explore the coast of Africa now what Portugal Prince Henry and Portugal and a lot of European countries are trying to do is get to Asia they're looking for a shortcut they don't want to cross over the Mediterranean Sea it's controlled by you know various groups whether it's the Muslims or the venetians and traveling through would cost them a lot of money they'd have to pay taxes and so Prince Henry is looking to maybe find a way to get to Asia without having to go through the Mediterranean Sea because uh Prince Henry's navigation schools you have people who are developing new technological advances to help in the area of exploration one of those is called the astral lab the astrolab enables Navigators to use stars to chart locations so this is the instrument right here the astrolab and this diagram kind of shows you how to use it where you line up your instrument with a star it kind of gives you an idea of where you're located on the Seas another Advance is called a caraval a caravel is a ship that uses triangular sails as you can see on this diagram right here the Triangular cells make the ship move easier Against the Wind it's also a smaller ship and a little bit quicker the Portuguese had many reasons to explore the world first they wanted to find new sea routes like I mentioned before to develop additional trade with Asia second they wanted to spread Christianity to other parts of the world and convert more people and finally they wanted to learn more about Asia and its culture they heard stories from a guy named Marco Polo who had spent many years in China under the rule of Kubla Khan it's kind of like a sidekick side man but and they heard because Marco Polo wrote a book talking about his adventures in China and so people heard about that and wanted to go out they were fascinated with the Chinese and with other parts of Asia so the Portuguese are going to start this uh attempt to find Asia find another route Deja and the first Portuguese person is in 1488 was uh bartolomeo Diaz and he will lead an expedition from Portugal along the western coast of Africa discovering you know exploring all different parts of Africa and he made it all the way down to the tip of Africa which is known as the Cape of Good Hope so looking at our map here's Portugal up here the yellow line indicates Diaz's journey and he not only I mean he just didn't sailed on the coast he would get out and they would explore different parts of Africa and they made it all the way down here to the tip came for Good Hope in 1497 Vasco de Gama will go one step further he not only makes it to the Cape of Good Hope that's the red line here but he will continue on and he will make it all the way across into India so the Portuguese will be the first European country to find another sea route to Asia now if you're looking at the map you can see all the different little ports that um the gamma stopped at like Mozambique Mombasa malindi again these explorers are not just sailing straight on they're stopping at different places to explore maybe to trade as Portuguese are stopping on their Journeys they're going into Africa they're exploring the coast of Africa and they come across native peoples and they will trade with the native group the native tribes in Africa they'll negotiate for gold they will get Ivory and you start to see the beginnings of a slave trade where they negotiate for slaves because of this new wealth and power Portugal becomes the leading country in the world when it comes to exploration but other European countries will launch their own Voyages of exploration they're also trying to get to Asia but they're looking for other routes now that Portuguese have gone around Africa other groups now will be looking for different routes to get to Asia maybe even quicker that's the end of section one