Lesson 2.1

What factors made contact possible?

Although the story of Columbus is often told in the context of an “accidental” landing on the shores of North America instead of India, were there possible factors, such as geography, that led to first contact?

Fill in this chart while you read the following information and do your "Multimedia" activity.

Travel prior to the fourteenth century often took a long time and was challenged by physical terrain. Journey outside of one’s European community was a lengthy process, and any goods brought back were valued for their rarity as well as for the effort required in transporting them back to the community.

India and China were considered key suppliers of goods highly sought after by Western Europeans. Travel from Portugal and Spain was typically eastward to India and China. Advances in ship and navigation technologies by the fourteenth century offered opportunities to travel faster and further. You can view such advances by researching the background behind the astrolabe, caravel, and carrack.

When you look at a map, note that travel overland would cross through many countries and that sailing would require circling Africa to reach India or China. With the new technologies, countries began to compete to find faster access to supplies to profit from sales to markets at home. The Crusades made overland routes increasingly less friendly for European travellers.

Sparked by adventure and competition, a series of expeditions set out to find new routes around the globe. Prince Henry of Portugal (also known as Henry the Navigator) financed many sea ventures that made Portugal the leader of expeditions around the world. In 1492 Christopher Columbus petitioned the ruling monarchs of Spain to finance his own expeditions of discovery westward in search of a new route to India. Financed by the British monarch, John Cabot (a Venetian explorer also known as Giovanni Caboto of Italy) reached the coast of Newfoundland in 1497. Jacques Cartier sailed to North America under the French flag in 1534.

legacies: passed on from the past

In the perspectives of Western Europeans at the time, this was the Age of Discovery. These were voyages of discovery because Europeans knew very little about what laid to the west. They were unaware that they would find people who already inhabited these continents. These were peoples who were indigenous to the lands that Columbus and other explorers would discover. Many Europeans would refer to their lands as the New World. From first contact, diverse groups would enter into relationships that would create legacies that continue to be evident to this day.

The groups you explore are known by diverse names. Use this list for reference:

• Indigenous peoples – the original people in any region

• Non-Indigenous peoples – inhabitants who arrived and settled in the land of the original people

• Aboriginal peoples – defined by the Constitution Act, 1982 to refer to Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada

• First Nations – the name used by the member nations of the Assembly of First Nations (as adopted by all chiefs in Canada in an Assembly of First Nations declaration, 1980)

• Western Europeans – generally refers to members from countries such as England, France, Spain, and Portugal

• Europeans – generally refers to members from the continent of Europe