Yes, that's right the sweet potato. This humble pinkish-red tuber is native to South America. And yet, there have been sweet potatoes on the menu in Polynesia as far back as 1, years ago. So how did it get there? By comparing the DNA of Polynesian and South American sweet potatoes, scientists think it's clear that someone either brought them back to Polynesia after visiting South America, or islanders brought them from South America when they were exploring the Pacific Ocean.
Either way, it suggests that about the same time Nordic sailors were cutting trees in Canada, someone in Polynesia was trying sweet potatoes from South America for the first time.
There are other theories out there. Another theory from a retired chemist named John Ruskamp suggests that pictographs discovered in Arizona are nearly identical to Chinese characters. He puts the Chinese in the U. We mention these two only because we have seen them pop up in newspaper articles recently. They're thoroughly discredited, so we'll leave it at that. Well, here at VOA, we are trying to tell the story of America.
And what is clear is that America was a melting pot hundreds of years before the Statue of Liberty began urging the world, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. In fact, the entirety of North and South America are a polyglot of cultures stretching back before recorded history.
And people have been coming here ever since, chasing a better life, abundant food, water and opportunity. Kevin Enochs is an award-winning content creator who has been explaining the intricacies of the natural world to television and online audiences for over 20 years.
Load more comments. Search Search. While his accomplishments are often eclipsed by the later ones of Christopher Columbus, Leif Erikson was in fact the first European to have set foot on North America. A Norse explorer hailing from Iceland, his feats preceded those of Columbus by over years. He established a small settlement he named Vinland for its plentiful grape-vine plants in modern-day Newfoundland.
He was the son of major Viking Erik the Red, who established the first Norse settlement in Greenland. The most successful and well-known figure of the Age of Exploration, Columbus, while not the first European to travel to the New World was responsible for its eventual colonisation. His four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean are almost legendary in terms of their historical significance, forming permanent links between Europe and the Americas.
An Italian by birth, Columbus eventually settled in Spain and eventually convinced the Catholic monarchy to finance a westwards journey to reach the East Indies and profit from the increasingly flourishing spice trade.
His first expedition arrived in the Americas in in modern-day Bahamas. He visited Cuba and established the first European colony in the Americas in modern-day Haiti. His success saw a second voyage quickly financed and embarked upon. The intention of this second voyage was to establish permanent colonies and to spread Christianity amongst the Native population. The second voyage saw visits to Dominica and the Virgin Islands. He established a number of settlements before returning home.
The third voyage was dispatched with the intention of finding the continent near the islands he had already discovered. After a problematic voyage, Columbus arrived at the American in mainland in modern-day Venezuela whilst seeing the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. By the time of his fourth and final voyage, popular opinion of Columbus had declined and he was no longer in the good graces of the Catholic Church.
He travelled to Martinique and to Santo Domingo and was stranded in Jamaica for an entire year. Eventually, he returned to Spain. He came into conflict with the crown upon his return, dying shortly thereafter. In modern times, Columbus is a polarising figure, drawing criticism for tyrannical treatment of native populations, including playing a role in the genocide of the Taino people.
His name and influence extends throughout the modern Americas. He played a hugely significant role in changing the face of the world as we know it. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions. He became the first governor of Puerto Rico in Instead, the governors were replaced with successors from Spain.
Leon found a peninsula on the coast of North America and called the new land Florida, chartering a colonizing expedition. His presence there was brief, however, as he was attacked by American Indian forces and subsequently died in nearby Cuba.
By , Spanish forces looked to expand their influence and Catholic religion in the New World by attacking the French settlement of Fort Caroline. Spain formed the settlement of St. Augustine as an outpost to ensure that French Huguenots were no longer welcome in the area. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in North America.
From the middle of the 16th century forward, France tried to establish several colonies throughout North America that failed due to weather, disease, or conflict with other European powers.
A major French settlement lay on the island of Hispaniola, where France established the colony of Saint-Domingue on the western third of the island in France also briefly ruled the eastern portion of the island, which is now the Dominican Republic.
French habitants, or farmer-settlers, eked out an existence along the St. Lawrence River. French fur traders and missionaries, however, ranged far into the interior of North America, exploring the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi River. These pioneers gave France somewhat inflated imperial claims to lands that nonetheless remained firmly under the dominion of indigenous peoples.
New France and New Netherland remained small commercial operations focused on the fur trade and did not attract an influx of migrants. Dutch trade goods circulated widely among the native peoples in these areas and also traveled well into the interior of the continent along pre-existing native trade routes. Cabot explored the North American continent, correctly deducing that the spherical shape of the earth made the north—where the longitudes are much shorter—a quicker route to the New World than a trip to the South Islands where Columbus was exploring.
Encouraged, he asked the English monarchy for a more substantial expedition to further explore and settle the lands. He was successful in obtaining the expedition and the ships departed, never to be seen again. In the north, the Hudson Bay Company actively traded for fur with the indigenous peoples, bringing them into competition with French, Aboriginal, and Metis fur traders. At the start of the 17th century, the English had not established a permanent settlement in the Americas.
Over the next century, however, they outpaced their rivals. The English encouraged emigration far more than the Spanish, French, or Dutch. They established nearly a dozen colonies, sending swarms of immigrants to populate the land. England had experienced a dramatic rise in population in the 16th century, and the colonies appeared a welcoming place for those who faced overcrowding and grinding poverty at home.
Thousands of English migrants arrived in the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Virginia and Maryland to work in the tobacco fields. Another stream, this one of pious Puritan families, sought to live as they believed scripture demanded and established the Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, Connecticut, and Rhode Island colonies of New England.
How do the explorers respond to the environment, the Indians, and the hardships of their expeditions? How do they define success or failure in the expeditions? What are they looking for? What effect does leadership have on the expeditions? How do the expeditions end? To whom do the chroniclers address their accounts? How are the accounts political "texts"? Compare the narratives of the interior explorers with those of the early coastal explorers.
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