Copyright notice

This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Printer-friendly page

Exploration, European

by John Hairr, 2006

"Landing of Christopher Columbus in America, at San Salvador, October 12th A.D. 1492." Image courtesy of Library of Congress. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the European powers of France, Spain, Portugal, and England launched several voyages to explore the New World, including the region that would become North Carolina. Their initial motivation was primarily economic: after the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, several navigators followed in his wake searching for the riches of the Orient. National rivalries soon began to fuel the quest to discover and acquire the treasures of new lands and create colonies that would serve as financial boons to the mother country. Spain and France became early leaders in the race to explore and colonize the New World. England, by contrast, did not develop a significant interest in exploration and settlement until the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in the second half of the sixteenth century.

 

 

 

 

Keep reading >> Exploration, European- Part 2: Initial European Expeditions Keep reading

Additional Resources:

The Columbian Exchange, Learn NC: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/1866

Image Credit:

"Landing of Christopher Columbus in America, at San Salvador, October 12th A.D. 1492." Image courtesy of Library of Congress, reproduction #: LC-DIG-pga-02023. Available from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.02023/ (accessed August 10, 2012).

Authors: