I have been writing a series of articles about European explorers during the "Age of Exploration and Discovery" from the 1400s to the 1700s. These explorations led to the "discovery" of the Americas and new shipping routes around South America and South Africa.
In these articles, I wrote about the Great Silk Road in Mongolia, the Ottoman Empire, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, the Pinzon brothers, Spanish conquistadors (Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro), and Pacific Ocean explorers (Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and Captain Cook). You can read all these articles on my Substack Archive page.
In this article, I am going to write about a few famous land explorers from North America, especially in the early United States.
Leif Erikson
Okay, technically, Leif Erikson was not a European explorer from the Age of Discovery. Erikson was a Norse chieftain (a Viking!) and a sea explorer from Iceland around the year 1000. He is famous for being the first European to travel to the Americas.
Wait! Wasn't Christopher Columbus the first person?
Yes, Christopher Columbus was the first "recent" European to discover the Americas. But, as I explained previously, Columbus's legacy is contentious (debatable) because he landed only on the Caribbean islands, not on the continent of North America. And Columbus did not know he had discovered a new continent; he believed he had found the "East Indies" in the Philippines and Indonesia.
Of course, Native Americans had already travelled to the Americas from Russia to Alaska, through Canada, and to the United States, Mexico, and the rest of Central and South America. Historians traditionally say early humans crossed from Russia to Alaska around 20-25 thousand years ago, then down to the U.S., Mexico, and South America around 15-thousand years ago. This Wikipedia page explains the general history.
Some historical studies also say that ancient humans sailed to the Americas from the Pacific islands and Africa as early as 30-thousand years ago. These studies say that these early humans sailed to the Americas like Columbus did, but they "failed" to establish permanent colonies. This Oxford University article explains the idea.
Anyway, Native Americans were obviously already in the Americas before Columbus arrived, and that's one of the reasons some people don't want to celebrate Columbus Day. Another reason is that they believe Leif Erikson should get the credit.
Leif Erikson's family was originally from Norway, but his father was exiled, and they moved to Iceland, where Leif was born. A few years later, while Leif was still young, they moved to Greenland. There are two stories - from two Norse sagas (epic stories) - about how Leif got to "Vinland," which is what they called the new territory they discovered around Newfoundland in northeast Canada.
In one saga, Leif set sail for Iceland, but his ship got blown off course by a storm, and he ended up in Vinland. They explored the coast and got some supplies, but they did not stay long, and they returned to Greenland.
In another saga, Leif heard about the new land from another explorer who was blown off course and sighted (but did not land in) the new territory. When Leif heard about this, he wanted to discover the new territory, so he set sail. He explored several coasts, and he eventually setup a small settlement where he and about 35 sailors camped for the winter. They returned to Greenland in the Spring.
Both stories are pretty similar, but the second one says they stayed in the new territory for a longer time.
Leif did not return to the new territory, but other Norse people were inspired by Leif's adventure, and they followed. They setup a settlement, and people probably sailed to this region for timber and other supplies at many time periods, but they did not setup a "permanent" settlement like Europeans did after Columbus. Nevertheless, Leif Erikson is also credited for discovering the new world, and there is also archeological evidence of a settlement in the area.
Lewis & Clark Expedition
In 1803, the United States bought the "Louisiana Purchase" from France. This property extended from Louisiana in the south, up to Minnesota along the Mississippi River, and west to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
President Thomas Jefferson authorized Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark of the U.S. Army (plus 30-45 other volunteers) to explore the new territory. They set out from Illinois and Missouri in 1804, they travelled up the Missouri River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean in Washington state; they returned in 1806. Along the way, they made maps and discovered routes for travel. They also studied the geography, plants, and animals, and they tried to establish relationships with Native Americans for future trade.
One of the main goals of the expedition was also to establish American dominance in the new territory, especially to claim a commercial passage way for shipping through the United States to the Pacific Ocean via the Missouri River. Another main goal was to provide a report on the location and size of Native American tribes in this area. This information was useful for establishing trade partnerships with Native American nations, but the information also helped provide intelligence to the U.S. Government and Army that could later be used to take military action against Native Americans.
The Lewis and Clark expedition, like the other expeditions I have been describing, is praised for providing a better understanding of the American west, but it is also criticized for leading the way to future oppression and violence against Native American communities.
Jefferson personally selected Lewis because Lewis was familiar with many natural sciences, because he had "habits adapted to the woods," and because he was already familiar with Native Americans. Nevertheless, Lewis spent additional time learning about medical cures, maps, navigational instruments, and methods for preserving plant specifies before they headed out.
The expedition went through Kansas City and Omaha, through the Great Plains, through the Rocky Mountains, to Portland, and along the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. They met Native American tribes who helped them, but they also came close to fighting with a couple tribes who controlled the river passage way and demanded large gifts in order to pass through.
Sacagawea
While travelling through North Dakota, Lewis and Clark met a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and his 17-year-old Shoshone wife Sacagawea. The couple followed Lewis and Clark, and they served as translators for the expedition with native American tribes. Sacagawea was pregnant when they met, and she had a baby boy during the expedition; historians say that Sacagawea's presence helped assure native American tribes they met that they were not a violent military group.
Sacagawea was originally from Idaho, but she and other kids were abducted by another Native American tribe at age 12. Later on, Toussaint Charbonneau either purchased Sacagawea or "won" her through gambling, and he "married" her.
Sacagawea translated for the expedition, and she also did many other favors. At one point, she jumped into a river to recover journals that had fallen overboard; for this act, Lewis and Clark named the river the Sacagawea River. At another point, she gave up her belt in a trade for a fur coat Lewis and Clark wanted to purchase for President Jefferson. The expedition also brought her into contact with her original tribe and even with her brother, and Lewis and Clark describe a very heart-warming reunion in their travel journals.
In a letter, Capt. Clark wrote that Sacagawea "deserved a greater reward for her attention and services on that route than we had in our power to give her." Years later, Sacagawea moved to St. Louis, and Capt. Clark supported Sacagawea's son and education. Then, he formally adopted him in 1813 after Sacagawea died of illness. But there were many beliefs and investigations in the early 1900s that Sacagawea had actually lived until the 1880s.
Today, Sacagawea is famous because of the many commemorative items marking her legacy, including the commemorative "Sacagawea gold dollar," which came out in 2000. In the 1900s, there were influential novels and histories about her, and she also became a symbol of the feminist movement.
Honestly, though, I often confuse her with Disney's Pocahontas... Sorry...
While speaking of Sacagawea, it's probably also appropriate to recognize Capt. Clark's slave, York. York did a lot of the heavy work for the expedition, including pulling boats upstream and other service work. He was also popular with Native American tribes. However, Capt. Clark never set York free, and he also kept York separated from his wife in Kentucky. York also never received any benefits out of the expedition, even though everyone else received bonus pay and land ownership in the Louisiana territory.
Exploring the Mississippi River
Three people are famous for exploring the Mississippi River in the 1600s. I was interested to learn about these explorers since I have lived most of my life along the mighty river. I was also familiar with the names of these explorers - cities and schools are named after them - but I didn't know who they were or what they had accomplished.
#1. The Mississippi River was first "discovered" by Hernando de Soto in 1541. De Soto was a Spanish conquistador and explorer, and he had previously served as a Spanish soldier in Central America, then he served as a captain for Francisco Pizarro against the Inca Empire in Peru. (De Soto even played chess with the captured Incan emperor they were keeping hostage.) Of course, Native American tribes lived along the river already, but de Soto was the first European explorer during the Age of Discovery to document the river's existence and to inform Europeans about it.
After de Soto's service against the Inca in the 1530s, the King of Spain awarded him the right to explore southeastern United States and to claim large portions of land for himself. He explored (invaded?) this area with over 600 Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the early 1540s. The expedition started on the Gulf side of Florida in the Tampa Bay area, then they progressed through Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. De Soto's army was brutal with the Native Americans they met. They stole their supplies, kidnapped women, and massacred many people; in one battle near Tuscaloosa, they may have killed up to 6,000 Native Americans.
De Soto's expedition reached the Mississippi River in 1541. It took them a month to build flat-boats to cross the river. They didn't really explore the geography of the river; they had encountered several rivers previously, and this was one more river to cross. They did give it the Spanish name of "Rio del Espiritu Santo" (the River of the Holy Spirit). However, we know the Mississippi today by the Native American tribes that called it the "Misi Ziibi," which means "father of waters" or "big river."
#2. Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette were French-Canadian Catholic missionaries and explorers. They are famous for canoeing down the Mississippi River in 1673. During their expedition, they created detailed maps of the upper Mississippi River, as well as the Illinois River and others. They were also influential in the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan area as religious leaders of new European settlements.
The city of Joliet, IL is named after Louis Jolliet. Marquette was influential in the Starved Rock area in north-central Illinois; Marquette University in Wisconsin is named after him, as are several towns.
#3. Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle is also famous for exploring the Mississippi River. La Salle was a French fur trader and explorer. Before exploring the Mississippi, he canoed down the Ohio River in 1669 with 24 explorers; he also explored the Niagara River and Lake Michigan in the late 1670s.
La Salle is mostly famous today for commanding French forts throughout the Great Lakes region. In Illinois, he explored the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, he helped Native American tribes in the Peoria region, and he helped establish Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock. In 1682, he led an expedition of canoes down the lower part of the Mississippi River. He called this area "La Louisiane," and that's where the state gets its name. La Salle, IL is named after him, as are several towns in Canada and several streets all over, including one in downtown Chicago.
Next Time
In the next week, I will write my final post about The Age of Exploration and Discovery. It will be about a couple famous and influential European explorers in Africa.
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.