English and French Explorers

English and French Explorers

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Overview

• Like other European nations, both England and France raced to find lucrative new lands and trade routes during the "Age of Discovery."
• Take a look at some of the most famous explorers to have sailed under either an English or French flag during this age.

Giovanni Caboto

• In 1496, Giovanni Caboto finally convinced King Henry VII of England: Caboto would sail to find the western passage to the Indies that he thought was north of Columbus’s landing, and Henry VII would finance the voyage.
• Caboto, an Italian by birth, had already asked King Ferdinand of Spain and King Manuel of Portugal to finance his voyage, but both had refused. Now Caboto sailed under the English name John Cabot.
• This first voyage failed; bad weather and rough seas turned him back. On his second expedition in 1497, Cabot reached Newfoundland, claiming the land for the king of England.
• However, Cabot thought he had found the shores of northeastern Asia.

• In 1498, John Cabot sailed with five ships to North America a third time. He never returned; all five ships and their crew disappeared.

Jacques Cartier

Sailing Ships

• ​​​​​​​Not all ships were used for exploration. Many different kinds of ships existed during the Age of Discovery.
• Caravels were small, fast vessels about 60 feet long that could cover about 100 miles in a day.
• Carracks were wider and over 100 feet in length. They had large cargo holds and were used as supply ships or flagship vessels. A carrack could sail about 80 miles in a day.
• Galleons appeared after 1500. They were faster and more maneuverable than carracks. Galleons had huge cargo holds and could be outfitted as warships. Those advantages made galleons the ship of choice for transporting and protecting plundered riches of the New World.
• Barks were cargo vessels used by merchants and whalers. The many sails of these three-masted ships made barks fast and maneuverable.

• In 1534, King Francis I of France chose Jacques Cartier to lead the expedition to find a western passage to India.
• Cartier sailed directly west with two ships and a 60-man crew. This brought him to the coastline where the present-day United States joins with Canada.
• Cartier explored and mapped Newfoundland and the islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Cartier named this new land “Canada,” from kanata, a Huron and Iroquois word for “settlement.”

Francis Drake

• In the mid 1500’s, Francis Drake began sailing for England. He had first sailed with his cousin to Africa, where they worked as illegal slave traders.
• They sailed from Africa to New Spain (present-day Mexico and other parts of North and South America) to sell their slaves to the colonists, an act strictly forbidden by Spanish law.
• In 1568, the Spanish captured them, and Drake resented the Spanish since that time.
• By 1572, Queen Elizabeth made Drake a privateer, authorized to seize vessels for a government. Drake raided Spanish vessels loaded with plunder from the New World.
• Elizabeth’s treasury was soon filled with stolen Spanish gold.

Walter Raleigh

• In 1585, Walter Raleigh financed a colony in North America and named the land Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the virgin queen.
• Colonists sent by Raleigh built a settlement on Roanoke Island, in present-day North Carolina, and returned to England with potatoes and tobacco.
• However, the colony struggled. When Sir Francis Drake sailed to the settlement to bring supplies, the colonists instead returned to England with him.
• Still, Raleigh sent a second settlement effort to the same area, which became the infamous Lost Colony of Roanoke; no trace of the colonists has ever been found.

John Smith

• England had established its first permanent settlement. In 1607, Jamestown was built on the banks of the James River in Virginia.
• Hunger stalked the colony long before the first harvest. One of the colonists, Captain John Smith, became their leader.
• Smith had distinguished himself as a soldier in Europe and the Middle East. Now he kept the colonists alive by searching the Chesapeake Bay area for food.
• According to legend, the local Powhatan tribe captured him during one of these journeys, and the chief’s daughter Pocahontas begged her father to spare Smith’s life.
• Afterward, the Powhatans helped feed the colonists and taught them survival skills. It is theorized that the Powhatans saw John Smith as a resource to acquire new weapons.

• Ultimately, Smith returned to England and wrote about his North American experiences. Smith’s books were very popular.
• People enjoyed reading information from an eyewitness who had seen the New World for himself.
• The more Europeans read about this untamed land, the more people became interested in the idea of starting new lives across the ocean.