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People in europe read of Marco Polo travels to China and other Asian lands.
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By the late middle ages, Europeans had developed a taste for spices in their diets. Most spices came from islands in Asia. Because they had to be shipped halfway around the worldon risky voyages, spices were costly.
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People in europe begin to look to the seas and beyond. Some longed for adventure. Others wanted to spread christianity far and wide.
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Columbus led his first expedition westward. He landed in the Bahama's, island that he believed to be near Asia.
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King Henry 7th sent Cabot on a voyage to the west.
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1497-1498
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama found such a route and sailed all the way to India. -
Columbus reached South America. Later a mapmaker labeled this new continent "America" for another explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. The name stuck.
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A great interaction between the "New World" and "Old World" took place.
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Spain was taking control of much of south and central america and many carribbean islands, including cuba and hispaniola.
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1508-1509
Juan Ponce de Leon explored and settled the island of Puerto Rico. -
Ponce de Leon set out with ships and crew.
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One Spanish official who ha his eyes on the mainland north of Florida was Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon. He had seen some of the Atlantic Coast line of this region on an expedition in 1520. Ayllon intended to plant a strong colony for Spain along that coast.
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Spain was the most powerful Spanish explorers had claimed huge tracts of land in the New World. They had begun selling gold and silver back to spain.
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King Francis 1 of France sent Italian navigator Giovanni da Varrazano westward.
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In July 1526, Ayllon led a group of over 500 men, women, and children to a river he called "Jordan" (for the Jordan River in ancient Palestine). Historians today believe that it was actually North Carolina's Cape Fear River.
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Disease and starvation overwhelmed the settlers. Ayllon himself died there. In October 1526, the 150 remaining colonists returned to Hispaniola.
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In 1539 Hernando de Soto sailed with a military expedition from Havana, Cuba, to the west coast of Florida. From there, de Soto's soldiers marched northward to a site near present-day Tallahassee, Florida.
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There they spent the winter of 1539-1540. In spring, de Soto crossed Georgia and South Carolina and passed through the western tip of North Carolina.
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In 1562 France sent a colony under the command of Jean Ribault to North Carolina.