As school children, my generation thrilled to
the stories of European explorers who set out in small wooden ships
to cross uncharted seas. These men represented the curiosity,
imagination, and desire for new experiences, exotic goods and luxury
wares that seemed to sweep across western Europe in the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These explorers flew the flags of
any King who would finance their journeys: the Italian Christopher
Columbus and the Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan sailed for Spain while
the Englishman Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch. These men were adventurers,
but they were soon followed by settlers who hoped to make their fortunes or
escape poverty and persecution in the Americas. The Spanish and Portuguese
came first; but soon enough Dutch, French and English colonies were established.
This year, thousands of visitors flocked to Jamestown, Virginia to celebrate the
400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement on mainland North America.
Students today have a far richer scholarship on the
exploration and settlement of the Americas than have previous
generations. Scholars have studied the technological
innovations necessary to make transatlantic and transpacific
ocean travel possible. They have looked closely at map making
and navigation as well. By studying the Native American cultures
that existed before the arrival of Europeans, and by studying
the interaction between these cultures and those of the explorers
and colonists, they have given us a far more complex understanding
of the meeting of these two worlds. Exchange and contact have been
added to the descriptive vocabulary that once only included conquest
and extermination. Historians have also described the impact of
nonhuman exchanges, from flora and fauna to viruses and disease.
And, American historians have used archeology and anthropology
as well as wills, legal cases, and material culture to reconstruct
the histories of our earliest seventeenth century settlements like
Jamestown, Plymouth Plantations, and New Amsterdam.
In this issue, we offer a rich sampling of the new
scholarship. Ted Widmer begins with an overview of the
subject, entitled “Navigating the Age of Exploration.”
In this provocative essay, he urges us to “try
to stretch our boundaries” beyond the Anglo-American
settlements and introduce our students to Quebec and
Peru as well as to Jamestown, to slavery in the Caribbean
as well as slavery in South Carolina. In “The
Columbian Exchange,” Alfred Crosby provides an
overview of the broad-ranging impact when European and
Native American foodstuffs, grasses, animals, and diseases
were introduced to each other. New staple crops that
were native to the Americas allowed population increases
as far away as Africa and northern Europe; tobacco brought
a new addiction to European life; horses transformed
southwestern Indian cultures; and smallpox and measles
decimated Native American populations.
In “Native American Discoveries of Europe,” Daniel Richter
reminds us that “discovery” was as much a Native American
experience as a European one. Richter helps us understand the
cultural context in which Indian responses to the arrival
European explorers and colonists took place. In “Jamestown
and the Founding of English America,” James Horn provides us a
history of this colony, recreating for us the difficulties the
early settlers faced. Horn shows us that the success of these
English colonists came at a price: both Indians and colonists died
in the warfare that established English supremacy in Virginia and
the colonists’ economic success would lead to enslavement for
thousands of African laborers.
In “Ferdinand Magellan: Missing in Action,” Laurence Bergreen
tells us the fascinating story of the man whose ship circumnavigated
the globe. Bergreen explains why so little is known of Magellan and
he analyzes the role that politics in Spain and Portugal played in
assuring that the record is silent on Magellan’s motives and experiences
at sea. Finally, in “Conflict and Commerce: The Rise and Fall of New Netherland,”
Simon Middleton offers us a portrait of an non-English colony, created
as many English colonies were, by men and women who hoped to profit from
the natural resources of the new world. The English conquest of this
thriving commercial colony is an example of the central role that European
political rivalries play in any account of U.S. history.
Our interactive feature, courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, focuses on the early maps
of North America, reminding us that geography is a critical part of
any history lesson. These maps illustrate the changing perception of
American geography; they track Europe’s increasing familiarity with
the new world. Our lesson plans deal with a variety of aspects of
the era, offering you suggestions for classroom activities for elementary,
middle and secondary school students. And, as always, our archivist,
Mary-Jo Kline provides the sources you need to explore the subject in
depth and create your own lessons.
We wish you an enjoyable and productive summer. Look for our September
issue on the Constitution, offering you a wealth of materials for your
Constitution day activities.
Carol Berkin
Editor, History Now
Carol Berkin is Presidential Distinguished Professor
of History at Baruch College and The Graduate Center,
City University of New York. She is the author of several
books including Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American
Conservative, First Generations: Women in Colonial America,
A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution,
and Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle
for America's Independence.
