European Exploration of North America

I can describe reasons why Europeans explored North America and what happened when they met Native Americans.

• 1

  The European Age of Exploration, from the early 1400s through the 1600s, involved European nations exploring the world and finding new routes to places like India and the Americas.

• 2

  Christopher Columbus, sponsored by the Spanish monarchs Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, set sail in 1492 with the intention of finding a new route to the East Indies, but instead landed in the Caribbean Islands.

• 3

  The arrival of European explorers had a devastating impact on the Indigenous Taino people, who faced enslavement, exposure to new diseases, and ultimately a significant decline in their population by the mid-1500s.