Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
PRE- AND EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE
to themselves and their introduction of alcohol and European commodities into
native culture.
1.2.2 European Exploration Accounts
Spain, the rst European country to establish a signicant foothold in the
Americas in the fteenth century, was not looking for previously unknown lands
at all. It was looking for a westward passage to Asia. Earlier in the century, the
Ottoman Empire had captured Constantinople and after that point, controlled the
territory through which the traditional land-based trade routes to China and India
ran, eectively giving the Ottoman Empire a monopoly on trade between Europe
and Asia. Spain, like other European nations, looked for a solution by seeking
a westward route. Spain at that time did not exist as a unied nation but rather
was a collection of kingdoms, sometimes collaborating but more often competing
with each other. The move toward nationhood began when King Ferdinand II of
Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile married in 1469 and unied two of the more
powerful Iberian kingdoms. To consolidate their economic and regional power,
these monarchs were very interested in securing trade routes for the very lucrative
commodities coming from the east. Additional motivation came from a powerful
rival within the same peninsula. Portugal had already circumnavigated Africa and
looked poised to discover that westward passage. Those inuences encouraged
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to support Christopher Columbus’ proposal of
nding a western route. Unaware that a landmass intervened between the Atlantic
and Pacic Oceans and miscalculating the distance between western Europe and
eastern Asia, Columbus thought he had succeeded in his quest when he landed
on islands in the Caribbean. He hadn’t, but Spain discovered that the New World
had desirable commodities too, namely gold and silver mines that funded Spain’s
empire-building aspirations.
Just as the powerful European nations fought for supremacy within the
connes of the European continent, they also grappled over territory in the
Americas. Like Spain, other European countries sought new trade routes and,
failing that, coveted the new land as a source of commodities such as precious
metals, fur, timber, and agricultural products and as an extension of their empires.
Spain primarily explored and appropriated areas in South and Central America
and in the southeastern and southwestern parts of North America. Holland has
the smallest territory for the briefest amount of time in the Americas, controlling
the Hudson River Valley from New York City to Albany as well as the western tip
of Long Island for little more than fty years before losing it to the English in 1664
as part of the settlement of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The French territories
concentrated primarily in the Canadian areas of Newfoundland to Quebec as
well as around the Great Lakes and a large swath of land in the midsection of the
country from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River delta. England, one of
the last major European powers to create settlements in North America, ultimately
ended up having the largest and most lasting colonial reach, starting with their rst
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