Get Transatlantic Encounters Worksheet Answers

“Trans-Atlantic voyages affected the Americas by leading to Native American demographic decline, European colonization, and trans-Atlantic trade.”

The first transatlantic voyages were undertaken by the Norsemen, who sailed from Scandinavia to North America in the 11th century. Leif Eriksson is credited with being the first European to set foot on American soil, and his journey was documented in Icelandic sagas such as The Saga of Erik the Red.

1492 - Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to the Americas. 1585 - The Roanoke Colony is founded. It will disappear and become known as the "Lost Colony." 1607 - The Jamestown Settlement is established.

What did Columbus aim to do? In the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans wanted to find sea routes to the Far East. Columbus wanted to find a new route to India, China, Japan and the Spice Islands. If he could reach these lands, he would be able to bring back rich cargoes of silks and spices.

Columbus's journeys to the Americas opened the way for European countries to colonize and exploit those lands and their peoples. Trade was soon established between Europe and the Americas. Plants native to the Americas (such as potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco) were imported to Europe.

=Christopher Columbus's voyages sparked monumental changes in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, reshaping demographics, cultures, and economies. This transformation led to the rise of new cultural groups, the expansion of the slave trade, and the evolution of political structures.

The Columbian Exchange caused population growth in Europe by bringing new crops from the Americas and started Europe's economic shift towards capitalism. Colonization disrupted ecosytems, bringing in new organisms like pigs, while completely eliminating others like beavers.

The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples' lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle. They also carried diseases against which the Indian peoples had no defenses.