The discovery of America

Some Indian names on the map of the USA

Geographic name	Geographic feature	meaning
Alabama	state, river	burnt clearing, here we rest, thicket clearers
Alaska	state	great country, great land
Chicago	city, river	wild onion river, skunk
Idaho	state, county	gem of the mountains
Massachusets	state	near the great hills
Mississipi	state, river	great water
Oklahoma	state, county, city	home for all Indians

Exercise 1. True or false?

Indians…

1) numbered about 8 million before the discovery of America by Columbus.

2) cultivated only corn and potatoes.

3) made an impressive contribution to the development of medical science.

4) were deprived of their land and resources by white colonists.

5) were looked upon as equal members of the American society after signing the Declaration of Independence.

6) lived in reservations in quite satisfactory conditions.

7) do not live beyond the boundaries of special reservations.

8) are the most oppressed national minority of the country.

9) do not take part in any social movement.

Questions

1. Why is the story of American Indians so tragic?
2. What marks of the Indian heritage can be found on the map?
3. What did the Indians teach the Europeans?
4. How was the land transferred from the Indians to the Europeans?
5. What changes the Indians’ way of life?
6. What groups of people did the Indians comprise?
7. What phrase was considered a slogan of the system of genocide against the Native Americans?
8. Have you read any fiction about American Indians?
9. How is the life of Indians shown in books and films?

As you know, America was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 “by mistake”. His intention was to reach India by sailing to the west. Columbus did not know that he had discovered a new continent; he simply thought that he was in an unknown part of India.

America got its name in 1506 after the famous Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci who wrote a lot about this land in his books.

The Colonial Period (I)

The discovery of America took place in an age when the medieval dogmatic system of thought was giving way to a more liberal spirit of philosophical speculations and to the growth of a rich middle class.

The British settled the eastern part of North America in the 1600s. In 1606 a group of London merchants formed a joint stock company known as the Virginia Company of London. They asked King James I of England to allow them to plant a colony in Virginia. The King gave them a charter for a settlement in the new world. So Virginia joint-stock company sent promoters there to find gold. The first English colony – Virginia – was established in Jamestown in 1607. Those were hard times for settlers. But by April 1608 only 53 of 197 Englishmen who landed in Virginia survived. The rest died either in Amerindians attacks, or of diseases, but most people died of starvation (stories reached England about settlers who were so desperate for food that they dug up and ate the body of an Amerindian they had killed during the attack.) Yet new settlers continued to arrive. The Virginia Company gathered homeless children from the streets of London and convicts from London’s prisons and sent them out to the colony. Such emigrants were often unwilling to go. But for some English people Virginia had one great attraction – plentiful land, and a poor man could hope for a farm of his own to feed his family.

Military governors ran the colony like a prison camp. But it was not discipline but tobacco that saved Virginia. The possibility of becoming rich by growing tobacco brought wealthy men to the colony. They used the so called “ indentured servants ” on their plantations. These workers promised to work for an employer about seven years for food and clothes. At the end – if they were still alive – they became free and got a small piece of land to work for themselves.

In 1619 there was an important change in the life of settlers. The Virginia Company allowed a body called the House of Burgesses to be set up. In it the representatives from the various small settlements met to advise the governor on the laws the colony needed. Few of them were realized, but the Virginia House of Burgesses was the start of an important tradition in American life – that people should have a say in decisions about matters that concern them.

In the same year the first black Africans were brought to America to work in the tobacco fields. Unlike the white servants their indenture was for life – in fact, they were slaves.

By 1624 when the Virginia Company ran out of money the English government made itself responsible for the Virginia colonists. The hardships toughened the survivors. The first society of English people overseas had put down living roots into the American soil.

One more important group of settlers arrived in 1620 in Massachusetts – they are known as the Pilgrim Fathers.

The Pilgrim Fathers

The Protestant Reformation, as you know, began in 1517 and reached England some twenty years later. A lot of dissenting minorities appeared who were more ascetic in the practice of their new faith than the Church of England. Of these, the plain-living Puritans were the most overt and became the most oppressed. They experienced discrimination in England. In 1609 in search of religious freedom, 35 Puritans left the country for Holland. But after ten years, concerned with losing their cultural identity, the Puritans began to seek a better place to live. For this they looked to America where the first successful English colony – at Jamestown, Virginia – had been established in 1607.

In the summer of 1620 the Puritans and another 66 settlers sailed to North America in a small-sized ship named the Mayflower. It was hardly ideal for ocean sailing. The ship was overcrowded that is why the infectious disease carried off several of the passengers. Besides, the voyage itself had seen tensions build up between the Puritan minority and the non-Puritans who made up three-quarters of the settlers. Eventually on December 25^th the “Mayflower” fetched up at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in Native Americans’ territory. Later the second successful English colony was founded at Plymouth.

December was a bad time to start a settlement and the colonists faced a lengthy series of challenges, from diseases, famine and internal conflicts to sabotage and uncertain relations with the indigenous people. Several colonists made it clear that they would not be bound by any of the Old World’s rules or any rules at all. Fortunately, 41 of the settlers had a greater sense of discipline and responsibility. They drafted the Mayflower Compact which laid down the basis of government and ensured rights for all the settlers. There were three strong personalities among the Pilgrims who saw to it that the Compact was observed – John Carver, the 1^st governor of the colony, Yorkshire-born William Bradford who became second governor and remained at this post for 35 years, and Lancashire-born Myles Standish chosen as military captain for the new colony – his quick, determined action saved the colonists when they were attacked by the local natives.

But happily, there were friendlier Native Americans who helped those Pilgrim Fathers who survived the harsh winter. They showed them how to sow maize and how to raise crops as the seeds brought from England were of little use in their new environment. The natives acted as guides through the forests and taught the colonists woodcraft, trapping, hunting, how to make maple sugar, moccasins and birch-bark canoes. They also introduced the colonists to the turkey, which was native to North America. But for these Indians, the Pilgrims might never have survived. The survivors showed they had learned the lessons well. In the autumn of 1621, the settlers produced their first successful harvest and in gratitude, celebrated their first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the United States in 1863, and has been observed on the fourth Tuesday in November ever since, with the turkey as a centrepiece of the festivities.

By 1622 the Pilgrim Fathers had built a fort to protect themselves. It also served as a meeting place to discuss issues of government within the new colony. Over the next few years, as life for Puritans became more uncomfortable in England, more and more made the journey across the Atlantic. By 1630, their numbers were such that the Puritans were able to establish the Massachusetts Bay Company and the town of Boston, which was to grow as a major port.

In the end the Puritans founded many colonies that thrived and their success depended on fishing, shipbuilding, trade and farming. But it was the establishment of the first two successful English settlements – in Jamestown, Virginia (1607) and at Plymouth in 1620 – that has become a central theme of the United States history and culture.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11