Early European Explorers and Their Routes

Study Notes

Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese navigator, discovered the ocean trade route from Europe to India in 1498
Da Gama sailed around Africa and was given the title "Admiral of the Indian Ocean" along with a fleet of twenty warships
Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator, sailed along the coast of South America in 1499 and became convinced that it was a new continent
Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer, named the new land "America" in honor of Vespucci on his 1507 world map
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, led an expedition to circumnavigate the globe in 1519
Magellan sailed west and found a passage through the southern part of South America, now known as the Strait of Magellan
Magellan died in the Philippines in 1521, but one of his ships made it back to Spain in 1522, completing the first expedition to circle the globe

The quest for military, economic, and religious power motivated European countries to claim land in North America
Europeans sought Native American tribes as allies because the tribes could provide protection and trade
The French and Indian War was fought over who would control the Ohio River Valley
The British policy of taxing the colonists without representation in Parliament eventually led to the American Revolutionary War

Rivers were the best way to travel in Oklahoma during the early days
Indians used rafts or dugout canoes made from trees found along the streams
The principal waterways were the Arkansas, Verdigris, Grand, Cimarron, Canadian, and Red rivers
Keelboats were used to carry heavy freight, and men used long poles or towlines to move the boats when the winds were unfavorable

The Louisiana Purchase was submitted to Congress as a treaty because it was a major land acquisition
The U.S. government commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase
The Three Forks area was a significant trading post in Oklahoma

The Seminole were the last of the Five Tribes forced into Indian Territory
The Seminole resisted Spanish attempts to conquer them, as well as British and American efforts to take their Florida lands
The First Seminole War was fought from 1817 to 1818, and the Treaty of Ghent officially ended the war and restored and clarified U.S. boundaries
The Seminole were forced to move to Indian Territory, and many died on the long journey