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Plan: 1. Architecture
2. Museums and Art Galleries.
3. Stonehenge
4. The Lake District
5. Canterbury
6. Windsor Castle
7. Hampton Court Palace
Key words:
Stonehenge ['stounhend3] - Стоунхедж
Salisbury ['sɔ:lzbәri] - Солсбери
the position of some stones was related to – pacположение некоторых камней имеет связь с
Canterbury ['kæntәbәrі] -Кентербери
Kent [kent] – Keнт
Windsor Castle ['winzә'kа:sl] – Виндзорский замок
St. George's Chapel [snt'd3ɔ:d3rz't∫æpәl] –часовня святого Георга
Hampton Court ['hæmptәn'kɔ:t] – дворец Хэмптон Корт
Cardinal Wolsey ['kа:dіnәl'wulzі] – кардинал Корт
in rather un-Puritan style – в довольно непуританском стиле
Sir Christopher Wren ['kristәfә'ren] –сэр Кристофер Рен водятся приведения
Catherine Howard ['kæӨrіn'hauәd] – Кэтрин Говард
on a charge of infidelity [,infi'deliti] –по обвинению в нeверности
Jane Seymour ['d3ein'si:mɔ:] – Джейн Симур
Anne Boleyn ['æn'bulin] –Анна Болейн
' ramparts ['ræmpa:ts] –крепостные валы cunning- ловкость
mosque - мечеть
fortress -крепость
raven –ворона
eclipse - затмение
The content of the lecture:
ARCHITECTURE IN BRITAIN
Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich. It passed several main stages in its development. The Saxon King Alfred encouraged the arts and culture. The chief debt owed to him by English literature is for his translations of and commentaries on Latin works. Art, culture and literature flowered during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Elizabeth I; it was the period of English domination of the oceans. It was at this time that William Shakespeare lived. The empire, which was very powerful under Queen Victoria, saw another cultural and artistic hey-day as a result of industrialization and the expansion of international trade. But German air raids caused much damage in the First World War and then during the Second World War. The madness of the wars briefly interrupted the development of culture.
Immigrants who have arrived from all parts of the Commonwealth since 1945 have not only created a mixture of nations, but have also brought their cultures and habits with them.
Inigo Jones was the first man to bring the Italian Renaissance style to Great Britain. He had studied in Italy for some years, and in 1615 became Surveyor-General of the works.
The style he built in was pure Italian with as few modifications as possible. His buildings were very un-English in character, with regularly spaced columns along the front. His two most revolutionary designs were the Banqueting House in Whitehall and the Queen's House at Greenwich. All those who followed him had to adapt this new foreign building technique to English ways and English climate, English building materials and English craftsmen.
Christopher Wren was the man who did it. He was a mathematician, an astronomer and, above all, an inventor. He invented new ways of using traditional English building materials, brick and ordinary roofing tiles, to keep within the limits of classical design. He, like Inigo Jones, was appointed Surveyor-General to the Crown when he was about thirty years old, and almost immediately he started rebuilding the churches of London, burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren's churches are chiefly known by their beautiful spires which show in their structure the greatest engineering cunning. But Ch. Wren also influenced the design of houses, both in town and in the country. The best-known buildings designed by Ch. Wren are St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the Sheldonion Theatre in Oxford. The period of the Industrial Revolution had no natural style of its own. Businessmen wanted art for their money. The architect was to provide a facade in the Gothic style, or he was to turn the building into something like a Norman castle, or a Renaissance palace, or even an Oriental mosque. For theatres and opera houses the theatrical Baroque style was often most suitable. Churches were more often than not built in the Gothic style. The twentieth century has seen great changes in Britain's architecture.
MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES
Museums. Three of London's most interesting museums - the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are also in this area. The Natural History Museum has exhibits of birds, animals and reptiles, as well as life-size reconstructions of prehistoric animals. The Victoria and Albert Museum includes exhibits almost every place and period, including costumes from the theatre, and paintings. The Science Museum covers every aspect of science and technology, and its collections are constantly being enlarged. The museum is always crowded. In many of the rooms there are machines and computers which the visitors can work themselves.
It is safe to say that the three most famous buildings in England are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Tower of London on the north bank of the Thames is one of the most ancient buildings of London. It was founded in the 11th century by William the Conqueror. But each monarch left some kind of personal mark on it. For many centuries the Tower has been a fortress, a palace, a prison and royal treasury. It is now a museum of arms and amour, and as one of the strongest fortresses in Britain, it has the Crown Jewels. The grey stones of the Tower could tell terrible stories of violence and injustice. Many sad and cruel events took place within the walls of the Tower. It was here that Thomas More, the great humanist, was falsely accused and executed. Among famous prisoners executed at the Tower were Henry VIII's wives Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard. When Queen Elizabeth was a princess, she was sent to the Tower by Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) and kept prisoner for some time. The ravens whose forefathers used to find food in the Tower still live here as part of its history. There is a legend that if the ravens disappear the Tower will fall. That is why the birds are carefully guarded. The White Tower was built by William the Conqueror to protect and control the City of London.
Every night at 10 p.m. at the Tower of London the Ceremony of the Keys or locking up of the Tower for the night takes place. It goes back to the Middle Ages. Five minutes before the hour the Headwarder comes out with a bunch of keys and an old lantern. He goes to the guardhouse and cries: 'Escort for the keys'. Then he closes the three gates and goes to the sentry, who calls: 'Halt, who comes there?' The Headwarder replies: 'The Keys'. 'Whose Keys?' demands the sentry. 'Queen Elizabeth's Keys', comes the answer. 'Advance Queen Elizabeth's Keys. All's well'. The keys are finally carried to the Queen's House where they are safe for the night. After the ceremony everyone who approaches the gate must give the password or turn away.
Westminster Abbey is a fine Gothic building, which stands opposite the Houses of Parliament. It is the work of many hands and different ages. The oldest part of the building dates from the eighth century.
The Abbey is sometimes compared with a mausoleum, because there are tombs and memorials of almost all English monarchs, many statesmen, famous scientists, writers and musicians.
If you go past the magnificent tombstones of kings and queens, some made of gold and precious stones, past the gold-and-silver banners of the Order of the Garter, which are hanging from the ceiling, you will come to Poets' Corner. There many of the greatest writers are buried: Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Here too, though these writers are not buried in Westminster Abbey, are memorials to William Shakespeare and John Milton, Burns and Byron, Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray and the great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
St. Paul’s Cathedral is the work of the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren. It is said to be one of the finest pieces of architecture in Europe. Work on Wren’s masterpiece began in 1675 after a Norman church, old St. Paul’s, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. For 35 years the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral went on, and Wren was an old man before it was finished.
From far away you can see the huge dome with a golden ball and cross on the top. The interior of the cathedral is very beautiful. It is full of monuments. The most important, perhaps, is the one dedicated to the Duke of Wellington. After looking round you can climb 263 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which runs round the dome. It is called so, because if someone whispers close to the wall on one side, a person with his ear close to the wall on the other side can hear what is said. But if you want to reach the foot of the ball, you have to climb 637 steps.
As for Christopher Wren, who is now known as “the architect of London“, he found his fame only after his death. He was buried in the Cathedral. Buried here are Nelson, Wellington and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
British’s Theatres. Britain is now one of the world's major theatre centers. Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. Some of them are privately owned. The tickets are not hard to get but they are very expensive. Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. The National Theatre stages modern and classical plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company produces plays mainly by Shakespeare and his contemporaries when it performs in Stratford-on-Avon, and modern plays in its two auditoria in the City's Barbican Centre. Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse, about which you have probably read, was reconstructed on its original site. Many other cities and large towns have at least one theatre. There are many theatres and theatre companies for young people: the National Youth Theatre and the Young Vic Company in London, the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh. The National Youth Theatre, which stages classical plays mainly by Shakespeare and modern plays about youth, was on tour in Russian in 1989. The theatre-goers warmly received the production of Thomas Stearns Eliot's play 'Murder in the Cathedral'. Many famous English actors started their careers in the National Youth Theatre. Among them Timothy Dalton, the actor who did the part of Rochester in 'Jane Eyre' shown on TV in our country.
Stonehenge is the great stone monument, the most remarkable of prehistoric in Britain. It has stood on Salisbury Plain for about 4,000 years. No written records exist of its origin, and it has always been surrounded by mystery. There have been many different theories, but still nobody knows why it was built. One theory is that it was a place from where stars and planets could be observed. It was discovered that the position of some stones was related to the movements of the sun and moon, so that the stones could be used as a calendar to predict such things as eclipses.
The Lake District is a mountainous area in the north-west of England, and it has some of England's most beautiful scenery. Some admiring visitors called it " A paradise of mountain scenery and magical light". Picturesque lakes lie in deep hollows dug out by the glacier which covered Britain during the Ice Age'. Green hills, herds of sheep, and solitary farms scattered here and there are typical of this remote and surprisingly beautiful part of England.
The Lake District is a National Park, which means that special care is taken to make sure that the beauty of the countryside is not spoilt.
Canterbury is a town in Kent with a population of about 120,000. It is the religious capital of England because its cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is head of the Church of England. From the 12th to 15th centuries it was a place of pilgrimage. Thousands of people came to pray at the tomb of a former Archbishop of Canterbury who murdered in the Cathedral in 1170. His name was Thomas Becket
Windsor Castle standing on a rock overlooking the River Thames, was founded by William the Conqueror and was later fortified and enlarged by almost, every monarch since the Norman Conquest. William and his early successors needed to secure
their military position. Nowadays Windsor Castle is a comfortable country place within an hour's drive from the capital, where the Royal family can relax.
Hampton Court Palace is a royal residence which is associated with Henry VIII. Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's friend and adviser, was a brilliant politician and diplomats.
He began building this grand palace in red brick in 1514. In 1526 Wolsey presented the unfinished place to his king, and Henry continued the work until Hampton Court was one of the largest buildings in Europe.
During the Civil War Oliver Cromwell used Hampton Court to hold King Charles I under home arrest. After the king's execution, he lived there himself, in rather un-Puritan style.
Like many English old castles and palaces, Hampton Court is haunted. According to a legend, one of the galleries is haunted by Henry's fifth wife Catherine Howard, who was executed on a charge of infidelity. Another legend says that Jane Seymour, his s third wife, also walks here in the palace where she died giving birth to the future Edward VI. Some legends tell that the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, who was also executed, sometimes walks along the ramparts of the Bloody Tower. Henry himself, however, rests quietly: his ghost has never been seen by anybody.
Control questions:
1. Which are some of the most traditional ceremonies that have been preserved since old times?
2. Which are the three of London’s most interesting museums?
3. What does the legend say about the building of Stonehenge?
4. Where is the Lake District situated?
5. How far from London is Windsor Castle situated?
6. Why is there a mixture of styles in the architecture of Hampton Court Palace?
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Lecture. Theme: Geographical Survey. Economy.
Plan: 1. Geographical Position
2. Composition of the country
3. Relief and mountains
4. Climate
5. Inland waters
6. Mineral resources and their deposits.
7. Economy
The aim of the lecture: To get acquainted with the geographical position, climate, inland waters and natural conditions. Economy.
Key words:
The content of the lecture: GEORAPHICAL POSITION
The United States owes much of its national character -- and its wealth -- to its good fortune in having such a large and varied landmass to inhabit and cultivate. Yet the country still exhibits marks of regional identity, and one way Americans cope with the size of their country is to think of themselves as linked geographically by certain traits, such as New England self-reliance, southern hospitality, Midwestern wholesomeness, western mellowness.
This lecture examines American geography through the filters of six main regions:
· New England, made up of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
· The Middle Atlantic, comprising New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
· The South, which runs from Virginia south to Florida and west as far as central Texas. This region also includes West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and parts of Missouri and Oklahoma.
· The Midwest, a broad collection of states sweeping westward from Ohio to Nebraska and including Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, parts of Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and eastern Colorado.
· The Southwest, made up of western Texas, portions of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and the southern interior part of California.
· The West, comprising Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Note that there is nothing official about these regions; many other lineups are possible. These groupings are offered simply as a way to begin the otherwise daunting task of getting acquainted with the United States.
NEW ENGLAND
The smallest region, New England has not been blessed with large expanses of rich farmland or a mild climate. Yet it played a dominant role in American development. From the 17th century until well into the 19th, New England was the country's cultural and economic center. The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants of firm and settled doctrine. Many of them came in search of religious liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format - the town meeting (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders) in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day. Only men of property could vote. Nonetheless, town meetings afforded New Englanders an unusually high level of participation in government. Such meetings still function in many New England communities today. New Englanders found it difficult to farm the land in large lots, as was common in the South. By 1750, many settlers had turned to other pursuits. The mainstays of the region became shipbuilding, fishing, and trade.
MIDDLE ATLANTIC
The Middle Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of people than New England. Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State. Swedes went to Delaware. English Catholics founded Maryland, and an English Protestant sect, the Friends, settled Pennsylvania. In time, all these settlements fell under English control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities. Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a bridge between North and South. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787.As heavy industry spread throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vital shipping lanes. Cities on waterways -- New York on the Hudson, Philadelphia on the Delaware, Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay -- grew dramatically. New York is still the nation's largest city, its financial hub, and its cultural center.
THE SOUTH
The South is perhaps the most distinctive and colorful American region. The American Civil War (1861-65) devastated the South socially and economically. Nevertheless, it retained its unmistakable identity. Like New England, the South was first settled by English Protestants. But whereas New Englanders tended to stress their differences from the old country, Southerners tended to emulate the English. Even so, Southerners were prominent among the leaders of the American Revolution, and four of America's first five presidents were Virginians. After 1800, however, the interests of the manufacturing North and the agrarian South began to diverge. Especially in coastal areas, southern settlers grew wealthy by raising and selling cotton and tobacco. The most economical way to raise these crops was on large farms, called plantations, which required the work of many laborers. To supply this need, plantation owners relied on slaves brought from Africa, and slavery spread throughout the South. It took a long, concerted effort by African Americans and their supporters to end segregation.
THE MIDWEST
The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the early 1800s easterners moved there in search of better farmland, and soon Europeans bypassed the East Coast to migrate directly to the interior: Germans to eastern Missouri, Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn. The region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket." Most of the Midwest is flat. The Mississippi River has acted as a regional lifeline, moving settlers to new homes and foodstuffs to market. The river inspired two classic American books, both written by a native Missourian, Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The region's hub is Chicago, Illinois, the nation's third largest city. This major Great Lakes port is a connecting point for rail lines and air traffic to far-flung parts of the nation and the world. At its heart stands the Sears Tower, at 447 meters, the world's tallest building.
THE SOUTHWEST
The Southwest differs from the adjoining Midwest in weather (drier), population (less dense), and ethnicity (strong Spanish-American and Native-American components). Outside the cities, the region is a land of open spaces, much of which is desert. The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in this region, as is Monument Valley, the starkly beautiful backdrop for many western movies. Monument Valley is within the Navajo Reservation, home of the most populous American Indian tribe. To the south and east lie dozens of other Indian reservations, including those of the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache tribes.
THE WEST
The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale. All of its 11 states are partly mountainous, and the ranges are the sources of startling contrasts. To the west of the peaks, winds from the Pacific Ocean carry enough moisture to keep the land well-watered. To the east, however, the land is very dry. Parts of western Washington State, for example, receive 20 times the amount of rain that falls on the eastern side of the state's Cascade Range. In much of the West the population is sparse, and the federal government owns and manages millions of hectares of undeveloped land. Americans use these areas for recreational and commercial activities, such as fishing, camping, hiking, boating, grazing, lumbering, and mining. Alaska, the northernmost state in the Union, is a vast land of few, but hardy, people and great stretches of wilderness, protected in national parks and wildlife refuges. Hawaii is the only state in the union in which Asian Americans outnumber residents of European stock. Beginning in the 1980s large numbers of Asians have also settled in California, mainly around Los Angeles.
RELIEF AND MOUNTAINS
About half of the USA territory is covered by plateaus and mountains. The eastern part of the country is occupied by the Appalachian Mountains, which in the north come close to the Atlantic coast and in the south are separated from it by the Atlantic Lowland. West of the Appalachians stretch the Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Mexican Lowland. The Central Plains are 500-400 m high and have a hilly moraine relief in the north and a more gentle erosional relief in the middle and southern parts. The Great Plains are a deeply cut plateau with the heights of 500m in the east to 1600m at the Cordillera foothills. The flat Mexican Lowland, with the height of up to 150m, is swampy along the Gulf coast and fringed by a strip of marshes. The Cordilleras consist of rows of mountains ranges with the heights of up to 3000-5000m and a broad strip of inter mountain tablelands and plateaus. In Alaska the mountain ranges stretch in the west-east direction and include the Brooks Range, the Yukon Tableland, the Aleutian Range with Mount McKinley, 6193m –the highest peak of the USA and the whole of North America. Rocky Mountains, this system of parallel mountain ranges stretches down the western side of North America from to New Mexico. For long the Rockies cut off the Pacific seaboard of Canada and the United States from the rest of the North America. Within the Rocky Mountains there are many national parks were trees plants animals and birds are protected. The largest of these is the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with its great Geysers, its herds of bison, deer, and antelope. Among all the wonders and curiosities of the Rockies, two perhaps deserve mention. One is the grizzly bear, now a rather rare inhabitant, whose fierceness and shyness great size and extreme deftness in moving have made him almost a legendary animal. The other is the great redwood tree with its amazingly tall, straight trunk, branchless for hundreds of feet from the ground.
CLIMATE
North America’s climate is changeable. There are places that are warm all the year round and there are places covered with ice and snow where summer never comes.
The United States occupies a large area in the central part of the North American Continent. Winters in the northern part of the country are long and cold. In the South winters are much shorter. Average temperature in January is mild. As the northern part of the country has such long winters the growing season is quite short.
In the South the growing season is much longer. In fact in some of the states it is nine month long. The climate of these places is affected by other things besides the distance from the Equator. Landforms also affect climate. For example a great belt of mountainous land stretches along the western edge of north America from Alaska south to Panama. Some of these mountains are so high that snow can be seen on their peaks even in summer. Summer days are often bright and warm in the mountains but the nights are cold. The growing season is far shorter than in the lowlands.
Oceans also affect climate Winters are colder in the interior than along the coasts and summers are warmer. Parts of the Pacific Coast are very wet. The high mountains of this region are responsible for all this rain. They catch the moist air that blows in from the Pacific Ocean.
To the east beyond the mountains there is a vast dry region. This dry land extends from Canada Mexico. But still farther east in the Southeastern United States you can find another wet region. Here warm moist air blows inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This all brings plenty of rain to the Southeastern States. The Northern States east of the Mississippi also receive ample moisture.
INLAND WATERS
The longest river in the US is the Mississippi with its tributary of Missouri (7,300km long). The other main tributary of the Mississippi, flowing into it from the east, is the Ohio River. The Mississippi flows to the south and empties into the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans.
Another important river of the USA is the Hudson River which flows across the north-eastern part of the country and empties into the Atlantic Ocean at New York. The rivers in the west of the country are unsuitable for navigation because they flow through deep canyons and are cut by numerous rapids, which fact, however, makes them a good source of electric power. These rivers start in the Cordilleras and empty into the Pacific Ocean. The largest among them are the Columbia River and the Colorado River.
World – famous is the region of the Great Lakes, situated in the north-east of the United States bordering Canada. It is a system of five great lakes, Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, joined together by natural channels. The Niagara Falls, great rapids situated on the short Niagara river joined Lakes Erie and Ontario, are famous all over the world and attracts lots of tourists. Buffalo, at the northern end of Lake Erie is the fourth largest port and the seventh industrial city in the United States of America. The lakes can be used only between the months of April and December, as they freeze in winter. The importance of the Lakes is not only commercial: along their shores are vast stretches of forest, meadowland, and grassland,as well as towns, camps, and small country towns.
MINERAL RESOURCES
The USA is rich in coal, iron and oil. There are coal-mines in the Cordillera Mountains, in the Kansas City region and in the east near Birmingham and Pittsburgh. Iron is mined near the Great Lakes and in the Birmingham, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas. In California and Texas there are rich oil-fields. There are also deposits of silver and gold.
ECONOMY
The USA is a country of highly developed economy. Heavy industry includes such branches as mining, metallurgical engineering and chemical industries. Detroit is a large motor-car industry centre. Shipbuilding is developed along the Atlantic coast and in San Francisco on the Pacific coast.
Textile industry is also well-developed, especially in the South near large cotton plantations.
Agriculture is very wide-spread, above all in the prairie regions, where wheat and other grain crops are grown.
Cotton is grown in the Mississippi Valley, tobacco in Maryland and Virginia. California is famous for its fruit plantations, and the West-for its cattle-farming. Poultry-farming is wide-spread in the countryside near all big cities.
North America was rich in animal species until explorers from Europe began to visit and set up the feather trade. By the 20th century 70 or more species of animals that had been common disappeared. Bison which were numerous when the Spanish and the French arrived were annihilated in the east by 1825.When railways were built in 1869 vast herds were also killed off in the west. As the Indians depended on their food and skins the white men felt they were killing two birds with one stone the elimination of the bison would make life hard for the Indians.
Control questions:
1. Natural characteristics of the main geographic regions in the USA: New England, Middle Atlantic, South, Midwest, Southwest, West.
2. Describe the climate of the USA? Which parts of the USA have a continental climate? What is characteristics of this climate?
3. The main economic regions of the USA. Mineral resources and their deposits.
4. The role of the USA in the World Economy.
9- Lecture. Theme: A brief history of the United States (before the independence)
Plan: 1. The first Inhabitants
2. Discovery of America (Europe’s first Explorers)
3. English Settlements
4. The English colonies
5. Trouble in the colonies
Key words:
The content of the lecture: THE FIRST INHABITANTS
Imagine a time many thousands of years ago. A group of hunters came to a huge, unexplored land. They were the first people in America.
For many thousands of ears the descendants of those hunters moved farther into the new territory. Finally they settled in all parts of the land. Different groups developed different languages and customs. These people were American Indians, or Red Indians.
Then, one day, a new group of travelers came to the land. They had new customs, new languages and a very different way of life. They were Europeans.
No one knows exactly how people first came to North America. However, many scientists believe that America’s first settlers were hunters who came from Siberia.
These hunters followed big animals over a large bridge into what is now Alaska.
About two million years ago the weather in the northern half of the earth changed greatly. It grew colder. The snow that fell did not melt in summer. Much of the land was covered with huge glaciers. This period of time is called the Ice Age because so much of the North was covered with ice. Sea water froze, and the water level in sea dropped. There is a narrow strait between the Bering and Chukchi Seas. During the Ice Age this strait probably became very shallow. In some places it dried up completely and formed a land bridge from Asia to North America.
The scientists think that the people of Asia found this land bridge between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago. Group after group moved across the bridge to the unexplored continent of North America. They passed through what is now Alaska and western Canada.
2. Discovery of America (Europe’s first Explorers)
The first Europeans to reach North America were Icelandic Vikings, led by Leif Ericson, about the year 1000. Traces of their visit have been found in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, but the Vikings failed to establish a permanent settlement and soon lost contact with the new continent.
Five centuries later, the demand for Asian spices, textiles, and dyes spurred European navigators to dream of shorter routes between East and West. Acting on behalf of the Spanish crown, in 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe and landed on one of the Bahama Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Within 40 years, Spanish adventurers had carved out a huge empire in Central and South America.
Christopher Columbus (1451- 1506)
Christopher Columbuswas born in Italy and grew up near the sea. Columbus, as well as some learned men of his time, had decided that the eastern coast of Asia could be reached by sailing westward across the Atlantic. Columbus thought, also, that Asia was no farther from Europe on the west then we know now America to be. He thought the East Indies were directly west from the Canary Islands. In these far-away lands men thought they should find honour, wealth, and fame.
Such an enterprise would require the equipment of vessels at much expense. Money and influence were essential. Columbus had neither. He sent his brother to England and to France. Then went to Spain again. Finally, after seven years of waiting, Columbus found success. Isabella, Queen of Spain, agreed to aid him in carrying out his plans. There small vessels, only one of which had a deck, were fitted out. The largest of these, the Santa Maria, was commanded by Columbus. The others were the Nina and the Pinta. Before sunrise, August 3, 1492, this little fleet, with one hundred and twenty men and provisions for a years, sailed out of the port Palos.
At last, after a voyage of ten weeks, land was discovered on October 12, 1492. Columbus had discovered one of the Bahama Islands which he called San Salvador. He coasted along the shores of Cuba and Haiti.
He did not find the cities of Asia as he had expected, but he had no doubt that he was in the East Indies, and therefore called the natives Indians.
When Columbus returned to Spain with the news of his discovery the people were enthusiastic with delight. Men were now eager to go where they expected to get all kinds of wealth. Four voyages were made in all, but when adventurers reached the land of their hopes and found no silks, no spices, no precious stones, no gold, they reproached Columbus. The Court of Spain, also, finding no return for the great expense of fitting out these expeditions, censured him. His enemies increased, and his last days were spent in disappointment and neglect. Heart-broken, he died ignorant of the greatness of his own discovery.
Amerigo Vespucci (1451 or 1454-1512)
Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Florence and a navigator, was first employed by Spain and later by Portugal, to make explorations. In 1499 he skirted the coast of Venezuela and northeastern South America. During the next four years he made several voyages to Brazil, and explored its coasts as far south as the mouth of the La Plata River. On returning to Europe he wrote a good descriptions of what he had seen. This was published in 1504, and constituted the first printed account of the mainland of the New World. Up to that time Europe, Asia, and Africa were known as the three parts of the world, and one distinguished geographer believed there was an unknown southern continent which constituted the fourth part.
It now seemed clear that Amerigo Vespucci proved the existence of the fourth part. In consequence of this belief a German professor, who printed a little treatise on geography a few years later, suggested that the fourth part should be called America, after Amerigo Vespucci. According to this suggestion the name America was at first applied to Brazil, later to South America, and later still to the whole of the New World.
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