Journey to North America

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Journey to North America INTRODUCTION The exploration of North America would span an entire millennium and involve a plethora of European powers and distinctive American characters. It starts with various tribes of Indians and ends with a new nation of immigrants. HISTORY American Indians where the original inhabitants of the North American Continent. Although the precise date of their initial exploration remains unknown, it is suggested that their arrival was marked at least 12,000 years ago after hiking across the Bering Strait land bridge. The land became home to thousands of tribes who developed their own distinct culture and way of living. They had their own social structures, trade routes, religion, and housing by using the large agricultural resources the land offered. Europeans’ first attempt to colonize the New World occurred around a.d. 1000 when the Vikings sailed from the British Isles to Greenland. In Newfoundland, they established a colony called Vineland that later vanished after a few years. Their accomplishments became known to other Europeans who were intrigued by the stories of the Vikings’ discovery of the New World. Between 1000 and 1650, developments in Europe provided the incentive for exploration and colonization of America. The most powerful influence for exploration was trade. Due to political and religious changes, the overland trade routes to the East were dominated by the merchants who limited their use. As a result, a search for new trade routes to the East became necessary. PHYSIOGRAPHY North America, the third largest continent, is a vast land consisting of broad lowland plains with long, mountainous zones paralleling the East and West coast. The continent’s interior is a 3,000 mile stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Artic separated into three physiographic regions: Atlantic and Gulf Coastal plain, Interior Lowland,
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