Discovery of America:
Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. He was born in Italy. His father and both grandfathers were cloth makers. Columbus was a seaman and made many sea voyages.
Most people in Columbus's days thought that the earth was flat and they did not believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the Queen of Spain gave him money to go to India. He decided to sail west as he was sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000 miles he reached some land. The crew saw something like a white cliff and cried out: "Tierra! Tierra!"(Земля! Земля!). Columbus thought 'that it must be India but it was not. It was a new land - a new continent. It was America. Columbus named the land they had reached San Salvador ("Holy Saviour" – Святойспаситель). People began to speak about the land as "The New World".
European people came to the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to have no religious problems they had in England. In 1620 on the ship "Mayflower" they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that part of the country "New England".
- 1492 – Discovery of America
- 1620 – English people set up a colony in the north-east of America
{БИЛЕТ 21
The First English Settlements in America}
On May 20 in 1607 three ships reached the land of Virginia after five months’ voyage. By the end of the year two out of every three settles were dead, but their little group of huts (хижины) became the first lasting English settlement in America, which was named Jamestown, in honour of James I of England.
These settlers were employees sent to Jamestown by a group of rich London investors who had formed the Virginia Company to set up colonies along the Atlantic coast of North America in order to find gold. But because of diseases, starvation and Amerindian attacks, only 53 settlers out of 197 were still alive by 1608. Yet new settlers continued to arrive. The Virginia Company gathered homeless children from the streets of London and sent them out to the colony, as well as hundreds of convicts from London’s prisons. Such emigrants were often unwilling to go; though some Virginia emigrants sailed willingly to escape hunger and poverty, because Virginia had one great attraction that England lacked – plentiful land.
For a number of years after 1611 Virginia was run like a prison camp with strict rules, but it was not discipline that saved Virginia, it was tobacco that grew like a weed there. As visitors to America, like Sir Walter Raleigh, had brought the first dried leaves of tobacco to England, the plant’s popularity had been growing ever since. Soon most f Virginia settlers were busy growing tobacco. The possibility of becoming rich by growing tobacco brought wealthy men to Virginia, who obtained large stretches of land and brought workers from England to clear trees and plant tobacco. Soon rich estates or ‘plantations’ appeared along the banks of the James River. The workers on these early plantations were ‘indentured servants’ (долговые рабы) from England, who agreed to work for an employer for a fixed number of years (7 on average) in exchange for food and clothes, while after this period of time they were free to work for themselves.
In 1619 there was an important change in the way Virginia was governed. Previously it was controlled by Virginia Company (вирджинская компания). Now the Company allowed a body called the House of Burgesses (палата горожан) to be set up. The burgesses were elected representatives from the various settlements who met to advise the governor on the laws the colony needed. It was the start of an important tradition in American life – that people should have a say in decisions about matters that concern them.
The same year the first black Africans were brought to Virginia to work in tobacco fields as indentured servants for their life. In fact, they were the first slaves, though their master would admit this openly much later.
1607 – the first English settlers appeared in the USA
1619 – The House of Burgesses was set up (to govern the US colonies)
