John Cabot

1492 was a remarkable year in the history of the world. And that was because three little ships made a remarkable and daring journey to a land never seen before by much of the world. The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria thankfully landed on an island in the Caribbean on October 12 after a harrowing (scary and slightly dangerous) trip across the great unknown, the Atlantic Ocean. Their fearless leader, Christopher Columbus had done what he said he was going to do...find the Indies by sailing west instead of east.

But what did they really find? A whole new world, a big mass of land that was smack dab in the way of China and the riches of the indies: spices and more spices. Can you imagine how bad that European food must have tasted if they were willing to risk everything to find a quicker way to the Indies and cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves.

Well, they didn't just go because of spices, but it was a BIG part of it. They wanted to find gold, and they wanted to save the world from hell by bringing Christianity to people, whether they wanted it or not.

King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella of Spain provided Columbus with the boats and supplies and so they quickly benefited from the riches they found in this new world. Spain was becoming very rich and powerful. Portugal also sent out explorers like Vasco de Gama, Cabral, and Magellan. Portugal and Spain were raking in the riches.

So, what about England? After all, they were an island nation and should be cashing in on all of this new discovery.

In 1496, King Henry VII issued letters to allow John Cabot to sail in eastern, western, and northern seas that had not been explored by the Spanish and Portuguese. Cabot was not even English. He was born in 1451 as Giovanni Caboto. He was from Italy, just like Christopher Columbus. At first he went to Spain and Portugal to get them to give him ships to explore this new world. He thought that Asia could be reached easily and quickly by sailing more to the north.

 

But Spain and Portugal didn't want to help him because they felt they already had enough explorers out there. They didn't need anymore.

Guess who had to pay the most for spices? England. They were the farthest away from the traditional spice route to India. They wanted to get the spices themselves and of course, riches.

On his second try, Cabot set sail in May, 1497. He had one small ship, the Matthew, with a crew of about 18 men. He sailed the same route the Vikings had used hundreds of years before.

Eventually, he did find land, but no spices. He came back over a year later in August 1497 with glowing reports of what he had found. He provided the first mapped details of the North American coast.

King Henry called Cabot's discovery “new-found-land”. It would eventually become known as Newfoundland, part of present-day Canada. Cabot became famous. Everyone thought he had found Asia.

He sailed again in May 1498 with five ships. The weather was bad and one ship sailed back while four continued on. They were never heard from again.

Though Cabot didn't know it, he had discovered North America for the Europeans. His discovery would become more valuable than a ship's hull filled with treasure. It allowed England to claim North America.