Hi everyone!

Hope and wish you are enjoying the best of your time with your leaning of English.

I would like you to read and learn a few things about American history. In the following days I would like to share with you some certain easy stories.

Enjoy reading.

fm

                        Early American History

                           Introduction

Image America without big towns or cities without cars, trucks or buses  without movies, radios or T.V. Imagine America as a land full of woods and wild animals. Imagine small groups  of people living here and there-hunting , fishing, gathering seeds, growing food, and making everything  else they needed. This was the America of long, long ago. This was the land of the Indians.  About 500 years ago, new people began to come to the land of the Indians. They came on sailing ships from far across the sea.

               Christopher Columbus and Other Explorers

About  500  years ago , India and China were the richest countries  in the world. They were rich in gold , silk and  spices . The kings and queens of many countries had their eyes on the those riches . They sent traders to buy things from India  and China .  The traders had to cross high mountains and deserts .  Many were robbed and killed  along the way.

The kings and queens hired explorers  to look for ways  to get to India  and China  by boat.  One of these explorers was in Italian sailor named Christopher  Columbus.  He told the Queen of Spain that her traders  could  sail west across the ocean instead of going  east  across the land to get to India .  He believed  that to earth  was round and that  India was on the other side of the ocean from Spain.

The Queen decided to give him the money  for the  journey.  With the money  , he bought  three  ships the Nina , the Pinta  and the  Santa Maria  .  After thirty – six days at sea , the sailors saw land.  After they rowed ashore,  the people who lived there cane to greet  called the people Indians .  We still call those people  Indians  today.

The land Columbus found on October 12, 1492 was not India.  It was an island  off the place we now call America .  India was still very far away .  When the queen of Spain  learned that  Columbus had found a new land , she and other kings  and queens from the Old World sent  explorers to the new World in search  of gold . Balboa   and Colorado were two other explorers  sent by the queen of Spain  Neither of then found any gold.

People  eventually  became interested in the new World  as a place to live.   Explorers started looking for places  that very good for farming  and hunting .  Father Marquette  was a French explorer  who traveled down the Mississippi River .  He wanted  to find good places  for French  to come to live .  He made maps  of the long river  which were very helpful  to people who later came  to live along the Mississippi River.

                

   The Early Setters

When the explorers returned home , they told exciting  stories about life in the New World .  They told people  about  the rich forests  , animals  , wild plants , and the fish in the many lakes and rivers.  They told  then how helpful and friendly  the Indians  were and how they grey  vegetables that were never seen in the Old World – such as corn , potatoes and tomatoes .

Many people in the Old World  were having  a hard time making a living.  They decided to go to the New  World to hunt or farm.  Other people   in the Old World  could not have their own church and  pray the way they wanted to.  They decided  to go to the New World , too. Some people  just wanted to get rich and went there in search of the gold that no one  else had found  .  At first , most of the settlers  came from England and Spain.  They later came from France , Holland and other countries.

                        The First Town

Captain John Smith and his men came from England .  They named their town Jamestown , after Kings James of England.  They hoped to find gold and an easy life , but there was no gold. There was little food  and the first winter was very hard . Smith went to the Indians for help.  They gave him food, but their chief became angry with Smith. He wanted to kill Smith , but the chiefs daughter, Pocahontas ,told her father to let  the man live.  Smith sent some men to live with the Indians so that  they could learn how to grow corn and other vegetables . The men  protested and did not  want to be farmers . Smith told them to farm or starve .  Soon  all the men were working .  The Indians showed the  settlers how to grow tobacco.  It grew  very well there .  The settlers starting selling shiploads of tobacco the people  back  in England.  The settlers needed  more workers and bought slaves from Africa to do the work.

The  planters became rich and built big houses .  They filled then with beautiful things from England and other Old World  countries. These rich settlers  started  a new government.  Instead  of having one person rule like a king  or queen , they chose a group of people to rule .  Other English people came  and set up  other towns near Jamestown.  Later on, all the towns formed  one big colony called Virginia.  A colony is a group of people  who settle  in a new land, but keep their ties with the country they came from.