READ ABOUT New York's history - have fun and learn!
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Giovanni da Verrazzano (1481-1528) In the beginning of the 16th century, the Age of Discovery was in full swing. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the Spanish were prowling the wide seas discovering new lands and creating new improved trading sea routes. The King of France, Francis I, didn't want to stay behind and sent Giovanni Verrazzano, an Italian explorer, to discover for the glory of the French crown. The main task before him was to find "a northwest passage", aka a way to get to China from Europe through the newly found continent of America. Giovanni da Verrazzano made several journeys to the shores of North America. On his third voyage, he explored the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Newfoundland. He was the first European to see New Jersey and to admire New York Harbor. He saw a beautiful island which he called Angouleme and which later would be known as Manhattan. During his explorations, Giovanni da Verrazzano had numerous encounters with the natives, however, his luck ran out during his final voyage in 1528 while exploring the Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles. One fateful day he came ashore at one of the Lesser Antilles Islands and, per usual, contacted the natives. Unfortunately for him, the natives were the Carib Indians, cannibals, who had the explorer for dinner in a literal sense of the word. They killed, cooked, and ate Giovanni Verrazzano while his crew watched helplessly from a ship. |