What did John Cabot discover? - AnswersWho.
Giovanni Caboto was an Italian navigator and explorer.The earliest known European exploration of the coast of North America was done in 1497 by Henry VII of England.Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland was chosen as the first landing site by the British and Canadian governments to mark the 500th anniversary of the expedition.Alternative locations have also been proposed.
Zuan Chabotto is also known as John Cabot in English and Giovanni Caboto in Italian.This was the result of a once-ubiquitous European tradition of naming documents after people.Zuan was a form of John that was typical to Venice.He continued to use this form in England.In the only known contemporary document to use this version of his first name, he was referred to as 'Giovanni'.[5]
He had a brother, Piero, who was the son of Giulio Caboto and his wife.Gaeta and Castiglione Chiavarese are both proposed as birthplaces.The Caboto family lived in Gaeta until the mid-15th century, but ceased to be tracked after 1403.[8]
The Spanish envoy in London wrote a letter to the Spanish Crown in 1498 describing him as a Genoese like Columbus.Sebastian said his father came from Genoa.In 1476, in order to be a citizen of the Republic of Venice, he had to have lived in the city for at least fifteen years.10
The date most commonly given for his birth is 1450, but it may have been earlier.He was accepted into the religious confraternity of St John the Evangelist.Since this was one of the city's prestigious confraternities, his acceptance suggests that he was already respected in the community.
The trade between Venice and the eastern Mediterranean was the source of much of the city's wealth.He entered this trade shortly thereafter.While in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt, he sold a slave in Crete to a group of countries that are now Israel, Syria and Lebanon.This isn't enough to prove that he had visited Mecca, which he said in 1497 to the Milanese ambassador in London.He may have learned more about the origins of the Eastern merchandise he would have been dealing in than most Europeans at that time.
There are a lot of Venetian records of the late 1480s.He was married to Mattea by 1484 and already had multiple sons.The sons of Cabot were Sebastian, Ludovico, and Sancto.There are references to Cabot's being involved in Venetian house building.He may have used this experience when looking for work in Spain as a civil engineer.There are no comments at this time.
Venice was left as an insolvent debtor by 5 November 1488.A lettera di raccomandazione a giustizia was sent to the authorities in Valencia, Spain, in order to have him arrested.Plans for improvements to the harbour were proposed by "John Cabot Montecalunya", as he is referred to in local documents.The proposals were rejected.He proposed to build a stone bridge over the Guadalquivir river and was contracted to work on it for five months.The project was abandoned after the City Council made a decision.After this, he moved to London to seek funding and political support for an Atlantic expedition.He probably arrived in England in the 14th century.
Like other explorers at that time, he led an expedition from England.The voyage from a northerly latitude to the west would be shorter because the longitudes are closer together.He still expected to find an alternative route to China.
Historians thought that on his arrival in England, Cabot went to Bristol to find financial backers.This was the only English city that had done exploratory expeditions into the Atlantic.The royal patent issued by the Crown stated that all expeditions should be undertaken from Bristol.The commerce resulting from any discoveries must be conducted with England alone, with goods only being brought in through Bristol.The sole right to engage in colonial trade would have made Bristol a monopoly port.Iberian practices are thought to have influenced Henry VII of England's decision to make Lisbon a monopoly port.
According to British historian Alwyn Ruddock, in the late 20th century, there was documentation that showed Cabot went first to London, where he received some financial backing from its Italian community.She said Father Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis was the deputy to Adriano Castellesi, the papal tax collector.Ruddock suggested that Carbonariis was with the expedition.She suggested that the friar introduced the explorer to King Henry VII.Ruddock stated that a loan was taken from an Italian bank in London.After Ruddock ordered the destruction of her research notes, scholars had to duplicate her work.The University of Bristol formed the Cabot Project in 2009.Some of Ruddock's documentation was found by the University of Florence and it shows that Cabot received money from the Bardi family.Fifty nobles were given by the bankers located in London.4d.To support the expedition to find the new land.It was not enough to completely finance the expedition, but the Florentine merchants' payment would have represented a substantial contribution.[ 24]
The following charge for exploration was given to Cabot and his three sons by Henry VII.
Under our banners, flags and ensigns, we have the power to sail to all parts of the eastern, western and northern sea.
Those who received such patents had the right to assign them to third parties.His sons are thought to have been adolescents at that time.[26]
He went to Bristol to get ready for his voyage.Bristol was the second largest seaport in England.It supplied several expeditions to look for the mythical hy-Brasil.The island was said to be in the Atlantic Ocean.Merchants in the port believed that Bristol men had discovered the island at an earlier date, but then lost track of it.Ruddock claimed in a private letter that she had found evidence that Bristol men had discovered North America before 1470.Merchants had an incentive to find a valuable red dye from the island as it was believed to be a source of brazilwood.[31]
The first voyage was not recorded.The "John Day letter" was sent during the winter of 1497–98 to an addressee believed to be Christopher Columbus.This voyage is briefly mentioned in the letter, but it's mostly about the second expedition.He went with one ship, his crew confused him, he was short of supplies and he decided to turn back.It is believed that he made his first voyage that summer after receiving his royal patent.
Information about the 1497 voyage comes from four short letters and an entry in a 1565 chronicle of the city of Bristol.The entry says in full.
The land of America was found by the Merchants of Bristow in a shippe called the Mathew, the second day of May 1497, on St. John the Baptist's Day.
The John Day letter gives a lot of information about the second voyage.Day is thought to have been familiar with the key figures of the expedition and was able to report on it.If the lands were west of the meridian laid down in the Treaty of Tordesillas, Columbus would probably have believed that these voyages challenged his monopoly rights for westward exploration.There is an unreliable source.
The London-based bankers of Fr wrote another letter on 10 August 1497, according to Alwyn Ruddock.The man is Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis.The letter hasn't been found.The letter did not seem to contain a detailed account of the voyage from the written comments made by Ruddock.Ruddock said the letter contained "new evidence supporting the claim that seamen of Bristol had already discovered land across the ocean before John Cabot's arrival in England."She claimed that Bristol seamen had reached North America two decades before the expedition.[29]
None of the known sources can be assumed to be reliable.Matthew of Bristol was described as a 50 ton ship in the 1565 chronicle.It was said to have enough supplies for seven or eight months.The ship had a crew of 18 to 20 men.The expedition included an unnamed Burgundian and a Genoese barber.Dentists in that era routinely performed dentistry and minor surgery.
Two top Bristol merchants may have been part of the expedition.Historian Margaret Condon discovered a new document in the late 20th century that identified William Weston as part of the expedition.The letter from Henry VII ordering the suspension of legal proceedings against Weston was published by Evan Jones in 2009.William Weston was the first Englishman to lead an expedition to North America.The explorers were rewarded by the king in January 1498, according to an article published by Condon and Jones.Weston received a reward after returning from his successful voyage.[39]
On June 24, 1497, the expedition made landfall on the coast of North America after sailing past Ireland and across the Atlantic.Different communities are vying for the honor of being the location of the landfall.Historians think of Cape Bonavista and St. John's, Newfoundland, as possibilities.Since the discovery of the John Day letter in the 1950s, it seems most likely that the initial landfall was on Newfoundland.The coastline explored in 1497 was between the latitudes of Bordeaux, France and Dursey Head in southern Ireland.The initial landfall seems to have taken place close to the southern latitude, with the expedition returning home after reaching the northern one.40
The official landing place for the 500th-anniversary celebrations was Cape Bonavista in Newfoundland.Queen Elizabeth II, along with members of the Italian and Canadian governments, welcomed the replica Matthew of Bristol in 1997.[41]
During the expedition, Cabot only landed once and did not advance beyond the shooting distance of a crossbow.The remains of a fire, a human trail, nets and a wooden tool were found by the expedition.The crew appeared to have remained on land just long enough to take on fresh water; they also raised the Venetian and Papal banners, claiming the land for the King of England and acknowledging the religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church.The coast was discovered by most after turning back.[32]
After returning to Bristol, he rode to London to report to the king.He was given a reward of about two years' pay for an ordinary labourer or craftsman.Soncino wrote that the explorer was fted because he was similar to Christopher Columbus and the English ran after him like mad.The king's attention was diverted by the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497, led by Perkin Warbeck.After Henry's throne was secured, he gave more thought to Cabot.Just a few days after the collapse of the revolt, the king made an award of $2 to Cabot.On December 13, 1497, the explorer was awarded a pension of £20 per year.Customs receipts were collected in Bristol.The pension was backdated to March 1497 to make it clear that he was in the king's service.Despite the royal grant, Bristol's customs officers initially refused to pay his pension, forcing the explorer to get an additional warrant from the king.On February 3, 1498, Cabot was given a new letters patent, which allowed him to prepare a second expedition.In March and April, the king gave loans to a number of people, including Thomas Bradley, John Cair, and Lancelot Thirkill.[49]
According to the Great Chronicle of London, one of the ships that left Bristol at the beginning of May 1498 was prepared by the king.Cloth, caps, lace points and other items were said to be on some of the ships.This shows that Cabot intended to engage in trade.The Spanish envoy in London reported in July that one of the ships had been caught in a storm and had to land in Ireland, but that the other four ships continued on.[9]
For hundreds of years, no other records related to this expedition were found; it was thought that the fleet was lost at sea.Lancelot Thirkill, one of the men scheduled to accompany the expedition, is recorded as living in London in 1501.[51]
For 35 years, the historian Alwyn Ruddock worked on Cabot and his era.She said that the expedition returned to England in the spring of 1500.She claimed that their return followed a two-year exploration of the east coast of North America, south into the Chesapeake Bay area and possibly as far as the Spanish territories in the Caribbean.The world map of Juan de la Cosa was included in her evidence.Between 1497 and 1500, the North American coast and seas were discovered by the English.[52]
Ruddock claimed that Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis and the other friars founded a mission after staying in Newfoundland.If Carbonariis built a settlement in North America, it would have been the first Christian one on the planet.[54]
In 2009, the University of Bristol organized a project to look for evidence on which Ruddock's claims are based.The lead researchers on the project, Evan Jones and Margaret Condon, claim to have found more evidence to support Ruddock's case, including some information she intended to use to argue for a successful return of the 1498 expedition to Bristol.Jones and Condon have yet to publish their documentation, but these seem to show John Cabot in London by May 1500.
The likely location for Carbonariis's possible mission settlement was believed to be at the community of Carbonear in Newfoundland.Memorial University of Newfoundland has carried out summer fieldwork for the Archaeology of Historic Carbonear Project since 2011.It has found evidence of planter habitation since the late 17th century and of trade with Spain through Bilbao.There are 56 and 57 words.