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For thousands of years the American Indians lived and labored in the Americas.These very first Americans were migrants from eastern Siberia¹ and might belong to the Mongoloid peoples.They traveled into the New World more than 20，000years ago，when there was a land bridge between Asia and Alaska.After entering the New World they gradually spread all over North and South Americas，from Alaska to Cape Horn.They were divided into a great number of tribes who spoke different languages.By the 15th century there were 15to 20million inhabitants in the Americas.Some of them were quite primitive，while others were among the most advanced cultures in the world.But when the Europeans arrived in great numbers in the 16th and 17th centuries，the cultures of the American Indians began to change as they came into contact with Western culture and technology.

Today people usually think that it was Christopher Columbus who discovered the New World in 1492，but it is actually a rediscovery，or effective discovery，of America.If we leave the ancestors of American Indians out of consideration，Europeans first made contact with the Americas long before Columbus.About AD 1000，the Norsemen from Scandinavia happened on America，but their contact did not exert great influence in the world because Europe was then poor，politically fragmented，beset by local wars and civil disorder，and largely illiterate.In short，Europe was then incapable of responding to the Norse discoveries.

By the end of 15th century，the modern European world was to be formed.Its formation was marked by the growth of trade and commerce，the rise of the middle class，the evolution of national states，the reformation of the Christian church，and the development of representative government.These changes，gradually developing over many years，led directly to the effective discovery and the settlement of the New World.

In the mid-15th century，agreat number of long ocean voyages took place.There were several practical reasons for this sudden daring exploration of the unknown.For one thing，Venice had built a monopoly on the Mediterranean trade and kept others from sharing this wealth.Eastern goods were in great demand in Europe，and Venice，being the chief source of supply，could charge high prices in this trade.As England，France，Spain and Portugal emerged as nations，they wanted to break through Venice’s hold on this profitable trade and to get their fair share of it.Their ships could not compete in the Mediterranean so they sent out explorers to seek other routes to the East.

Another reason that some sailors dared to take long ocean voyages was the improvements in navigation and naval architecture.Better maps and charts reduced the superstitious fears of the unknown，faster，more maneuverable，and more stable ships made ocean travel far more practical；and the earlier invention of the compass originated from China took the guess work out of sailing a ship on course.The last reason for the many sea voyages of the era was the great spirit of adventure and enthusiasm which swept over the people of Europe.The spirit and enthusiasm were basically started by the Renaissance² that secularized the way people thought and expanded the European citizen’s self-knowledge and understanding of the surrounding world.

Between 1488and 1534 Europeans made several important voyages to explore the world.In 1488Bartholomew Diaz，sailing under the Portuguese flag，went to the Cape of Good Hope off southern Africa.In 1492Christopher Columbus，financed by the king and queen of Spain，sailed west in search of the East Indies and discovered instead the islands of the Caribbean which he called the West Indies.In 1499Amerigo Vespucci，also under the Spanish flag，sailed west and discovered the continent of South America.It was he who showed that the land they arrived was a whole new continent lay between Europe and Asia.

Before long it was named after him，America，the name of the southern continent，later being extended to the northern too.But Columbus，until his dying day，wrongly took it as Asia.Not to be outdone by Spain，England sent John Cabot，also an Italian explorer who had become an English citizen，

across the Atlantic in 1497and again in 1498to explore the coast of North America.Upon his voyages，England rested its claims to the lands that would eventually become the United States.Also in 1498，the Portuguese explorer，Vasco da Gama，completed the work of Diaz and sailed around the southern tip of Africa，and reached India.Then in 1519Spain sent Ferdinand Magellan with five ships to sail around the world for the first time.Magellan sailed around the tip of South America by way of the strait that today bears his name.He died in the Philippines，but his one remaining ship completed the historic voyage in 1522.Later，in 1534the French also succeeded in planting，their flags in the New World by the voyages of Jacques Cartie to Canada.In less than 50years from 1492to 1534，Europeans had discovered two new continents of North and South Americas and had broadened their horizons to include the whole globe.