Spotlight on Explorers and Colonization: Sets 1 ? 2

From the Vikings and the Spanish conquistadors to the English, French, and Dutch adventure seekers and fortune hunters, Europeans were fascinated with exploration and the discovery of the New World. The explorers who visited the Americas brought with them the culture and politics of their homelands, as well as diseases, religions, philosophies, customs, and social attitudes that had never been experienced by Native peoples. The sometimes violent meeting of these cultures shaped the continuing process of exploration and the development of our modern nations. This series will provide biographies of the most well-known European explorers of the Americas?as well as Lewis and Clark?and investigate their motivations, the effect their exploration had on the native populations, and the influence of the New World culture upon European society.