Hecher M. American Literature / M. Hecher, A. Golovenchenko, B. Kolesnikov ; Edited by Y. Zassoursky. — Moscow : Prosveshcheniye, 1978. — 256 p.
Анотація: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The Western Hemisphere had already been reached by courageous Scandinavian seafarers in the 10th century, but the actual discovery of America was made during the Renaissance period, in the 16th century. In search of a shorter and safer trade-route from Europe to Asia, Christopher Columbus landed on some island near Cuba in 1492 which he mistook for India. The misunderstanding was cleared up a few years later when the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, explored that coast and found that it was not India. So the new continent came to be called America after the name of its undoubted discoverer. More than a century was spent on compassing both Americas. The northern part of America, where Canada and the United States now lie, was first explored by a Bristol merchant John Cabot and his son Sebastian who sailed direct west from England across the Atlantic, and then by Henry Hudson. The southern continent was explored by the Spaniards and the Portuguese. At first the only aim of these white adventurers was to get gold. That is why they were more interested in the southern part of the continent: there lived numerous rich tribes of Indians, some of them highly civilized. Cortes, the conquistador from Spain, went to what is now Mexico with a band of cut-throats and plundered the American Indians using the most murderous means. Eventually Spanish settlements appeared on the Haiti and Cuba; but it was only at the beginning of the 17th century that colonization of America really started. ...