At the Water’s Edge: Trading in the Sixteenth Century

• Main Author: Axtell, James
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1990
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195053760.003.0010; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52471936/isbn-9780195053760-book-part-10.pdf

Abstract American Historians are Just Beginning to Discover that North America had a full and important history in the sixteenth century. In addition to perhaps four million Indians, the French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese were economically and, on occasion, politically preoccupied with the new continent. The Spanish penetrated deep into the Southeast and Southwest, establishing military posts and missionary centers wherever they went. When they chose not to settle, they did their utmost to ensure that European rivals did not outflank them. The zones of sharpest conflict were on the coasts of Florida, near the shipping lanes of the Spanish bullion fleets, and around Newfoundland, whose fish-laden waters drew fleets from all the major Western European ports. All of these ventures led to contact and sometimes conflict with the local natives.