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European nations were backward, not only in navigation, but in the
industries and commerce which supply the real motive for occupying new
lands. In the days of Eric the Red Europe was only beginning to emerge
from a dark period. The might and splendour of the Roman Empire had
vanished, and the great kingdoms which we know were still to rise.

All this changed in the five hundred years between the foundation of
the Greenland colony and the voyage of Christopher Columbus. The
discovery of America took place as a direct result of the advancing
civilization and growing power of Europe. The event itself was, in a
sense, due to pure accident. Columbus was seeking Asia when he found
himself among the tropical islands of the West Indies. In another
sense, however, the discovery marks in world history a necessary stage,
for which the preceding centuries had already made the preparation. The
story of the voyages of Columbus forms no part of our present
narrative. But we cannot understand the background that lies behind the
history of Canada without knowing why such men as Christopher Columbus
and Vasco da Gama and the Cabots began the work of discovery.

First, we have to realize the peculiar relations between Europe,
ancient and mediaeval, and the great empires of Eastern Asia. The two
civilizations had never been in direct contact. Yet in a sense they
were always connected. The Greeks and the Romans had at least vague
reports of peoples who lived on the far eastern confines of the world,
beyond even the conquests of Alexander the Great in Hindustan. It is
certain, too, that Europe and Asia had always traded with one another
in a strange and unconscious fashion. The spices and silks of the
unknown East passed westward from trader to trader, from caravan to
caravan, until they reached the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and, at
last, the Mediterranean. The journey was so slow, so tedious, the goods
passed from hand to hand so often, that when the Phoenician, Greek, or
Roman merchants bought them their origin had been forgotten. For
century after century this trade continued. When Rome fell, other
peoples of the Mediterranean continued the Eastern trade. Genoa and
Venice rose to greatness by this trade. As wealth and culture revived
after the Gothic conquest which overthrew Rome, the beautiful silks and
the rare spices of the East were more and more prized in a world of
increasing luxury. The Crusades rediscovered Egypt, Syria, and