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1001
Vikings Find Land
Leif Erikson and 35 other vikings sailed from Greenland and were the first to settle in the new world (Canada), calling it Vinland. -
1492
Columbus' First Voyage
Columbus convinces the King and Queen of Spain to fund his voyage and sails to what he believes is Asia on the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. -
1492
The Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange was an exchange of people, products, and ideas between the Old World and the New World, or the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Although a lot of good was done from it, like different crops were spread to other parts of the world, disease and slavery were brought to America. -
1501
Amerigo Vespucci Discovers America
Amerigo Vespucci comes across the land that Christopher Columbus claimed was Asia, and discovers that it is not, in fact, Asia, but a whole new country that no one has known about. -
1507
America Is Named
America is named Amerigo, after Amerigo Vespucci, and is later shortened to America. -
1513
Florida is Named
Juan Ponce de Leon sailed from Puerto Rico to a rumored Island. He found beautiful flowers here so he named it La Florida, was also the first Spaniard to set foot in the United States. -
Sep 25, 1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa Sees The Pacific
On this day, the Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa becomes the first European to lay eyes on what is now the Pacific Ocean. -
1517
New Source of Labor
The Native American slaves kept dying because of diseases brought by the Europeans and poor work conditions. Since the Native American slaves were disappearing, they decided to bring in African slaves. They had a much higher resistance to the European diseases and their death tolls were far less. Soon, over 2,000 African slaves were being shipped a year. -
1519
Ferdinand Magellan Becomes the First Person to Circumnavigate the entire Earth.
Ferdinand Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the Earth, but only 18 of his crew members survived the three year journey, he himself was killed in a battle in the Phillipines. -
Spanish Armada is Defeated
At this point, Spain could no longer dominate the seas and colonies as they did in the past, and there was an extreme shift in power, with England and France rising and Spain falling. A Spanish fleet of warships called the Armada was defeated which was basically what set off the whole chain of events that led to England and France gaining power and Spain losing it.
