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Jan 1, 1450
Prince Henry The Naviagtor
The son of the king of Portugal
Tried to find ways to increase trade and Portugal and make it more powerful
In the 1400's he opened the first school for navigators
He discovered the Gold Coast and Cape Verde
In Africa he found Gold Dust, Ivory, and slaves
In the end, he made trade more interesting
This made Portugal way more powerful -
Jan 1, 1487
Bartolomeu Dias
--Helped open the way for later explorations
--Dias sailed to several different points in Africa's west coast
--After a terrible storm, Dias sailed to Africa's east coast
--Dias named the sounthern tip of africa, The Cape Of Storms
--This was later named The Cape Of Good Hope because the portuguese now knew they could reach the far east by sailing through Africa -
Jan 1, 1490
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
He was born in 1490, near Cadiz Spain
He ruled Spain
He served in the Spanish army
He explored florida and the Gulf region from Texas to Mexico -
Jan 1, 1491
Jacques Cartier
He is a French navigator
He sailed up the St. Lawrence River
( He discovered the St. Lawrece River.)
He sailed as far as present-day Montreal
This gave the French a claim to Canada -
Aug 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus
---Was a skilled naviagator from Genoa
---He tried for eight years to convince rulers from all nations to finnace and expedition
--In 1492, Queen Elizabeth decided to support his plan
-- In 1492, set from Spain in August with three ships: The Nina, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria
He also had a crew of about 90 sailors with him
His crew member threatened mutiny unless the captain could turn back
Columbus later found the Bahamas and spent several months sailing it
He also saied Cuba -
Jan 1, 1494
The Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1493 drew an papal line of democoration from the North Pole to the South Pole...some 300 miles or 480 kilometers, west of the Azores Islands
Spain had non-christian lands to the west....and Portuguese had the ones to the East
The Portuguese called for a meeting and in 1494....the Treaty Of Tordesillas was drawn
This moved the line 500 miles to the West
Because of this, Portugal was able to claim Brazil -
Jan 1, 1497
John Cabot
John was and Italian navigator
He was sent to the Far East by a Northwest route
In 1497, Cabot set sail with a handful of men.
He explored the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and established claims for England in the Americas -
May 18, 1497
Amerigo Vespucci
He was a Florentine navigator
He ruled Spain and Portugal
He explored the Atlantic coast of South America
One of the first to believed that he had reached a new world -
May 20, 1498
Vaasco Da Gama
-a portuguese noble
-led a convoy
-fter 4 months at sea many of the crew were sick
-at Mozambique they saw ships loaded with cloves, peppers, gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones
-also there for teh first time they saw a coconut they described "fruit as large as a melon, of which teh kernel is eaten."
-when teh muslims found out they were Christains they were kicked out
-he made Lisbon a major trading center of Europe -
Apr 22, 1500
Pedro Cabral
-he came from portugal
-he discovered Brazil
-from there he sailed east to India
-after he returned he only had 4 out of the 13 ships he came with -
Jan 1, 1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
In 1513, Vasco Crossed the isthmus of Panama and was the first european to see the great south sea
This happened the same year that Ponce de Leon sailed north from the island of Puerto Rico to Explore Florida -
Mar 3, 1513
Ponce de Leon
-sailed north from the island of Puerto Rico to explore Florida
-appointed governor of the Dominican province of Higuey
-Ponce de Leon was then given the right to find and take the island of Bimini
-he was searching for riches and the fountain of youth -
Jan 1, 1519
Hernan Cortez
Between 1519 and 1521 Hernan invaded Mexico.
He destroyed the Native American empire
Cortez and his troops took large amounts of gold from the Native americans to send back to spain -
Jan 1, 1522
Ferdinand Magellan
-offered to find spain a western route to the indies
-he started with five ships and a crew of 256
- he renamed the Great South Sea the pacific ocean from the spanish word pacifico meaning peaceful
-by that time he lot two of his ships and the drinking water was spoiled and the biscuits were full of worms so they were forced to eat rats, sawdust, and leather soaked in teh sea and grilled on wood coals
-later the crew suffered from scurvy and had no food of any kind
-they got to spain in 1522 -
Jan 1, 1524
Giovanni Verrazano
-he was famous for exploring the northeast coast of North America from Cape Fear, North Carolina to Maine
-He also discovered Manhattan and was the first European to enter New York bay
-he was born in at Val di Greve, near Florence, Italy
-he was reportedly executed at Puerto del Pico, Spain -
Aug 29, 1533
Francisco Pizzaro
-He discovered the Incan empire and conquered it brutally and quickly, stealing immense hoards of gold, silver, and other treasures
-he landed at San Mateo Bay
-After traveling through desert and snow-capped mountains, Pizarro and his men arrived at Cajamarca, where they captured Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas.
-Atahuallpa had invited Pizarro to a celebratory feast, thinking that the Spanish were not much of a threat. -
Jun 27, 1550
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo
-he explored the area that we now call southern California.
-His expedition spent a great deal of time scouting the coastline between present-day Pt. Mugu and Point Conception including the offshore islands.
-At islands and prominent points that the searchers visited, a party would claim possession of the land for the King of Spain. -
Dec 13, 1577
Sir Francis Drake
-he was a British explorer, slave-trader, privateer in the service of England, mayor of Plymouth, England, and naval officer.
-Drake led the second expedition to sail around the world in a voyage lasting three years
- Queen Elizabeth I comissioned Drake to command the expedition together with John Winter and Thomas Doughty.
-He landed on the island of Cano, off the coast of southern Mexico. In North America, he claimed the land he called Nova Albion for the Queen -
John Davis
-he made his first exploration voyage in search for the Northwest Passage to the Orient.
-he rounded Cape Farewell in Greenland, and went north to Godthaab before crossing Davis Strait to Cumberland Gulf in Baffin Island, where the lateness of the season compelled his return to England.
-the next year he persuaded merchants, mostly in Devon, to send a larger expedition.
-he detached two vessels to explore Gilbert Sound and with a third continued investigation of Davis Strait without making a sub -
Henry Hudson
-he was a very good navigator and sailor who named and explored Hudson Bay in Canada and the Hudson River in America.
-he was to find a shortcut from Europe to the Far East.
-he was from England
-he moved to Holland and sailed for a Dutch trading company on the ship named Half Moon.
--he moved to Holland and sailed for a Dutch trading company on the ship named Half Moon.
-Hudson found a body of water which at first he thought was the Pacific Ocean.
-it was really a bay so it was named Hudson Bay
