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Pedro Cabral landed in South America, eventually establishing claims on present-day Brazil.
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Christopher Columbus traveled all the way across the Atlantic and reached Panama on his last voyage.
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First enslaved Africans were transported in a Spanish ship from West Africa to America. This was the beginning of the triangular trade, also known as the Middle Passage, and the Civil War.
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Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to completely sail around the globe passing through a waterway later named the Strait of Magellan.
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Hernán Cortés returned to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, to defeat the natives and take their land.
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Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the east coast of North America and found New York Harbor.
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Francisco Pizarro landed and explored the Pacific coast of South America.
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Francisco Pizarro successfully conquered the Inca empire and established a colony for the Spanish Empire.
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Francis Drake became the first person to circumnavigate the earth.
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The first Dutch ships arrived in India.
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In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was formed. They dominated the spice trade and created massive profits for Dutch merchants.
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Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec making it the 1st permanent French settlement in America.
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Henry Hudson explored the Atlantic coast traveling up a massive river later named after him, the Hudson Bay. He paved the way for English claims on Canada.
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The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621.
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Due to European settlers bringing new diseases to the new land, Native Americans had no immunity and died. Their population dropped from 25 million in 1500 to 1 million.
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Abel Tasman sailed south of Australia and found present-day Tasmania and New Zealand
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By the 1650's the British established many trading posts. The English transported Indian goods from them to the East Indies. Then they were traded for spices and shipped back to England.
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In 1664 the English seized the New Netherland colony from Dutch and the Dutch West India Company went bankrupt.
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Louis-Antoine de Bougainville traveled through the Strait of Magellan, Tahiti, and Samoa and proved Espiritu Santo was an island.
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James Cook found and charted out New Zealand
