Early Explores

Leif Erickson

1020 BCE

Leif Erickson was a Norse explorer from Iceland .He is thought to have been the first known European to have set foot on continental North America

Prince Henry the navigator

Mar 22, 1455

Prince Henry the navigator,was a central figure in the early days of the portuguese empire and in the 15-century European maritime discovers ans maritime expansion

John Cabot

1497

John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century.

Bartolomeu Dias

May 29, 1500

Bartolomeu Dias, a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer. He sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European to do so, setting up the route from Europe to Asia later on

Amerigo Vespucci

Mar 9, 1504

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the terms America and Americas are derived. Between 1497 and 1504, Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery, first on behalf of Spain and then for Portugal.

Ferdinand Magellan

Mar 4, 1505

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, which was completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Christopher Columbus

May 20, 1506

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for European exploration and colonization of the Americas.

Juan Ponce de Leon

1513

explored present day Florida looking for the fountain of youth

Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Sep 25, 1513

Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World.

Hernan Cortes

Aug 19, 1518

Hernan Cortes de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.

Vasco da Gama

Dec 24, 1524

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and therefore, the West and the Orient.

Alavr Nunez cabeza de vaca

1527

Avar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition.

Hernando de Soto

1532

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula, and played an important role in Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in

Jacques Cartier

1534

Jacques Cartier was a French-Breton explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint .

Francisco Pizarro

1536

Francisco Pizarro González was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru. Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose to pursue fortune and adventure in the New World.

Juan Cabrillo

1542

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was an Iberian maritime explorer best known for investigations of the West Coast of North America, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish Empire. He was the first European to explore present-day California, navigating along the coast of California in 1542–1543

Francisco Vasquez de Coronado

1543

Francisco Vazquez de Coronado y Lujan was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542

Henry Hudson (twice)

1607

Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the northeastern United States.

Samuel de Champlain

1608

Samuel de Champlain was a French colonist, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608.

Rene-Robert De La Salle

1666

Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico.