Exploration

By macol615@wcsmail.org
  • Sep 15, 1492

    Columbus Sails West

    Columbus sails west in his three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He lands in the Bahamas, which he first believes to be islands off the coast of Asia. He persuaded the King and Queen of Spain to suppoprt his expetition, and gave them the credit for the idea. In a later expedition, he landed in modern-day south America, believing it was a part of the same continent he had visited originally.
  • Sep 15, 1497

    Northwest Passage

    King Henry VII sent John Cabot on a Western Expetition to find a route to India by sea to speed up the transfer of money by the Spice Trade. They called said route the "Northwest Passage".
  • Sep 16, 1513

    Juan Ponce de Leon

    Ponce de Leon sailed with crew and ships to the coast of Florida. He named the land with a word he derived from the Spanish "flor", meaning "flower".
  • Sep 15, 1524

    Giovanni da Verranzo

    King Francis I of France sends Verranzo west, where he first landed on North Carolina's Outer Banks, believing that he could see the pacific Ocean from the place at which his ship landed.
  • Sep 16, 1526

    Lucas Vazquez de Allyon

    Lucas Vasquez de Allyon, and explorer with his sights set on Florida's northern coastline, led troops of over 526 over a river he called "Jordan", which is now believed to have been North Carolina's Cape Fear River, and when the colonies he instituted there failed, he moved them to South Carolina, though it fared no better there. Eventually, Allyon and his remaining troops were forced to return to Hispaniola.
  • Sep 16, 1539

    De Soto

    Hernando de Soto sailed with military from Cuba to florida's west coast.From there de Soto marched to a place near modern-day Tallahassee.They spent the winter there, and in the spring, continued their journey into Georgia and South Carolina, passing through the westernmost regions of North Carolina, making them the first Europeans to see these parts of the country. De Soto died on the trip, but most of his men were able to return to their homes.
  • Sep 16, 1562

    Port Royal

    Jean Ribault, hoping to get an edge on Spain, led a colony of huguenots, or French Protestants, to a port in South Carolina. Most of these Protestants came to the New World in search of freedom.
  • Sep 16, 1565

    St. Augustine

    The Spanish saw France as a direct threat to their exploration efforts. They sent troops under Pedro menendez de Aviles, to Florida. Menedez built a fot just south of a French clony, in St. Augustine. He captured the Frrench forts and killed most of their men. He proceeded to colonize most of the state.