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Prince Henry started them first school for oceanic navigation with a astronomical observatory at Sarges, Portugal. In this school, people were trained in navigation, map-making, and science, in order to sail down the west of Africa.
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In 1453 the Ottoman Empire gained control of the Black Sea and the main routes to the Balkans
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Portuguese explorer that sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, reaching the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic, the first European to do it.
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The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502.He was sent to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas.
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Explorer and navigator John Cabot made a voyage in 1497 for King Henry VII of England, on the ship Matthew. He claimed land in Canada, mistaking it for Asia.
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Explorer Amerigo Vespucci was born March 9, 1451. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro. Thinking he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World.
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Francisco Pizzaro was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa and claimed the lands for Spain.
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Born in Spain in 1475, explorer and conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa helped establish the town of Darién on the Isthmus of Panama. In 1513, Balboa led an expedition from Darién to search for a new sea reportedly to the south and for gold.
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Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. In 1513 He led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area.
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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.
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Hernandez Cortez was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.
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Hernado de Soto led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas. He also was the first documented European to have crossed the Mississippi River.
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Jacques Cartier was a French explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River.
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Coronado led a major Spanish expedition up Mexico’s western coast and into the region that is now the southwestern United States. He also discover the Grand Canyon and other major physical landmarks of the region.
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Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe from 1577-1580, helped defeat the Spanish Armada of 1588. He was the most renowned seaman of the Elizabeth era.
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Jacques Marquette is best known as the first European to see and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.
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Louis Joliet was a 17th century Canadian explorer who explored the origins of the Mississippi River. Joliet embarked on a privately-sponsored expedition with Jacques Marquette to be among the first Europeans to explore what was called by Native Americans the "Mesipi" river.
