European Explorers - Group 13 (Gil Molas, Pol Rodriguez, Marc Clos, Stefany Gou i Joana Serrat)

Leif Eriksson (Pol)

970

Leif Eriksson was born in 970, in Iceland. In spite of everyone knowing the discovery of Christopher Colon naming it America, he was not the first European to visit the American continent. Viking explorer Leif Eriksson reached North America 500 years before the Genoese.

Leif Eriksson expeditions (Pol)

1020

In Viking myths, there were reports of a place described as Vinland (vineyard land), a territory that would have been discovered in the 10th century, a Norse settlement off the coast of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. Comparing the records with the remains found, the researchers concluded that it was the same place. The oldest European settlement on the American continent was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1978.

Marco Polo (Gil)

1254

Crossing borders (including those that have not been "invented") was probably the coolest activity in the early 14th century and it was around this time that the explorer Marco Polo embarked on adventures in the hitherto mysterious and little-known continent of Asia. Together with his father, Niccolò, and his uncle, Maffeo, Marco traveled for more than 20 years through Asia, an epic journey recounted in the book The Voyages of Marco Polo. T

Ibn Batuta (Gil)

1326

After visiting Cairo and traveling up the Nile, he crossed the Sinai Peninsula on his way to Palestine and Syria, arriving for the first time in Mecca in September 1326. He then undertook a journey to the regions of present-day Iraq and Iran, where he visited cities like Tabriz, Basra or Baghdad

Juan Caboto (Pol)

1450

Juan Caboto was born in 1450, in Genova, Italy, and he passed his childhood in Venetian. In 1482, he got married to a Venetian woman, Mattea, with the one he had 3 children. This marring make him get the Venetian citizenship.

Bartolomé Diaz

1450

Bartolomé Diaz was a Portuguese navigator born in 1450. His first expedition was in 1487-88, where, commissioned by King John of Portugal II, he undertook a voyage in search of Prester John and other news brought back by previous Portuguese expeditions. His aim was to reach as far south as possible and discover whether Africa was linked to India

Cristopher Colombus

1451

Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator, cartographer and admiral who was born in 1451 in Genova, Italy. He began working as a craftsman and merchant, although little by little, he was approaching the sea through the navigation of merchandise transport. Shortly after, Colon settled in Lisbon, where he began to elaborate maps and learn new languages that allowed him to read important geographic treatises, and he also begin to make contact with the great geographers of the time.

Amerigo Vespucci

1454

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian navigator born in 1454 in Florence, Italy. He arrived in Spain as a clerk in a merchant's store years before Columbus' first voyage. His first voyage to India was in 1497 and then in May 1499 he made his second expedition in charge of Alonso de Ojeda.

Vasco de Gama

1469

Vasco de Gama was a Portuguese navigator who was born in 1469 in Sines, Portugal. From a young age Vasco was already involved in seafaring life, participating in various expeditions to the African coast. This made it easier for him to be appointed captain after studying mathematics.

Balboa (Gil)

1475

Along the way, Balboa encountered different tribes that received the foreigners in very different ways, some welcoming them well and feeding them in their homes. In this case, if the Spanish did win, they had to force the cacique to become a Christian and if they lost they had to flee as quickly as possible almost at the end of September, specifically that day they reached the Chucunaque river ranges. Balboa went up the mountain and was the first Spaniard to contemplate a gigantic sea.

Juan Sebastian El Cano

1476

Juan Sebastian El Cano was a Basque navigator born in 1476 in Guetaria, Spain. He took part in two expeditions and later, in 1418, he met Ferdinand Magellan, who was preparing an expedition to find the route to the Indies by sailing west. Cano took part in Magellan's project and explored the Río de la Plata and Patagonia.

Fernando de Magallanes

1480

Fernando de Magallanes was a Portuguese sailor and explorer who was born in 1480 in Porto. He was a member of the nobility and studied nautical and cartography in Lisbon.

Bartolomé Diaz expedition

1487

He set sail in 1487 with three ships and all the resources necessary for a successful expedition. The expedition sailed south and, after leaving supplies on the coast of Guinea, sailed to find the passage that would give them access to India. They passed the Cape of Good Hope, where they suffered a severe storm and crossed the mythical place while battling against the force of the winds and the sea When the storm passed, Diaz headed to east, and as he found no land, he headed to north.

Bartolomé Diaz expedition (III)

1488

On the return voyage, Diaz saw the Cape of Good Hope, which convinced him that he had made it past the southern tip of Africa. With this satisfaction he returned to Portugal, arriving in Lisbon in December 1488. In 1494 he was in charge of preparing the expedition that was to take Vasco da Gama to India. He also took part in the discovery of Brazil in 1500.

Bartolomé Diaz expedition (II)

Feb 3, 1488

On 3 February 1488, he reached the Bahia of the Vaqueiros. A few days later, Bartolomé gave the order to continue sailing east along the coast, but a few days later his crew refused to go on and there was no way of getting him to continue. Diaz was well aware that the king's anger at not having taken advantage of such an opportunity to open the spice route could put in dangerous his career.

Christopher Columbus' first expedition

1492

A few years later, Christopher Columbus came to the idea that, the Earth being spherical, the eastern coast of Asia could be easily reached by sailing westward. The economic interest of the project was unquestionable at the time, since European trade with the Far East, based on the import of spices and luxury goods, was extremely important. Cristofal presented his project to John II of Portugal, he rejected it and finally the voyage was financed by the Catholic Monarchs.

Christopher Columbus' first expedition (II)

Oct 12, 1492

Columbus sailed to the Canary Islands and then westward, arriving at the island of Guanahaní (San Salvador with three ships, ‘La niña’, ‘La Pinta’ and the ‘Santa Maria’. For the first time a group of Europeans set foot on the American continent, although Columbus was not aware of it. On that voyage he also discovered Cuba and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo). In this voyage, there was no sign of land, the sailors were unhappy and the food they were carrying was not in good condition.

Cristopher Columbus second expedition

Sep 25, 1493

The second trip of Cristòfor Colom was the search for the three treasures of India, since, after the trip to America, he was convinced that he still had the most important to discover: The oriental treasures. With the help of the Catholic Monarchs, Columbus left Cadis on September 25, 1493, commanding 17 ships and 1200 men. The sailors disembarked, once again, in the Dominican Republic. There, he founded the first city, named Isabela, in honor of the queen of Spain.

Cristopher Columbus second expedition (II)

Sep 25, 1493

After much effort to get there, he was only able to find a small island with little gold. On his return to Isabela, Columbus encountered serious problems: the Spaniards forced the Indians to give them the gold and killed each other. Finally in 1496, Columbus returned to Spain.

Vasco de Gama expedition

1495

After the death of John II of Portugal, Manuel I of Portugal inherited the throne and continued with the project of his predecessor. He organized an expedition that was to go to India around Africa. At that time it seemed clear that it was possible to cross the southern tip of Africa and reach the Indian Ocean, as Bartolomé Díaz had demonstrated ten years earlier.

Vasco de Gama expedition (IV)

1497

Vasco da Gama did not trust his host and his suspicions were soon confirmed when he discovered that the sheik had prepared a trap for them. Alerted, they managed to repel the attack and flee with their three ships. Their next stop was on the African coast, and the return voyage, as was usually the case in such long and difficult voyages, was very hard, and they had to burn a ship for lack of crew.

Juan Caboto expedition (Pol)

1497

Juan Caboto was an Italian navigator, who, financed by England, arrived on June 24 of 1497 in an unknown land which he gave the name of Newfoundland, which in Spanish was translated as “Terra nova”. Although he was situated in Canada, he was believing that they were in the Asian coasts of Cipango (Japan). Finally, after his pass around Canada, he traveled to the coasts of North America, in the year 1527.

Vasco de Gama expedition (II)

Jul 8, 1497

On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama left Lisbon at the head of 200 men and 3 ships, the San Gabriel, the Bernio and the San Rafael. The expedition did not skirt the West African coast (as was customary), but went along the Atlantic, sailing south from Cape Verde and then turning east to reach southern Africa.

Vasco de Gama expedition (III)

Nov 15, 1497

In mid-November 1497, Vasco da Gama's boat crossed the Cape of Good Hope and sailed northward along the east coast of Africa. During the expedition they had to stop at the mouth of the Quelimane River, where they sailed towards the port of Mozambique, led by the Arabs. The navigation went through difficult times, as the Arab guides were not to be trusted; but the expedition managed to reach Mombasa, where they were well received by the local sheikh.

Cristopher Columbus third expedition (III)

1498

In October 1498, Colom sent a letter to the King and Queen of Spain asking for help to control the situation, since he could not get out of it on his own.
Finally, in 1500 Francisco de Bobadilla replaced the king in the coordination of the government of the conquered territories.

Cristopher Columbus third expedition

May 30, 1498

The third trip was more complicated than the previous one. However, the lack of volunteers to accompany Columbus on his voyage made the Crown pardon some criminals for accompanying Columbus. On May 30, 1498, he left Sanlúcar de Barrameda and began his journey. After passing through some destinations, he arrived at the Paria Peninsula, in what is now Venezuela. There he found himself surrounded by pearls and a spectacular landscape and thought he had discovered "The Earthly Paradise".

Cristopher Columbus third expedition (II)

May 30, 1498

On August 13, they left their location and headed for Espanyola, which was under the control of their two brothers (Bartolomé and Diego Díaz de las Casas). He found that the Spanish colonists had revolted for various reasons, one of them being the severe discipline imposed by Bartolomé. Colom tried to reverse the situation in many bad ways, but it only increased the rebellions. The revolts informed the Catholic Monarchs about the acts of cruelty committed by the Colom family on the island

Amerigo Vespucci second expedition

May 4, 1499

In the second expedition he followed the route of Columbus' third voyage: on May 4, 1499, the ships set sail from the Port of Santa Maria and, after twenty-five days of navigation, arrived at the mouth of the Orinoco, already discovered by Columbus, and began the journey along the coast in a northerly direction. The geographical characteristics of the low and floodable coast, as well as the accidents prior to the entrance to Lake Maracaibo, reminded Amerigo Vespucci of Venice.

Vasco de Gama expedition (V)

Sep 9, 1499

Vasco da Gama arrived in Lisbon on September 9, 1499 and during the expedition he had inaugurated a new route to Asia and the Spice Islands, an alternative to the Silk Road.

Cristopher Columbus fourth expedition

1502

The main objective of this voyage was to touch dry land and find a passage to the East Coast of the Asian continent. That is to say, to advance towards the westernmost part of the American continent.
This journey led him to travel along the coast of Central America. During the trip he discovered the Caribbean coast of the current countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. As well as some small islands such as Cayman Brac.

Amerigo Vespucci third and fourth expedition

Period: 1502 to 1504

On his third voyage, in the service of the King of Portugal, he claims to have sailed along the coast of Brazil and returned to Lisbon in July 1502; and on his fourth, also on behalf of Portugal, he must have traveled along the Brazilian coast again at the end of 1503, confirming his suspicions that the continent was not Asia.

Cristopher Columbus fourth expedition (II)

1504

Columbus ended up losing all four of his ships, which suffered numerous shipwrecks, especially important was the shipwreck of Jamaica, where all the men on board died. Columbus finally returned to Spain in 1504 as the captain of a merchant ship. He died on May 20, 1506 without knowing that he had discovered a new continent.

The new continent: AMERICA

1507

In 1507, Amerigo Vespucci was in charge of telling old Europe that the lands found by Columbus were not Asia, but were part of a "fourth part" of the world to which he would involuntarily give his name. At his death in 1512, the New World had definitively become America.

Fernando de Magallanes expedition

1519

At the age of twenty-five he took part in his first expedition to India, and on his second voyage to Morocco he was wounded. This made it difficult for the king of his country to finance his project to explore new routes to the East, which was rejected twice. Magellan changed his nationality (Portuguese to Spanish) and got King Charles I, who put at his disposal five ships: Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Victoria and Santiago, with a crew of 270 men.

Ferando de Magallanes expedition (II)

1519

The ships sailed from Seville in September 1519 and, passing through the Canary Islands, continued their voyage to the coast of Brazil and went south, where they explored the estuary of the Plata. In the bay of San Julián, Patagonia, the expedition settled down to winter, a period in which two ships were lost due to accidents.

Fernando de Magallanes expedition (IV)

1520

Arrival in those islands allowed them to continue exploring the islands that are part of today's Philippines. It was in one of them where Magellan died, and the project was left to the Basque sailor Juan Sebastian Elcano.

Fernando de Magallanes expedition (III)

Oct 21, 1520

On October 21, 1520, they reached the strait that allowed them to go around the American continent (Strait of Magellan). And months later they found an ocean, called the Pacific Ocean in the future. They continued north, towards the coast of Chile and then northwest towards what are now known as the Mariana Islands. They had no fresh drinking water or fresh provisions, and part of the crew was sick with an illness.

Juan Sebastian Elcano expedition

1521

After Magallanes death, the expedition was successively commanded by several of its captains who competed for power, although it was finally Juan Sebastián Elcano who took command of what was left of the ship. They reached the Moluccas where they acquired a cargo of spices and set out to return.

Juan Sebastian El Cano expedition (II)

1521

However, a breakdown in one of the two remaining ships caused the expedition to split up: the damaged ship would remain in the Moluccas until it was repaired and would return to Spanish soil across the Pacific, while Elcano would return with the nao Victoria to the Peninsula via the Portuguese route. Elcano's return to Spain was a very dangerous voyage, as in addition to crossing the Cape of Good Hope, there was the added necessity of crossing the Indian Ocean and skirting the African continent.

Juan Sebastian El Cano expedition (III)

1522

Elcano managed to overcome the crew's impatience, but due to a lack of resources he had to stop to refuel on the Cape Verde Islands, where several crew members were detained. There he discovered that they were a day behind in their timekeeping, a consequence of having made a complete circumnavigation of the world. The expedition finally reached Spain in 1522, with only 18 men out of the 265 who had set sail from there three years earlier.

Robert Bartlett (Pol)

1875

Robert Bartlett was born in Brigus (Newfoundland) on August 15 of 1875, into a family of fishermen. New Zealander Robert Bartlett's passion was the Arctic, and the New Zealand navigator and explorer started his voyages early: at the age of 17 he was already embarking on missions to explore and chart the waters of the far north of the planet.

Robert Bartlett expedition (Pol)

1909

More than 50 years he dedicated himself to the frozen region; in all, he led more than 40 expeditions to the Arctic, more than anyone else on the planet. Finally, thanks to his large and hard career, in 1909, Bartlett was awarded the National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal, awarded to those who excel in exploration, discovery, and research.