The Age of Exploration

Vikinks

Jan 1, 1000

The vikings were the first explorers to reached North America. They used longships that could travel on rough, open seas. The stories of their adventures were told many years after the trips to Vinland ended. The Greelanders' Saga told the stories.

Leif Eriksson

Jan 2, 1000

In 1000 A.D. Leif Eriksson, a viking from Greenlad, left his hometown and sailed west looking for a land rich in timbers and knolls. Eriksson and his crew reached what is now part of Canada. After they found a place where to spend winter, the sailors buil temporary houses made of mud and grass. The vikings named the temporary settlement Vinland, or "vine land" for the many grapevines that grew there.

Vinland

Jan 3, 1000

After Eriksson and his crew found a place where to spend winter, the sailors buil temporary houses made of mud and grass. The vikings named the temporary settlement Vinland, or "vine land" for the many grapevines that grew there. Eriksson soon returned to Greenland but the vikings returned to Vinland to hunt and fish

Marco Polo

Jan 1, 1271

Marco Polo was an italian trader that traveled all the way to China. He was only seventeen years old when fhe left Venice, Italy and it took him four years to reached China. He traveled all over Asia and visited India and Persia. 24 years after he left Venice, he returned home a rich man. He wrote a very important book abour his adventures: "The travels of Marco Polo"

Prince Henry

Jan 1, 1400

Prince Henry was a prince from Portugal. He organized more then 50 voyages of exploration but he didn't participate in any of them. He was sure that the most direct way to reach Asia, was to go south, around Africa and then sail east. Prince Henry founded the Natigation School, teaching sailors how to read and make maps.

Constantinople

Jan 1, 1453

Constantinople was an important center for trading. Europeans that wanted to buy goods like gold, silk, perfume, and spices from Asia, would travel to Constantinople.
The trade route was interrupted in 1453 when the Turks took control of Constantinople and of the whole Middle East.

Bartholomeu Dias

Jan 1, 1488

Dias became the first to sail all the way around the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. He wanted to continue and sail all the way to India but his crew was scared and hungry and they made him go back to Portugal.

Guanahani

Jan 1, 1492

Guanahani is an island that was discovered by Cristopher Columbus. Gunahani is located in East Africa and the people Tainos welcomed Columbus when he arrived on the island.

Martin Behaim

Jan 1, 1492

Behaim was the first to make a new kind of map. The map was in the shape of a ball. It was the first globe ever made in Europe. He called the globe " Earth apple" and it was made of pieces of leather stiched together. Behaim's globe represented the world in the wrong way. It looked like sailing west from Europe to Asia was a shopr trip. The globe didn't considered North and South America.

Christopher Columbus

Oct 12, 1492

Columbus was an Italian explorer that after reading Marco Polo's book, was facinated by the riches of Asia. On August 3rd 1492, Columbus set sail with 89 sailors and 3 ships. His goal was to reach Asia sailing west insteat of going around Africa. After 2 months of navigation on October 12 1492, he reached the caribbean island of Gunahani. Columbus thought he had reached Asia, but he really found the new world.

Giovanni Caboto

Jan 1, 1497

Caboto sailed across the Ocean Sea on a voyage paid by England. He landed on present-day Newfounland, today part of Canada. When he went back to England he told everybody that he found Cathay. He bacame a hero but many people didn't believe him.

Amerigo Vespucci

Jan 1, 1499

Amerigo Vaspucci was an italian explorer from Florence. I didn't believe that Columbus had found the Indies so in 1499, under the orders of the king of Spain, Vespucci sailed south where Columbus landed in 1492. Vespucci started to explore the land and he was looking for sign that he had reached Asia. Based on all the informations he gathered, Vespucci came to the conclusion that they had found another continent: a "new world".

Vasco de Gama

Jan 1, 1499

Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope all the way to India. He went back to Portugal with his ship full of spices. He finally had found a sea route to Asia.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Sep 27, 1513

Balboa discovered the isthmus of Panama, a narrow strip on land that connects North America and South America. After climbing the mountain peak, Balboa saw the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. That proved that Vespucci was right and Columbus was wrong.

Ferdinand Magellan

Sep 1, 1519

Magellan was an explorer from Portugal that wanted to find a way to reach Asia by sailing west around the Americas. He sailed from Spain to Brazil and along the east coast of South America. He was looking for a river that would go all the way to the ocean to the other side; he never found it.