European Explorers
Feb 25, 2016
European Explorers
Portugal Takes the Lead• Starting in the 1400s Portugal began to actively
expand their trade
• Prince Henry 1415- began a school for navigation invited…
-astronomers -mapmakers
-mathematicians-ship builders
Bartolomeu Dias 1488 -first to round the southern tip of Africa
Vasco Da Gama 1498first to sail around Africa and find a sea route to Asia
Pedro Cabral- 1500 -1501while sailing to India, discovered South America and claimed it
for Portugal continued on to sail to India
Here Comes Spain
Spain was determined to be a powerful country.
They wanted to beat Portugal to control the trade of Asia.
Christopher Columbus 1492 convinced that it was shorter to reach Asia by sailing west
Christopher Columbus 1492
• Arrived in the Caribbean Sea thinking that he was in the Indies of Asia. (Indonesia)
• Given the credit of discovering the NEW WORLD
(although he always believed he reached Asia)
Amerigo Vespucci • At the request of Portugal’s king, went to
observe expeditions across the Atlantic. • Wrote about these expeditions and differed
with Columbus that this land mass did not match that of Asia and that it indeed was part of a new continent!• From his writings, mapmakers began labeling
the new continents America in his honor.
• convinced that by sailing west he could find a waterway through this new world and still reach Asia.
• Found the southern tip of South America. Sailed across the Pacific Ocean.
• Magellan Died in a battle in the Philippines.
• Only 18 sailors made it back.
• They had circumnavigated the globe
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan 1519- 1521
Europe Explores North America
Discovery of the New World led to…• new goals• new ambitions• and new countries enter the race
John Cabot 1497
• Sailed for England• believed he could reach Asia by
sailing northwest across the Atlantic• He explored the area of Canada and
thought it was part of Asia. • He claimed it for England.
John Cabot 1497
Giovanni da Verrazano 1524
• Sailed for France• explored the east coast of North America • made the first claims for France• His discoveries improved the maps that would
be used by explorers who came after him.
Giovanni da Verrazano 1524
Henry Hudson 1609
• Sailed for the Netherlands • He explored for a Northwest
Passage.• Claimed lands around the Hudson
River for Dutch. (Today New York City)
Henry Hudson 1609
Henry Hudson 1610
• Sailed for England• tried again to find the Northwest
Passage. • Claimed lands around Hudson Bay
for England.
Henry Hudson 1610