Explorers Unit
Research Websites for Students:
This is the most important website for your research: Memorial Spaulding Library Research Website
Explorers for Kids: https://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/
Famous Explorers: https://www.mrnussbaum.com/explorers/famous-explorers/
Pictures of Explorers:
Britannica Image Quest: https://quest.eb.com/
Google Safe Search: https://www.safesearchkids.com/
Amerigo Vespucci:
Interactions with native people:
Vespucci and Columbus:
While Columbus might be characterized as a religious fanatic who could hardly speak or write without invoking the Christian God and dwelling fervently on his personal relationship with this God, Vespucci almost never referred to God. Religion was never very high on the scale of values to which Vespucci had been exposed. While he undoubtedly learned a little about the Christian God as a child, he seems to have forgotten all of this by the time he was an adult.
Unlike Columbus, Vespucci never waged war on the natives, nor did he found any colonies. He never commanded a fleet or even led an expedition. Like Columbus, however, he was deeply mired in the slave trade and profited from it.
In 1504-1505, Vespucci lived in Columbus’s house and it is evident that the two men not only knew each other, but that they had often exchanged ideas. Later Vespucci testified in court that he had known Columbus well for twenty-five years and he was thus very familiar with the Admiral’s handwriting.
Hernan Cortes:
Interactions with native people:
Hernán Cortes: (1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish explorer, military commander, and colonizer whose daring conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico for Spain in 1521 led to the eventual subjugation and effective elimination of native American culture in Mesoamerica. Dec 22, 2017
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s
Map Routes: https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Hernan_Cortes_Routes/50ikMY3V7t
John Cabot:
John Cabot
Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Cabot changed his named to John Cabot when he sought financing for his voyages from King Henry VII of England. Like Columbus, Cabot sought a route to Asia in the late 1400s. In 1497, on a more northerly route than the one Columbus had taken, Cabot’s ship reached Newfoundland in Canada, which he claimed for England. Though we now know the Vikings had reached North America 500 years earlier, Cabot was long thought to be the first European to reach the mainland. Cabot’s final days are a mystery; he never returned from a third voyage to North America in 1498. However, by claiming part of North America for England he helped set a course for England’s rise to power by the 16th century. (PARAGRAPH FROM: https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/john-cabot-pbs-world-explorers/john-cabot-pbs-world-explorers/)
Interactions with native people:
https://johncabotap.weebly.com/indigenous-people.html
https://www.biography.com/video/john-cabot-mini-biography-39300675597
Samuel de Champlain:
Interactions with native people:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_War_(1609)
Map Routes:
https://www.scribblemaps.com/maps/view/Samuel_de_Champlain/ExplorerProject
Vasco de Balboa:
Vasco da Gama
Unlike Columbus and Cabot, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama actually reached Asia by sea, becoming the first European to do so, landing in Calicut, India in 1498. Thousands of sailors had lost their lives in attacks and shipwrecks while previously attempting the same expedition. Da Gama’s success in finding this direct sea route around Africa became one of the most important moments in navigational history, finally linking the East to the West by water. Da Gama’s discovery enabled Portugal to become extremely wealthy due to its subsequent European monopoly in the Asian spice trade, which ultimately resulted in Portugal’s rise as a dominant colonial power. (paragraph information from : https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/pbs-world-explorers-vasco-degama/pbs-world-explorers-vasco-degama/)
https://www.ducksters.com/biography/explorers/vasco_da_gama.php
Henry Hudson:
https://henryhudson11.weebly.com/biography.html
Henry Hudson - Safe Search Kids
Interactions with the native people:
Henry Hudson's Impact: https://henryhudson11.weebly.com/impact.html
http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/July-2016/The-Native-People-of-the-Hudson-Valley/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Hudson
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, with the support of Spain, led the first European voyage to circumnavigate the globe. He had heard of a passage that enabled ships to cross South America without having to travel around Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America. In 1520, he found it: a winding narrow channel that cut through the lower part of South America. This passage was eventually named the Strait of Magellan in his honor. In 1520, after more than a month navigating their way through the strait, Magellan’s ships emerged and became the first known Europeans to see what Magellan called the Mar Pacifico, or the Pacific Ocean. Although this passage was too long and dangerous to be considered a practical route to the Spice Islands, Magellan’s expedition was significant because it expanded Europeans’ knowledge of geography and their understanding of the size of the world. (pbs https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/world-ex-age-of-encounter/lesson-plan/)
PBS Video on Ferdinand Magellan