Study Guide

Explorers in the New World

A. Portuguese

1. Bartholomeu Diaz - reached the southern tip of Africa

2. Amerigo Vespucci – 1^st to realize that Americas were new lands

3. Vasco da Gama – sailed around the southern tip of Africa to Asia

4. Pedro Cabral – reached Brazil

B. Spanish

1. Christopher Columbus – discovered the Americas in 1492

2. Vasco Nunez de Balboa – claimed the Pacific Ocean

3. Juan Ponce de Leon – discovered Florida, and searched for the fountain of youth

4. Hernando Cortes - captured Moctezuma destroyed Aztec empire.

5. Ferdinand Magellan – circumnavigated the globe – western route to Asia

6. Francisco Pizarro – conquered the Incas

7. Hernando de Soto – explored Florida and the Southwest in search of gold and treasure

8. Francisco de Coronado – searched for the Cibola the legendary 7 cities of gold

C. French

1. Giovanni da Verrazano – eastern North America – present day New York Harbor

2. Jacques Cartier – explored the St. Lawrence River

3. Samuel De Champlain – explored the St. Lawrence River Valley and Quebec

4. Robert de LaSalle – explored the Great Lakes; reached the mouth of the Mississippi

5. Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette – explored the Mississippi River

D. Dutch

1. Henry Hudson – Hudson Bay and Hudson River

E. English

1. John Cabot – east coast of North America

2. Francis Drake – explored and claimed Oregon in 1579