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The influx of gold and silver from the Americas significantly boosted the Spanish economy, although wealth distribution was uneveN
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Prince Henry the Navigator began sponsoring Portuguese expeditions to explore the coast of Africa. His goal was to find the source of the gold trade, stop pirate attacks, and establish colonies -
Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean in 1488. This marked the first time a European explorer had sailed around the southern tip of Africa -
Christopher Columbus, sponsored by Queen Isabella of Castile, set sail westward in 1492 aiming to find a route to Asia but landed in the Caribbean, marking the beginning of Spanish exploration in the AmericaS -
The Treaty of Tordesillas was an agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided the world outside of Europe in 1494. The treaty established a line of demarcation that ran from the North Pole to the South Pole. -
Henry VII granted letters-patent to John Cabot and his sons to sail across the Atlantic to Asia -
While leading a Portuguese expedition aimed at reaching India, he sighted the Brazilian coast near Monte Pascoal and claimed the land for Portugal, naming it the "Island of the True Cross"
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the period between 1519 and 1521 when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his forces successfully overthrew the powerful Aztec Empire
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Frenchman Jacques Cartier was the first European to navigate the great entrance to Canada, the Saint Lawrence River. In 1534, in a voyage conducted with great competence, Cartier explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and claimed its shores for the French crown -
Francisco Pizarro led the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, acquiring vast wealth from the region's gold and silver -
France established colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century
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In 1606, King James I granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London to colonize Virgini -
the Mayflower set sail for the Americas, carrying Puritans seeking religious freedom -
The English took Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655 during the Anglo-Spanish War, with an invasion led by Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables; this effectively made Jamaica a British colony until it gained independence in 1962. -
On May 17, 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and fur trader Louis Joliet set out on a four-month voyage that carried them thousands of miles through the heart of North America to explore the path of the Mississippi River. -
Claimed for the French Crown by explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682, La Nouvelle-Orleans was founded by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville in 1718 upon the slightly elevated banks of the Mississippi River approximately 95 miles above its mouth