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Jan 1, 1488
Bartolomeu Dias 1487 1488
Dias was instructed by the Portuguese King João II to complete the rounding of Africa and discover the sea route to the East. He travelled down the west coast and up the southeast coast of Africa as far as latitude 33.17 degrees S. The author tries to reconstruct the voyage of the three Portuguese caravels and assesses the consequences of the voyage. Although Dias did not reach the lands of Prester John, he did open the gateway to the treasures of the East. Notes ref. -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus 1492-1493
Having convinced the King and Queen of Spain to finance his voyage, Christopher Columbus departed mainland Spain on August 3, 1492. He quickly made port in the Canary Islands for a final restocking and left there on September 6. He was in command of three ships: the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María. Although Columbus was in overall command, the Pinta was captained by Martín Alonso Pinzón and the Niña by Vicente Yañez Pinzón. -
Jan 1, 1497
John Cabot 14971498
Henry VII's northern Columbus returned to Bristol on 6 August 1497. Cabot and everyone else thought that a new, shorter route to Asia had been found. Cabot set sail with a fleet of five vessels - a significant advance over the previous year. Some of the vessels retraced the 1497 route, explored the area in more detail, and returned to England with more geographical knowledge. Cabot himself died. One tradition asserts that he was shipwrecked not far from Grates Cove, where he got ashore together -
Nov 30, 1497
Vasco da Gama 1497-1498
Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, on July 8, 1497, heading to the East. At the time, many people thought that da Gama's trip would be impossible because it was assumed that the Indian Ocean was not connected to any other seas. Da Gama rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope on November 22, and continued on to India Da Gama returned to Lisbon, Portugal, in September, 1499. Along the way many crew members died from scurvy. On this voyage, da Gama killed hundreds of Muslims, often brutally, in -
Jan 1, 1500
Pedro Alvares Cabral 1500-1501
Discovered Brazil. Following close on the heels of Vasco Da Gama, Cabral in this same voyage discovered Madagascar and visited India. The book has a lengthy introduction which gives an over view of the voyage, a short note on Cabrals life and the importance of the discoveries of Brazil and Madagascar. The body of the book consists of a series of letters sent to various patrons and extracts from dairies kept on the voyage. The book has 8 illustrations and a map showing the route taken by Cabrals -
Jan 1, 1519
Ferdinand Magellan 1521-1522
Magellan and his friend the astronomer Ruy de Falero proposed to King Charles V that a westward voyage around the tip of South America would take them to the Moluccas and avoid the Portuguese. The voyage began September 8, 1519, and lasted until September 6, 1522.Magellan sailed from Seville, Spain, with five ships, the Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Victoria, and Santiago. Three years later, only one ship made it back to Seville, carrying only 18 of the original 270 crew members. Magellan w -
Jan 1, 1519
Hernan Cortes 1519
Cortes may not have been the most qualified to lead the expedition. Though he was experienced and renowned for his courage, another reason for his appointment was his promise to help finance the expedition. Cortes emptied his personal wealth and poured it into the trip. He mortgaged his lands. He called on friends to both help prepare for the trip and to join his small army. -
Jan 1, 1577
Sir Francis Drake 1577-1580
Queen Elizabeth I commissioned Drake to command the expedition together with John Winter and Thomas Doughty. They left Plymouth, England, on December 13, 1577, with six ships. They sailed to Brazil and through the perilous Strait of Magellan natives gave Drake and his crew food and water. They sailed by Panama, where he pirated Spanish ships and settlements for food and treasures. He landed on the island of Cano, off the coast of southern Mexico. In North America, he claimed the land he called " -
William Barents 1596-1597
Dutch navigator who led expeditions in 1596-1597 in search of a Northeast Passage to Asia. None of the expeditions succeeded in finding an open route to the Far East and on the third voyage Barents' ship became trapped in the ice, forcing the crew to remain in the Arctic over the winter. The ship was not released by the ice as soon as expected in the spring. The crew made their escape in open boats, setting off on 13 June 1597. Most returned home safely, but Barents himself died on 30 June. -
Henry Hudson 1609
Hudson sailed from Amsterdam with a largely Dutch crew aboard the Half Moon. Like the earlier efforts, the venture encountered severe weather, which prompted stirrings of mutiny among the crew. At this critical juncture, Hudson decided to violate the orders from his sponsors. The Half Moon crew probed Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay, but concluded they did not lead to the Pacific. Hudson moved north into New York Bay, an area visited earlier by Giovanni da Verrazzano.
