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Bartolomeu Diaz, a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to sail to South Africa and discovered the sea route to Asia through the Atlantic and Indian ocean.
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Christopher Columbus, a Portuguese explorer, proposed the idea of sailing through the Atlantic to get to Asia instead of going around Africa. He was only able to execute this plan when two Spanish monarchs helped him in 1492. But, he was not successful and only founded the Americas, which he claimed for Spain.
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This was a treaty between Portugal and Spain deciding who got what of the New World. Spain got most of the Americas while Portugal got Asia, India, and Brazil.
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John Cabot, an Italian explorer and navigator, went on three voyages in search of a westward trade route to Asia and unclaimed lands. On his second voyage, he took possession of land in Canada for England.
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After Vasco da Gama voyage over to India, Portugal decided to send Pedro Alvarez Cabral to secure a trading post in Calicut, but a conflict broke out between the Muslims and Cabral's men. So he moved to Cochin and established the trading post there.
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Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer, heard rumors of a fountain of youth on an island named Bimini. So he went on an expedition to look for it and he thought he found it when he reached land. Later he realized that where he landed was the coast of the Americas. He named the area Florida because of its abundance of florid vegetation and because it was Easter.
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Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, believed that there was a easier route to Asia in the west. During his long journey, he came across a strait leading westward and decided to take it. After he finally got past the strait he found himself in an open ocean which he named the Pacific since it seemed so calm.
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Hernan Cortez, a Spanish conquistador, defied orders and went on an expedition to Mexico to conquer the Aztec Empire. He fails at first, but then defeats the Aztec in the Battle of Otumba on July 7, 1520 and finally regains control of Tenochtitlan on August 13, 1521.
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Verrazano, an Italian explorer, charted the Atlantic coast of North America between the Carolinas and Newfoundland. His discoveries of details unknown to European mapmakers helped shape the construction of maps. The Verrazano-Narrows bridge connects Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York and was once known as the longest suspension bridge in the world.
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Jacques Cartier, a French mariner, went on an exploration in search to find a northwest passage to Asia and to collect resources such as gold and spices. His explorations of the Canadian coast and St. Lawrence River laid the foundation for the French to claim North America or New France. Cartier was also credited for named 'Canada'
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Joao Cabrillo, a Spanish soldier and explorer, discovered California. He claimed the shores of North America for the Spanish.
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Spanish explorers conquered northern Mexico while Francisco Pizzaro conquered South America. He transferred power to the Spanish making them rulers.
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European settlers carried diseases that natives were not immune to. They killed over twenty million natives, wiping out the whole nation.
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Sir Francis Drake, an English admiral, was known as the most renowned seaman of the Elizabethan Age. He raided Spain's harbour at Cadiz in 1587 and disrupted the Spanish Armada in the English Channel with fire ships. Drake made voyages to the west Indies as a slave trader and later served Queen Elizabeth I as a privateer and naval officer.
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The East India Company, established in 1600 to 1873, acted as a trading body for English merchants with the East, Southeast Asia, and India.
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The Dutch East India Company, established in 1602 to 1799, was founded to protect state's trade in the Indian Ocean and to aid the Dutch in their independence war from Spain.
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Pedro Fernandez de Quiros and Luis de Torres, Portuguese explorers, set out on an expedition with the goal of finding the great southern continent. Explorer Quiros founded Espíritu Santo (Vanuatu) and from there explorer Torres sailed to Manila mapping out the coast of New Guinea.
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Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, led an another expedition up the St. Lawrence river and constructed a fort in what is now Quebec city on June 1608. Which becomes the center of the French fur trade.
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Henry Hudson, English navigator and explorer, set to find a northeast passage near the "North Pole to Japan and China". In 1609, he went on a third voyage helped by the Dutch East India Company while traveling on the soon to be Hudson River and on his fourth voyage, he found the Hudson Bay.
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In 1620, Pilgrims escaped England, sailed to Plymouth, and started their own town, now known as the 13 colonies or America.
