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Portugal became the first to launch exploratory expedients -
Prince Henry the Navigator (aka Infante Dom Henrique, 1394-1460) was a Portuguese prince who famously helped capture the North African city of Ceuta, sponsored voyages of exploration with the aim of building colonies in the North Atlantic and West Africa, and began the Portuguese involvement in the African slave trade. -
In the 1400s Portuguese sailors explored down the western coast of Africa. They reached the offshore islands of Cape Verde in 1455. The islands offered a healthier and more strategically secure base for trade along the African coast than any location on the mainland. -
In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope). His voyage showed that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans flowed into each other. -
Christopher Columbus was searching for the East Indies, in 1492 he embarked on a voyage.
He ended up discovering the Caribbean instead- when it was thought to be Asia. -
In 1497 john cabat at found what we know as present day Canada and New England -
On 20th May 1498, two years after he set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, Vasco da Gama arrived on the Western sea coast of India at Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala. This was the first time that a European had arrived in India via the sea. Thus, da Gama is credited with the discovery of the sea route to India. -
The first Portuguese to reach China was Jorge Alvares in 1513. In the following years, eventful contacts were established with the Chinese until, in 1557, Portuguese presence in Macau was established. From then onwards, the city became an important center for the trade of silk and porcelain. -
In September 1513, Balboa led an expedition of some 190 Spaniards and a number of Indians southward across the Isthmus of Panama. Late that same month, Balboa climbed a mountain peak and sighted the Pacific Ocean, which the Spaniards called the Mar del Sur (South Sea). -
In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain with five ships to find a western route to the Moluccas. Battling storms, mutinies, and the unknown, Magellan died before reaching his destination. One ship ultimately returned to Spain after circumnavigating the world. Spain with one ship. -
French mariner Jacques Cartier was the first European to navigate the St. Lawrence River, and his explorations of the river and the Atlantic coast of Canada, on three expeditions from 1534 to 1542, laid the basis for later French claims to North America. Cartier is also credited with naming Canada -
Triangular Trade across the Atlantic was a series of trade routes that linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas.First, merchant ships brought European goods to Africa. Then, the goods were exchanged for slaves and the slaves were sailed to the Americas. In the Americas, the slaves were traded for raw materials which were shipped to Europe, completing the process.This was the sixth most important because it fueled the economy and it helped the countries recieve goods and people that they needed. -
Willem Janszoon, captain of the Dutch East India Company ship the Duyfken, became the first European to make recorded contact with and map part of the Australian continent. -
1608, Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a rumoured Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle. In 1609, he landed in North America on behalf of the Dutch East India Company and explored the region around the modern New York metropolitan area.
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In the 1600's, England began concentrating on establishing colonies along the Eastern seaboard.Also, in 1620 the Pilgrims, or English Protestants who rejected the Church of England, landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This is the fourth most important event because the 13 colonies and the Pilgrims became America. Everything that has happened would be different if America had never been formed. -
After leaving Batavia, Tasman sailed eastward and reached the coast of Tasmania, which he named Van Diemen's Land after his patron. He then sailed north and discovered the west coast of New Zealand, which he named Staten Landt, but later renamed Nieuw Zeeland after the Dutch province of Zeeland.