european exploration

vikings

Nov 11, 1000

About A.D. 1000 a viking named Leif Eriksson set sail from Greenland heading west.He was looking for a land he had heard about.The land he reached was part of what is now Canada.

Marco Polo

Nov 18, 1271

When Marco Polo was 17 he left his home in Venice,Italy.It took them about 4 years to get to Asia.when they saw the palace of Kublai khan they described it as having walls with gold,silver.

Ottoman Turks

Nov 18, 1453

The Ottoman Turks captured the city of Constantinople.That made the trades officialy over.There would be no more gold,silk and spices.

Dias

Nov 18, 1488

Dias became the first to sail all the way around the southern tip of Africa.Fierce storms battered the ship.Dias wanted to sail to India but his sailors made him return to Portugal.

Martin Behaim

Nov 18, 1492

Christopher Columbus and a group of people in Germany paid Martin Behaim $75 to make a new kind of map.The map was in shape as a ball.It was the first globe ever made in Europe.

Vasco da Gama

Nov 18, 1498

Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to India.Soon afterwoods he sailed back to Portugal with his ship full of spices.He had finally found a route to Asia.

Vasco da Gama

Nov 18, 1498

Da Gama sailed around the cape of Good Hope to India.Soon afterwoods he came back with a ship full of spices.He had finally found a route to Asia.

Waldseemuller

Dec 10, 1507

Waldseemuller drew a map of the new continent, using Vespucci's findings.He decidedto name the new land for AmerigoVespucci.

Balboa

Dec 10, 1513

On September 25,1513 a group of explorers climbed up a mountain.Balboa quickly climbed the last few feet to the mountain peak.Balboa fell to his knees becausehe saw another sea.He said that the sea belonged to Spain.

Ferdinand Magellan

Dec 10, 1519

In September of 1519,five ships and 250 sailors set out from Spain into the Atlantic Ocean.Magellan wanted to find a way to reach Asia by sailing west around the Americas.

Hernando Cortes

Dec 10, 1521

The year was 1519 and the Aztec king Motecuhzoma stood in his grand palace at Tenochtitlan looking out at the night sky.In the past two years,some odd things had taken place in the Aztec capital. The earth had shaken. The lake had flooded the city. Comets had been seen in the sky. One day people came to the palace, bringing back news of men with white skins and black beards were coming to Tenochtitlan. This was Hernando Cortes, but the Aztec Indians thought this was a god. He looked for gold.

Francisco Pizarro

Dec 10, 1533

In 1533, Pizarro and 180 Spanish and African soldiers sailed from Panama and landed on the West coast of South America. They wandered around stealing riches from the inhabitants for 2 years.They found a beautiful Inca camp, where two brothers , Athuallpa and Huascar, were in the middle of a civil war. This weakened the empire. Pizzaro asked Atahuallpa to accept Chritstianity and when he refused, imprisoned him, took his jewllery and killed him. Then the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire.