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The people of Europe starting looking out to the places beyond where they are. Lots of people wanted different things. Some searched for adventure. Others wanted to spread religion. But lots of people wanted the greens. As in money. That probably wasn't clear.
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Europeans started developing a taste for spices in their diets. Most of those spices came from islands in Asia. Because they had to be shipped halfway around the world on dangerous voyages, Spices were expensive. For many years, the Italian port city controlled this trade. Europeans began to look for ways to bypass Venice's hold on the spice trade.
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Columbus led his first expedition outward. He first landed in the Bahamas, what he believed was near Asia.
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He sailed all the way near India to the Spice Islands
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King Henry VII sent Cabot on a voyage to the West. The English thought that there might be a water route through the Amercas that would lead north and west to Asia. They called this sought-for route the Northwest Passage. Cabot landed on th far northern Atlantic coast of North America. Like other explorers, he failed to find the Northwest Passage. Europeans eventually gave up their search for this route.
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He reaches South America.
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In the years following Columbus's voyages, a geat interaction between the "New World" and the "Old World" took place. This interaction is sometimes referred to as the Columbian Exchange. Plants, animals, and even diseases moved between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Ways of life changed forever for American Indians in the New World and Europeans and Africans in the Old World. Europeans enjoyed new American foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and corn.
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In the early 1500s, Spain was taking control of much of the South and Central America and many Carribean islands, including Cuba and Hispaniola. Meanwhile, Spanish governors and explorers bgan to look northward.
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A Spanish Official in the New World. In 1508-1509 He explored and settled in the island of Puerto Rico. King Ferdinand authorized Ponce de Leon to explore lands north of Cuba.
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He revealed more land lay to the north of the Caribbean islands.
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King Francis I of France sent Italian navigator Giovanni da Verranzo westward. He first reached land at North Carolina's Outer Banks. He returned to France with a glowing report to the king. However, the French king was now occupied with military challenges at home. He did not sponsor anymore voyages to the Americas.
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Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon led a group of over 500 people to a river he called Jordan. Historians believe hat it was actually North Carolina's Cape Fear River. Lots of people of the colony died due to disease and starvation. So did Lucas.
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The 150 remaining colonists of the group led by Ayllon returned to Hispaniola.
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Hernando de Soto sailed with a military expedition from Havana, Cuba, to the west coast of Florida. De Soto and his men were the first people to see the lands of Tallahassee, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. He died on the trip, but many of his Returned to Mexico. They also met the Cherokee Indians.