-
1000
Leif Eriksson
Discovered modern day Greenland -
Period: 1000 to
European Exploration and Discoveries in the New World
-
1488
Bartolomeu Dias
First European to sail around the tip of South Aferica -
1492
Christopher Columbus
Sailed to the "New World" and landed in modern day Bahamas. -
1497
John Cabot
Discovered the coast of North America -
1498
Vasco da Gama
Discovered the sea route to India -
1507
Amerigo Vespucci
Produced a new world map and named the new continent "America" -
1512
Ponce de Leon
Discovered Florida in search of the fountain youth. -
1513
Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Helped establish the first stable settlement on the South American Continent. -
1519
Ferdinand Magellan
Set out on a voyage to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. -
1519
Hernan Cortez
Lands on the coast of Mesoamerica and starts his conquest of the Aztecs. -
1524
Giovanni da Verrazzano
Sailed to the new world in search of a new sea route to the Pacific Ocean. -
1534
Jacques Cartier
Lead a voyage to the New World in order to seek gold and other riches, as well as a new route to Asia. -
1535
Francisco Pizarro
Sailed to Peru and took over the Inca empire and killed their leader -
1539
Hernando de Soto
He set out for North America, where he discovered the Mississippi River. -
1577
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Explorer who discovered the Grand Canyon -
1577
Sir Francis Drake
Discovered the land south of the Magellan Strait, was not part of a southern continent as had been believed, but a group of islands. This meant that ships could sail between the Atlantic and Pacific around the bottom of South America -
Henry Hudson
Discovered a strait in the ocean that led them through the northern waters over Canada, which was later named the Hudson Strait
