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People in europe read of Marco Polo's travels to China and other exciting Asian lands. The Adventures Polo wrote about led many Europeans to think about the riches of Asia.
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People in Europe began to look to the seas and boyond. Some longed for adventure. Others wanted to spread Christianity far and wide. Most of all, though, people wanted to find riches.
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Europeans had developed a taste for spices in their diets. Most spices came from islands in asia. Because they had to be shipped halfway around the world on risky voyages, spices were costly. For hundreds of years, the Italian port city of Venice controlled this trade.
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He led his first expedition westward. He landed in the Bahamas, islands that he believed to be near Asia.
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Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama found such a route and sailed all the way to India.
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In 1497, King Henery VII sent Cabot on a voyage to the west. The english thought that there might be a water route throught the Americas that would lead north and west to Asia
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Columbus reached South America. A mapmaker labeled this new continent "America" for another explorer, Amerigo Vepucci. The name stuck.
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Powerful Spain claimed many of the New World lands. In the early 1500's Spain was taking control of much of South and Central America and many Caribbean island, including Cuba and Hispaniola.
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Juan Ponce de Leon was a spanish offical in the New world. In 1508-1509, he explored and settled the island of Puerto Rico. Taking notice back in spain, King Ferinand authorized Ponce de Leon to explore lands north of Cuba.
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His expedition dition landed on the east coast of Flordia, a name Ponce de Leon derived from the spanish word for "flowers." The ships sailed down the east Florida coast and through the Florida keys.
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In 1524 King Francis 1 of France sent Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazano westward. Verrazano first reached land at North Carolina's Outer Banks.
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Ayllon led a group of over 500 men, women, and children to a river he called "Jordan" (for the Jordan river in ancient Palestine.)
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Hernando sailed with a military expedition from Havana, Cuba, to the west coast of Florida. From there, de Soto's solldiers marched northern to a site near present-day Tallahassee, Florida.
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Soon other European nations were challenging spain. In 1562, France sent a colony under the command of Jean Ribault to North America.
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Ribault's Huguenots attempted to settle near present-day Port Royal, South Carolina, in April 156. IN his report to France, Jean Ribault told why the coloniusts had chosen Port Royal.
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To spanish officails, the French fort seemed a direct threat.
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