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People started to read of Marco Polo's travles to Cathay (China) and other eciting Asian lands. People started to think of Aisa as a rich place.
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People in Europe look out to the seas and beyond. Some longed for adventure. Others wanted to spread christianity to far and wide. People wanted to find riches.
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Columbus lead his first expedition westward. He laned in the Bahamas, islands that he believed to be near Asia. On another voyage he reached south America.
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John Cabot was an italina living in England. In 1497 King Henery VII sent Cabot on a voyage to the West. The English thought that there might be a water route through the Americas that would lead north and west to Asia.
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In 1497-1498 Portugues explorer Vasco da Gama founf such a route and sailed all the way to indian. Other Europeans had different ideas.
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In the early 1500s, Spain was taking control of much of South and Centeral America.
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In 1524 King Fransis I of France sent italian navagator Giovanni da Verrazano westward. Verrazano first reached land at North Carolina's outer banks
