Exploration

1400

Jul 1, 1400

Early in the 1400's Europe began to look at the seas and beyond. People wanted to find riches, so the age of ecploration and discovery had begun. In the late Middle Ages Europeans had wanted differenet spices, most spices camne from Asia, because they had to be shipped halfway around the world. Hundreds of years, the Italian port city of Venice controlled this trade. Some Europeans began to look for ways to bypass Venice's hold on the spice trade.

1497 - 1498

Feb 1, 1497

A prince named Henry the Navigator urged sea captains to explore southward along the coast of Africa. So, in 1479 - 1498 a Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama found such a route and sailed all the way to India.
Others had different ideas, Columbus thought Asia could be reached by sailing west from Europe. He persuaded the king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella to support an expedition, or trip exploration.

First expedition

Sep 3, 1500

In 1492v Columbus led westward, he landed in the Bahamas, islands he believed to be near Asia. In 1498 Columbus reached South America, then later a mapmaker labeled this new continent "America"

"New World" & "Old World"

Sep 3, 1501

The years following Columbus's voyages, a great interaction is sometimes referred to as the Columbian Exchange. Plants, animals, and diseases moved between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Life changed forever for the American Indians in the New World and Europeans and Africans in the Old World.

Verrazano's Expedition

Sep 3, 1524

King Francis I of France

John Cabot

Sep 3, 2015

John Cabot living in England, in 1297 King Henry VII sent Cabot to the West. English thought that there might be water route throught the Americas that would lead north and west to Asia.