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In the early 1400s, people in Europe began to look to the seas and beyond. Some longed for adventure. Others wanted to spread Christianity far and wide. Most of all though, people wanted to find riches. The age of explorstion and discovery had begun.
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In Portugal, a prince named Henry the Navigator urged sea captains to explore southward along the coast of Africa. He wanted someone to find a route around that continent to the Spice Islands, near India.
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Colombus persuaded the king and queen of spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, to support and expedition, or trip of exploration. Colombus himself gave the king and queen credit for his idea.
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Christopher Colombus thought Asia could be reached by sailing West from Europe.
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In 1497-1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama found such a route and sailed all the way to India.
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In 1497, King Henry 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. Cabotl landed on the far northern Atlantic Coast of North America- probably the island of Newfoundland.
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Juan Ponce de Leon was a Spanish official in the New World. In 1508-1509, he explored and settled the island of Puerto Rico. Taking notice back in Spain, King Ferdinand authorized Ponce de Leon to explore lands north of Cuba.
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One Spanish official who had his eyes on the mainland north of Florida was Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon. He had seen some of the Atlantic coastline of this region on an expedition in 1520.
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In 1524, King Francis I of France sent Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano westward. Verrazzano first reached land at North Carolina's Outer Banks.
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In 1539, Hernando de Soto sailed with a military expedition from Havana, Cuba, to the west coast of Florida.
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In 1562 France sent a colony under the command of Jean Ribault to North America.
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The colonists were Huguenots, or French Protestants. Protestants were sometimes persecuted in Catholic France. As a result, some Huguenots sought religious freedom in the New World. Despite the reportadly favorable conditions at Port Royal, the colonists gave up in 1564 and returned to France.
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In 1564, another band of Huguenots,led by Rene de Laudonniere, settled at Fort Caroline, on the north Florida coast.
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In 1565, Spain sent troops under Pedro Menendez de Aviles to Florida. Just south of Fort Caroline, Mendez built a fort at St. Augustine.
