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Christopher Columbus sets off westward to find Asia. He lands in the Bahamas.
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Vasco da Gama finds a route to the Spice Islands
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King Henry VII sends John Cabbot, an explorer, to find a water passage through America.
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Christopher Columbus discovers South America. Later a mapmaker called the new land "America" (after explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
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Around this time, the New World and the Old World started trading with each other. They traded food, livestock, and unintentional illness.
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Around this time, Spainiards claimed control of much of the New World.
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Juan Ponce de Leon found Puerto Rico and claimed it.
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Ponce de Leon landed in Florida (Spanish for flowers).
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In the 1520s, Spanish was the most powerful nation in the world.
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King Francis I had Giovanni da Verrazano. Verrazano first reached land at North Carolina's Outer Banks, but travels North afterwards.
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Ayollon leads a group of over 500 men, women, and children to a river he called 'Jordan' (After the Jordan River mentioned in the Bible). Historians believe this was actually Cape Fear River.
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Ayllon's party return to Hispaniola after sickness killed many of them, leaving 150.
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Soto explores Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
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French Protestants move to America for religious freedom, but go back home. Another group comes 1564.
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Spanish attack the French Protestants and kill most of them.
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Spainiards convert Indians to Christianity.