Portuguese and Spanish Explorers

Prince Henry

Nov 13, 1460

Important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire and the Age of Discoveries in total. He functioned as a primary organizer of the Portuguese expedition to Tangier. He learnt of the opportunities from the Saharan trade routes that terminated there, and became fascinated with Africa in general; he was most intrigued by the Christian legend of Prester John and the expansion of Portuguese exploration.

Bartolomeu Dias

May 29, 1500

Bartolomeu Dias was a Knight of the royal court, superintendent of the royal warehouses, and sailing-master of the man-of-war. King John II of Portugal appointed him on October 10, 1487, to head an expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India. Expiditions went threw Africa to India.

Christopher Columbus

May 20, 1506

An Italian explorer. He completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago, at a locale he named San Salvador.

Amerigo Vespucci

Feb 22, 1512

An Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass which was "The New World". this second super continent came to be termed "America", probably deriving its name from the feminized Latin version of Vespucci's first name.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa

Jan 12, 1519

Was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He traveled to the New World in 1500 and, after some exploration, settled on the island of Hispaniola. In 1500, motivated by his master after the news of Christopher Columbus' voyages to the New World became known, he decided to embark on his first voyage to the Americas, along with Juan de la Cosa, on Rodrigo de Bastidas' expedition. In 1509, wishing to escape his creditors in Santo Domingo, he set sail as a stowaway, hiding inside a barrel.